|
The New Chinese
America
Price: $23.95
Subtitle: Class, Economy, and
Social Hierarchy
Author:
Xiaojian Zhao
Subject: Asian
American Studies, American
Studies
Paper ISBN:
978-0-8135-4692-6
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4691-9
Pages: 208 pages
Publication Date: February 2010
Praise for The New Chinese America
"Zhao's book provides the
most detailed and relatively comprehensive look that we have of the
ways in which Chinese America works and aspires."
—Roger Daniels, Charles Phelps
Taft
Professor Emeritus of History, University of Cincinnati
"The New Chinese America is a
path-breaking study that tackles contemporary issues from a historical
perspective. Employing multiple sources of data, from census statistics
and archival material to oral histories and face-to-face interviews,
Zhao presents sufficient evidence to demonstrate how class is
reproduced in the Chinese American community and how internal class
dynamics involves conflict and exploitation as well as shared struggle,
negotiation, and interdependence."—Min Zhou,
author of Contemporary Chinese
America
"Zhao gives us an engaging,
well-researched and thoughtfully contextualized book. It offers
refreshingly rich insights into the transformation of Chinese America
in recent decades. This important book will also benefit those
interested in immigration and ethnicity in American society."—Yong
Chen, University of California, Irvine
Description:
The 1965 Immigration
Act altered the lives and outlook of Chinese Americans in fundamental
ways. The New Chinese America
explores the historical, economic, and social foundations of the
Chinese American community, in order to reveal the emergence of a new
social hierarchy after 1965.
In this detailed and comprehensive study of contemporary Chinese
America, Xiaojian Zhao uses class analysis to illuminate the
difficulties of everyday survival for poor and undocumented immigrants
and analyzes the process through which social mobility occurs. Through
ethnic ties, Chinese Americans have built an economy of their own in
which entrepreneurs can maintain a competitive edge given their access
to low-cost labor; workers who are shut out of the mainstream job
market can find work and make a living; and consumers can enjoy high
quality services at a great bargain. While the growth of the ethnic
economy enhances ethnic bonds by increasing mutual dependencies among
different groups of Chinese Americans, it also determines the limits of
possibility for various individuals depending on their socioeconomic
and immigration status.
About the Author:
Xiaojian Zhao is an associate professor in the
department of Asian American studies at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. She is the author of Remaking
Chinese America: Immigration, Family, and Community, 1940–1965
(Rutgers University Press), winner of the History Book Award from the
Association of Asian American Studies.
Receive
special offers and book notices by email. Sign up for RU READING?
Price: $23.95
|
