The Chinese Question
The Gold Rushes, Chinese Migration, and Global Politics
Published on 6. January 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
480 pages
978-1-324-03610-4 (ISBN)
Description
In roughly five decades, between 1848 and 1899, more gold was removed from the earth than had been mined in the 3,000 preceding years. But friction between Chinese and white settlers on the goldfields of California, Australia and South Africa catalysed a global battle over "the Chinese Question": Would the United States and the British Empire outlaw Chinese immigration?
This distinguished history of the Chinese diaspora and global capitalism chronicles how a feverish alchemy of race and money brought Chinese to the West and reshaped the nineteenth-century world-from Europe's subjugation of China to the rise of the international gold standard and the invention of racist, anti-Chinese stereotypes that linger to this day. Drawing on ten years of research across five continents, prize-winning historian Mae Ngai argues that Chinese exclusion was not extraneous to the emergent global economy but an integral part of it.
This distinguished history of the Chinese diaspora and global capitalism chronicles how a feverish alchemy of race and money brought Chinese to the West and reshaped the nineteenth-century world-from Europe's subjugation of China to the rise of the international gold standard and the invention of racist, anti-Chinese stereotypes that linger to this day. Drawing on ten years of research across five continents, prize-winning historian Mae Ngai argues that Chinese exclusion was not extraneous to the emergent global economy but an integral part of it.
Reviews / Votes
"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 "Meticulously researched... A deep historical study, and a timely re-examination of the persistent Chinese Question in America and elsewhere." -- The New York Times Book Review "[An] important and eminently readable book... The Chinese, who have excelled at so many things since ancient times, seem to be reminding us barbarians on the outside of the nature of their historic superiority. In recent centuries this related simply to the extraction of gold. Now, as Ngai presciently notes in a book that valuably places today's argument in context, it has implications for the entire world." -- Simon Winchester - The Spectator "Mae Ngai's The Chinese Question takes the well-known story of Chinese gold miners in 19th-century California and expands it to incorporate global movements of people and capital from California to Cape Town. Ngai's inclusion of the voices of Chinese gold miners is groundbreaking." -- History TodayMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
17 photographs; 4 illustrations; 9 maps
Dimensions
Height: 209 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
412 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-03610-4 (9781324036104)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2021
W. W. Norton & Company
€20.49
Available for download