The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora - (Asian America) by Zhongping Chen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Zhongping Chen traces the origins and rise of the Cantonese-dominated Chinese migration to Canada between 1788 and 1898. Combining a diaspora studies approach with both qualitative and quantitative analyses of Chinese and English-language documents, including many previously untapped archival sources such as documents of secret societies, community organizations, and family businesses, this book focuses on the transnational mobility of Chinese migrants across southern China, the American West, and Pacific Canada. Chen analyzes the cross-cultural development of Chinese migration networks through interactions with white and Indigenous peoples and related issues, ranging from racism and settler colonialism to constitutionalism. The book features the first intensive examination of Chinese migrants' involvement in the transpacific Anglo-American fur trade, the gold rushes spreading from California to British Columbia, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and community reforms across North American Chinatowns. Through innovative theoretical approaches and close analysis of previously neglected archival sources, Chen demonstrates how the Cantonese-dominated diaspora in Canada exerted profound but long-neglected and under-researched influence on sociopolitical changes in Qing China, Canadian society, and the Chinese communities across the Pacific Rim, including American Chinatowns, going beyond the nation-state frameworks in Chinese diaspora studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Zhongping Chen examines the origins, rise, and reform of the Cantonese-dominated Chinese diaspora in Canada between 1788 and 1898. Combining a diasporic approach with both qualitative and quantitative analyses of Chinese and English documents, including previously untapped archival records of secret societies, community organizations, and family businesses, this book reveals the transnational mobility of Chinese migrants and the expansion of their migration network across southern China, the American West, and Pacific Canada. Chen especially highlights the cross-cultural development of Chinese migration networks through interactions with white and Indigenous peoples as well as Western culture ranging from racism and settler colonialism to constitutionalism. The book features the first intensive examination of Chinese migrants' engagement in the transpacific Anglo-American fur trade, the gold rushes spreading from California to British Columbia, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and community reforms across North American Chinatowns. Through innovative theoretical approaches and meticulous analysis of archival sources, Chen demonstrates how the Cantonese-dominated diaspora in Canada exerted profound but long-neglected and under-researched influence on sociopolitical changes in Qing China, Canadian society, and the Chinese communities across the Pacific Rim, including American Chinatowns, going beyond the nation-state frameworks in Chinese Canadian and Chinese American studies.

Review Quotes

"This extremely important work completely remakes our understandings of the first century of the Chinese migrations to Canada, carefully tracing the diasporic connections of the merchant networks in Guangdong, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and British Columbia that organized, ordered, and enabled this migration. A superb piece of historical scholarship." --Timothy J. Stanley, University of Ottawa

"Zhongping Chen is a prodigious scholar because he has a lot to tell us about the Chinese diaspora worldwide and in Canada. His focus on cross-cultural networks and attention to the strategic leadership roles of rich merchants in the context of settlement overseas elevate diaspora as theory and practice, in so doing salvaging its utility." --Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown University

About the Author

Zhongping Chen is Professor of History at University of Victoria, Canada. He is author of ten books, including Transpacific Reform and Revolution: The Chinese in North America, 1898-1918 (Stanford, 2023) and Modern China's Network Revolution: Chambers of Commerce and Sociopolitical Change in the Early Twentieth Century (Stanford, 2011).