NYC CHINATOWN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
New York City Chinatown Chinese: Narratives of a Village and Community
Volume II - Released June 2017
The story of the Toisanese and Cantonese Chinese, especially of those from New York City, are largely missing from our annals of history. The accomplishments of these peasant farmers and their offspring from southern China were extraordinary amidst enormous struggles. Known as the Jook Sing generation, their children went on to become responsible U.S. citizens and educated professionals. Many enter fields where no Chinese had gone before. They created, within New York City’s Chinatown, a village and a community with its cobweb of family and social relationships. It was safe, supportive, and they belonged. This book is a collection of narratives about ordinary people who made extraordinary strides. It is a psychosocial account of narratives of the Toisanese and Cantonese Chinese growing up during the 1940s-1960s in the US—told for the next generation lest they be forgotten.
While the Garden of Eden lies in the East for Westerners, the Jade Mountain of the Queen Mother, Hsi Wang Mu, lies in the West for Easterners. These pioneering Chinese made their Journey to the West. What made for their resilience and bonds that enabled them to succeed? Isn’t it ironic that they came to America for economic opportunities, only to be mistrusted for their political allegiances? They were recruited for jobs that White Americans did not want; yet they became an economic threat because they took away American jobs. Chinatown was viewed as a secretive and isolated community; yet the anti-Chinese laws blatantly discriminated and excluded them from housing, immigration, and access to mainstream resources. Isn’t it ironic how many Chinese Americans served in the military, yet faced more backlash from their American comrades than from the enemy? They continued to be viewed as foreigners despite sacrificing their lives for the US. But most of all, this story about the Cantonese and Toisanese Chinese is a story about the plight of all immigrants.
ISBN-13: 978-1544714042 Color
ISBN-10: 1544714041
ISBN-13: 978-1544747613
ISBN-10: 1544747616 Black & White
$50 (Color Version-SPECIAL DISCOUNT from $85 list price)
427 pages
$25 Black & White Version
427 pages
Learning from My Mother's Voice
Family Legend and the Chinese American Immigration Experience
Released Nov 2017
A compelling saga of a mother and daughter's Journey to the West capturing the themes of separation, loss, guilt, and bicultural identity in the journey of immigration. Blending mythology and symbols of East and West, past and present into a bonding and healing tapestry, the author captures the voice of her mother, Fung Gor Lee, in a moving account that will resonate with all Americans who have immigrant roots--and create the family legend that all families should have.
ISBN-13: 978-1979373234
ISBN-10: 197937323X
BLACK/WHITE
ISBN-13: 978-1978373716
ISBN-10: 1978373716
COLOR
COLOR VERSION - $35
BLACK/WHITE VERSION $15
Who are the Cantonese Chinese?: NYC Chinatown during the 1940s-60s Volume I (2015)
The Cantonese Chinese were largely Toisanese peasant farmers from southern China and the original Chinese pioneers to the United States starting in the 1800s. Recruited as cheap labor to build the transcontinental railroad, they faced harsh discrimination and were viewed as an economic threat during the California Gold Rush. After World War II, they were then viewed as communist threats. As they migrated east to New York City, laundries and restaurants were the only occupations opened to them. Their offspring are the voices in this book; they are the Chinese Americans growing up in New York City’s Chinatown between the 1940s and 1960s, a generation sandwiched between post-World War II (1941-1945) and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
What was life in New York City's Chinatown like during that time? Their stories capture the bonds, the family and community networks, the struggles and the resiliency of growing up Chinese in New York City. This generation went on to become upstanding citizens working in professional fields—mostly engineering and teaching. As a group, their accomplishments and achievements were unsurpassed. Because there were so few Chinese Americans outside of the laundries and restaurants of their parents, their entry into many fields were untraditional and exceptions. They often became the “first”. As Ted Ho, one of our participants, said: “And we did it in one generation!”
They grew up in a society intolerant of their differences—they were viewed as the perpetual foreigner and scapegoated by earlier immigrant groups. This book is a psychosocial account of the resiliency and community networks amidst discrimination and assimilation in a bicultural world of Chinese Americans growing up in New York City in the 1940s-1960s—it is written in their voices. But it is also the story of all immigrants.
ISBN-10 1511598859 Color
ISBN-10 1499125348 Black and White