The reconstruction of the Chinese community in New York in the years of the Depression and World War II.

详细信息   

• 作者：Song ; Jingyi.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2000
• 导师：Greenberg, Dolores
• 毕业院校：City University of New York
• 专业：History, United States.;Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies.
• ISBN：0599626186
• CBH：9959233
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：10675539
• Pages：269

文摘

This study shows how the Great Depression and World War II affected the lives of New York's Chinese Americans and how different Chinese interest groups reacted to specific situations thereby transforming New York's Chinese community. I emphasize the conscious decisions of Chinese New Yorkers, particularly those of the younger generation, that helped to form the new dual identity: Chinese Americans.;Like other racial minorities, the Chinese in New. York experienced sanctions, segregation, prejudice, and discrimination. However, in contrast to the traditional view that portrays Chinese as the passive victims of exclusion institutionalized by the Chinese Exclusion Law of 1882, I emphasize their persistent resistance to racial inequality. The Depression was an historical turning point for New York's Chinese laborers, small businessmen, students, and women, who began to organize and participate in mainstream activities. The rapid growth of self-reliant and self-determined organizations, and their involvement in political, cultural and social activities at large demonstrated their shifting attitudes towards their place in American society. Engagement rather than disengagement became their major strategy and means of claiming the civil rights due them as American citizens.;World War II promoted change. Identity gained as Chinese Americans during the Depression was reinforced when Japan invaded China in 1937 and attacked the United States in 1941. This dissertation also explores the experiences and activities of New York's Chinese in the war time; dual ethnic identity was demonstrated by support for both China and the United States. I reject the accepted explanation of the passage of the Repeal Bill of 1943, which emphasizes American desire to keep China as an ally and to combat Japanese war propaganda. I found that the Chinese Americans efforts contributed greatly to the passage of the Repeal Bill.;My conclusion also differs from the accepted scholarship which considers the 1960's as the period when a “new” Chinese immigrant community emerged as a result of he federal immigration law of 1965. I show that the participation of New York's Chinese in mainstream political, cultural and social activities in the 1930's created New Chinese immigrant community and fundamentally altered the traditional means by which social control was exercised.