The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

Rating:
Summary: Terribly biased
Review: This book portrays a skewed and somewhat racist view of history. I.E. it focusses on the "white" vs. "chinese". Moreover, at the time of this writing, all of the good reviews come from Chinese people. Take that as a clue.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and must-read book!
Review: This is a fascinating book. As a Chinese American, I¡¦m not aware of many historical facts about Chinese in America, especially the contribution of Chinese American in the area of immigration law, e.g. the law suit brought by Wong Kim Ark in 1890s eventually declaring by U. S. Supreme Court that all Children born in the U. S. are American citizen even if their parents are ineligible for naturalization. There are many other historical facts are worthwhile knowing. The book is not for only Chinese or Asian American, it should be read by all ethnic groups in this country. Education and only education by reading books like this can dispel the myths, the stereotypes and the racial discrimination that victimize all minority groups in this country. It¡¦s a must-read!!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: This, I'm sure shall be Iris Chang's swansong offering as to much my dismay, she committed suicide late last year. So sad that someone as talented as her would have ridden her life at so young of an age. I sincerely hope that this is THE legacy that she left behind for the Chinese and for the inquisitive and curious who would like to find out more about the Chinese in America. As expected, they are reviews about her bias, about facts that are inaccurate, about issues that she could have done better or expanded more but when you look at the bigger scheme of things, she wrote a book that's rather substantial (both in content and the weight of it!) which gives readers an general understanding about the plights of the Chinese in America. Lynn Pann, another outstanding author talks about the Chinese Diaspora throughout the world and Iris Chang tackles mainly with the Chinese in the States. Therefore, certain topics are going to be overlapped. The conclusion says it all that she has attempted to narrate the past and present of Chinese in America and it shall be interesting to note what future lies for them. A contagious non-fiction book to read and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Decent introduction, strong activist angle; littlenew ground
Review: Unlike her groundbreaking "Rape of Nanking", in which the combination of explosive new material on a covert history and Iris Chang's biting investigative/pursuit tone worked effectively, this book covers familiar Chinese-American history broadly and in great quantity, but presents little startling new revelations (although some of the original interviews are fresh). Some important historical details are glossed over (and wrong in a few cases). At times, her observations are quite biased. As a longtime student of Chinese and Chinese-American history, I was somewhat disappointed that Chang did not "blow the covers off". Nevertheless, the book does serve as a good overview of the Chinese-American experience. Chang's contribution here is that she allows readers to see it from the viewpoint of a Chinese-American, and understand that the racism, struggle and bitter triumph of this experience is still ongoing. That is the theme that she does a good job underscoring with her choice of focus. The tone of her writing is "essay-like", not professorial or objective.

Rating:
Summary: Rest In Peace, Iris
Review: We deeply miss Iris Chang already in the days following her death. She was a favorite writer, and certainly among the best of current popular historians. Her work is both highly scholarly and superbly readable, suffused with feeling for victims of history and anger at cruelty and injustice. This leads some critics to fault her for bias, but her passionate partisanship compells attention to overlooked injustices of modern history. This is the common thread running through all her work ("Rape of Nanking," Chinese in America," "Thread of the Silkworm"). The horrific subjects she dealt with possibly played a part in the circumstances leading to her death, although we should refrain from passing judgement. She was working on a book on Americans in the Philippines during the Pacific War; we can only hope that enough progress was made so that a final gem will appear under her name.

Rating:
Summary: Profound lack of knowledge re: Chinese and the CPRR
Review: While I cannot attest to the accuracy of the balance of this book, Chapter 5 is an awful mis-statement of the historical facts re: The United States, Railroad History, and the Chinese workers for the Central Pacific Railroad.
Ms. Chang moves redwood trees from the Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks to the railroad grade, then blows them up with 250 pounds of black powder; she invents the Territory of California and the Territory of Texas, and then peoples those 'territories' with folks that misuse people of Chinese origin.
To be fair, a few paragraphs written in Chapter 5 are totally correct, but others unhappily display an error in nearly every sentence.
Chapter 5 tells us of Chinese workers hanging off of Cape Horn in baskets, yet does not tell us that the slope of Cape Horn is some 65 degrees, which would make such a feat totally impossible (See "The Central Pacific Railroad and the Legends of Cape Horn", Edson Strobridge, 2002).
Best to keep this book away from small children, it could be harmful to their health.