The last time US turned nativist, vigilantes attacked immigrants from China – seeing them as a threat to jobs and the vision of a white America
Timely book recalls how early Chinese migrants were pushed to the margins of American society, then excluded, and the reaction of some whites to attacks on Chinese, such as the pastor who said: ‘My God, is this America? Why do we stand and do nothing?’
The Chinese Must Go
by Beth Lew-Williams
Harvard University Press
4 stars
In her skilful retelling of the history of white workers’ violence against Chinese immigrants and the formulation of laws to first restrict, and then exclude, Chinese labourers from the United States in the mid-late 19th century, Professor Beth Lew-Williams weaves a story of racial discrimination and nativism that continues to resonate today.
Bleak reality clashes with Chinese dream in gripping Yan Lianke novel
She focuses on the interplay of local violence, national politics, and US treaty obligations in arguing that racial violence against the Chinese played a critical role in the creation of the “modern American alien”, for whom citizenship would always prove elusive.