The Chinese Question

Ngai brilliantly reconstructs how race became woven into the fabric of international capitalism and wired into the politics of nations. A stunning, vivid, and indispensable history. -- Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge Nowadays, anglophone nations ask anxious questions about Chinese ascendance. Based on prodigious research, Ngai's remarkable book reveals how these queries branch from an older Chinese Question. -- Susan Lee Johnson, author of Roaring Camp Mae Ngai shows how the racist coolie stereotype was effectively exploited decade after decade to advance global capitalism and imperialism. The sense of urgency shines through this poignant and provocative work. Powerful and empowering. -- Elizabeth Sinn, author of Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong Mae Ngai slays the coolie myth and resurrects the history of Chinese in early globalization with all its promise of improvement and constant struggle against racist oppression. Never has the spectacular story of the establishment and persistence of Chinese communities across three continents been better told. -- Odd Arne Westad, Yale University Truly a tour de force of scholarship [The Chinese Question is] a detailed, vivid, close-up depiction of the historic encounters that followed the momentous Chinese migrations of the nineteenth century. -- Marilyn Lake, author of Drawing the Global Color Line Ambitiously conceived, prodigiously researched, and engagingly presented, The Chinese Question weaves distant places, circumstances, and experiences into a compelling narrative that speaks to us today. The Chinese Question has deep historical significance but also pressing contemporary relevance. -- Gordon H. Chang, author of Ghosts of Gold Mountain A remarkable combination of historical research, analysis, and empathy stretching over four continents and three gold rushes. In Mae Ngai's skilled hands, The Chinese Question is more than just a study of racism; it reveals the contours of capitalism and colonialism since the nineteenth century. -- Richard White, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Railroaded Mae Ngai's beautifully crafted global narrative dismantles widely accepted, and deeply racist, tropes about Chinese migration. This is one of the few books that will make you genuinely rethink an important episode. -- Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of Empire of Cotton This [is a] remarkable book...[It] cuts through modern world history in a most refreshing way and contributes to our understanding of power rivalry that remains with us today. -- Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore Eureka! In telling this comparative and connected history, The Chinese Question mines a rich stream, bringing to life Chinese people who pushed back against settler racism in so-called 'white men's countries,' such as California and Australia. This is a stunningly revealing and timely excavation of the racist stereotypes that continue to shape white responses to China and the Chinese. -- Warwick Anderson, University of Sydney, and author of The Cultivation of Whiteness Mae Ngai has produced an epic account of Chinese pioneers who traversed the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans to three gold-bearing continents in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Beyond presenting an archivally accurate history of these encounters where race and money were the prime drivers of engagement, her research has unearthed an overtly human dimension where numbers are names, statistics incidences and hearsays realities. These encounters on the gold mines of America, Australia and South Africa led to widespread malicious economic expulsion and vindictive political exclusion which it could be argued laid the foundation for much of the burgeoning Sino-phobia evident across the globe over a century later. -- Karen L. Harris, University of Pretoria