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American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, by Bonnie Tsui
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The mystery of Chinatown as foreign yet familiar has been long established in the American imagination. Visitors come to expect this, looking for “something different” in its narrow lanes and fish markets. They can taste a world apart, listen to a foreign language, and try to barter for a trinket on the street—without ever leaving the country. And then they go home, sometimes just a few streets away, and get on with the everyday. What is truly under the radar is what they don’t see: a unique community getting on with its own everyday.
In American Chinatown, Bonnie Tsui takes an affectionate and awestruck look at the bustling part of town that has bewitched her ever since she was a child, when she would eagerly await her grandfather’s return from the fortune cookie factory. By interweaving her own personal impressions with the experiences of those living in Chinatowns all across the United States today, Tsui beautifully captures its vivid stories, giving readers a deeper look into what “Chinatown” means to its inhabitants—and to America at large.
- Sales Rank: #1585468 in Books
- Published on: 2009-08-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.10" h x 6.20" w x 8.90" l, .95 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Tsui (She Went to the Field) offers a meandering personal geography of the Chinatowns in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu and Las Vegas. Straining to be a travelogue, sociological snapshot and history of Tsui's own family's immigrant experience, the account is repetitious and perfunctory. The author doesn't spend sufficient time on her subjects—including an Asian studies professor born in San Francisco's Chinatown, or the ethnic Chinese artist originally from Vietnam who made his way to Honolulu's Chinatown via Indonesia—to clinch the reader's interest or to compose a compelling narrative of the neighborhoods. She maintains that she never feels more at home than when visiting an American Chinatown, but her limited insights may lead readers to feel like the tourists she disparages, the ones who visit Chinatown for an afternoon but fail to look beyond its faded facades and kitschy gift shops. Her treatment strikes its most superficial chord when she reaches the banal conclusion that American Chinatowns represent heartland Asian America. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"A wonderfully revealing and compassionate trip into the real lives of men and women who straddle the world's two great powers. The graceful travelogue is from a hidden world in our own backyards. Tsui plunges into Chinatowns that are, like China itself, reinventing themselves before our eyes, showing not only what it means to be Chinese in the world, but also the spirit of self-invention that made America great." -- Evan Osnos, Beijing Correspondent, The New Yorker
"A fascinating and thoughtful look at a thoroughly American phenomenon." -- Gish Jen, Author of The Love Wife
"In this masterful work, Bonnie Tsui charts the fascinating history of America's Chinatowns. From geography to economics to linguistics, she presents a vibrant, intimate portrait of communities that have played a crucial role in shaping the American landscape. There are dozens of evocative, exhilarating, and touching stories here, from those of a beauty queen to a Vegas poker dealer in training. Candid, witty, and always engaging, Tsui is a wonderful guide for these many journeys." -- Sara Houghteling, Author of Pictures At An Exhibition
"Bonnie Tsui has written affectionately and astutely about a subject very close to my heart: Chinatown. In speaking with old-timers, the first generation to grow up in Chinatown, and the newest immigrants, she has captured the ways that five Chinatowns connect their inhabitants to culture, history, language, food, and to China itself -- even if they've never been there. She has looked beyond the colorful tourist facades to find unique neighborhoods that serve as home for some, refuges for others, and places of memory for all." -- Lisa See, Author of Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
"An intimate glimpse into Chinatown...Tsui details fascinating facts about the history of each Chinatown, while also delving into how each has influenced their cities at large. But the book works so well because Tsui captures the essence of each Chinatown by telling the stories of its people." -- Ann Tatko-Peterson, Contra Costa Times
"An updated real-life insider look at the Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Las Vegas [with] depth, perception and insight." -- William Wong, The San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"A wonderfully revealing and compassionate trip into the real lives of men and women who straddle the world's two great powers. The graceful travelogue is from a hidden world in our own backyards. Tsui plunges into Chinatowns that are, like China itself, reinventing themselves before our eyes, showing not only what it means to be Chinese in the world, but also the spirit of self-invention that made America great."-- Evan Osnos, Beijing Correspondent, The New Yorker
"A fascinating and thoughtful look at a thoroughly American phenomenon."-- Gish Jen, Author of The Love Wife
"In this masterful work, Bonnie Tsui charts the fascinating history of America's Chinatowns. From geography to economics to linguistics, she presents a vibrant, intimate portrait of communities that have played a crucial role in shaping the American landscape. There are dozens of evocative, exhilarating, and touching stories here, from those of a beauty queen to a Vegas poker dealer in training. Candid, witty, and always engaging, Tsui is a wonderful guide for these many journeys."-- Sara Houghteling, Author of Pictures At An Exhibition
"Bonnie Tsui has written affectionately and astutely about a subject very close to my heart: Chinatown. In speaking with old-timers, the first generation to grow up in Chinatown, and the newest immigrants, she has captured the ways that five Chinatowns connect their inhabitants to culture, history, language, food, and to China itself -- even if they've never been there. She has looked beyond the colorful tourist facades to find unique neighborhoods that serve as home for some, refuges for others, and places of memory for all."-- Lisa See, Author of Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
"An intimate glimpse into Chinatown...Tsui details fascinating facts about the history of each Chinatown, while also delving into how each has influenced their cities at large. But the book works so well because Tsui captures the essence of each Chinatown by telling the stories of its people."-- Ann Tatko-Peterson, Contra Costa Times
"An updated real-life insider look at the Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Las Vegas [with] depth, perception and insight."-- William Wong, The San Francisco Chronicle
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
documentary-style survey of five Chinatowns
By H. F. Gibbard
Notwithstanding the subtitle, this book is more a documentary-style survey than a history. The author conducted a large number of interviews with people living in or connected with Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Las Vegas. Some insights about the history of these various Chinatowns emerged, but the book is primarily an oral history of various people's experiences with Chinatown, most of it from a contemporary perspective.
My favorite was the Los Angeles segment, largely because of the description of how the film business has impacted Chinatown over the years. Opportunities for Chinese-American actors to play leading roles were rare until recently. Even when a film was set in Asia, the leading roles would often go to Caucasian actors in "yellowface." But there was also opportunity in these films for residents of the Los Angeles Chinatown, as extras in a "cast of thousands." Hilariously enough, during filming, sometimes the whole population of Chinatown ended up at the film studio playing Chinese peasants. It was a good way to pick up a little extra money.
Tsui does a good job describing the paradoxes of Chinatown. To big-city Chinese visiting America, Chinatown looks dirty, shabby, and old-fashioned. Their Chinese cities are clean, modern, and convenient, sometimes more so than American cities. The iconic "oriental" look of San Francisco's Chinatown is not its original incarnation. Before the earthquake of 1906, Chinatown just looked, architecturally-speaking, like part of the Old West. After the earthquake, in an effort to win goodwill for Chinese-Americans in San Francisco, Chinatown's backers had white architects construct the area's "Oriental" look that we associate with Chinatown today. Fortune cookies, of course, are not Chinese but Chinese-American, and people from various parts of China often feel less than fully at home in restaurants run by immigrants from another region.
Chinatown tends to take on the local flavor of the location where it is found. Nowhere is this true more than the last two Chinatowns studied, Honolulu and Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Chinatown is found inside a mall constructed specifically for that purpose and carefully promoted by politically-astute backers. New immigrants are essential to keeping a thriving Chinatown going, even though they often suffer the worst living conditions.
"American Chinatown" wasn't exactly what I expected, but I felt like I learned a lot about how Chinatown works in today's world and about how people feel about it. It's a fast read and an interesting one.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
The History of Chinatowns
By Nuk
A very informative book about Chinatowns. The author did her work, made a lot of researches, interviewed many local personalities, and at the same time learned more about her roots. There are many side stories on interesting people who helped formed the history of each of the 5 individual Chinatowns. From where I came from (Philippines), there is also a huge Chinatown which is like a magical place when my parents used to bring us there when we were young. Until now, we cherish the memories as we eat, sample exotic delicacies, try medicines and even cheap electronics. I have been to Chinatown in Honolulu, New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles. Most of them are crowded and noisy. But always a very interesting and enjoyable place to visit.
The book digs deeper than what was in the surface. It tells the story of a very close knit community. How its inhabitants have lived and left and came back. How members of families left their original country to chase their dreams and future for their families. How they find protection and comfort within the shelter of these towns. It also explain how some aspects of Chinatowns are not really authentically Chinese but were built and heavily influenced by the local surrounding to fight for its own existence. And how many have predicted that Chinatowns will eventually die of its own death but amazingly remain alive.
Overall a great read full of fascinating facts about the subject.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A love letter and a joyful romp through America's Chinatowns
By Gen of North Coast Gardening
I grew up in San Francisco's satellite Chinatown mentioned in this book - the Richmond District. I was one of the few white kids in my school, and grew up eating dim sum and snacking on Haw Flakes and Pocky sticks. After moving away ten years ago to a small, mostly white town in far Northern Cali, I long for the sights and sounds of the neighborhood where I grew up. The author is Chinese, but sounds like she had a similar experience growing up in that she did not live in Chinatown, but felt at home there, even though she was a tiny bit of an outsider.
This book starts out by talking about San Francisco's Chinatown - how it came to be, the racism that confronted residents of the past and still does in the present, and brings Chinatown to life by talking personally with some of the folks who live there today. I'm frankly not that interested in history, but this author really brought it alive by connecting it to modern day life and talking about the human stories behind the history.
The author then moves on to talking about her own family's past in New York's Chinatown, then discusses some of the other Chinatowns in the US.
This isn't an academic study, and it doesn't try to draw too broad of conclusions about what it all means. Rather, it's a humanizing portrait of how some very different Chinatowns came to be, and what the culture is like there now. As a person missing the Chinese culture of my home, and the stark differences between the Chinatown facade and everyday life for the residents, I thought this book was a wonderful read. The style is clear and simple, and is warm towards Chinatown and its residents while being realistic about the negative aspects of Chinatowns.
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