|
|
||
|
|
|
|
||||
Holding Up More Than Half the Sky: Chinese Women Garment Workers in New York City, 1948–92. By Xiaolan Bao. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001, xvi + 330 pp. Illustrations, glossary, notes, bibliogra- phy, and index. $44.95. Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970. By Xinyang Wang. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publish- ers, Inc., 2001. x + 157 pp. Tables, appendix, bibliography, and index. $59.00 (cloth); $22.95 (paper). Renqiu Yu Purchase College – State University of New York Xiaolan Bao's book makes a significant contribution to the literature on Chinese American historical experiences. Its significance lies in that it presents a thorough, careful, and sensitive gendered analysis of Chinese American historical experiences, shedding new light on the impact of the Chinese Exclusion laws on the Chinese American families on both sides of the Pacific, the formation of Chinese American families in the post-World War II period, and the historical conditions that contributed to the rise of Chinese labor militancy and the integration of Chinese American community into the larger society. Based on field work, oral history interviews, and archival research in both English and Chinese languages, Bao effectively demonstrates the multiple sufferings of the women of Chinese American families in Guangdong, China, as a result of the American Chinese Exclusion laws and the Chinese patriarchal control in their own community. She elegantly describes the struggles of the Chinese women garment workers for survival, for improvement of living and working conditions, for better family life, and for equal opportunities and treatment. Inspired and informed by the latest studies in labor history, gender studies, and Chinese American history, Bao makes important contributions to the scholarship of these fields. Among her many contributions are her meticulous analyses of the patriarchal controls perpetuated in the Chinese American families in both China and the United States, the fight of women in such families against it, and the formation of class consciousness among the Chinese female garment workers. The oral history, through the garment workers' own voices, collected by the author over a span of more than a decade, depict in a vivid way the interviewees' economic, social, and emotional lives, their characteristics in family and work- place, and their evolution from ordinary garment workers to resourceful and ardent union activists. Certainly to be appreciated by specialists, these stories also provide valuable teaching materials for classroom use and enlightening reading for the general public. This excellent case study is a fine example of serious empirical investigation. The study of Chinese American history needs more such solid case studies with new theoretical and analytical approaches to expand and deepen our understanding of the past. It is hoped that more such excellent works will encourage more scholars to engage in comparative studies.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
| Home | Issue Index |
| © 2007 by the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. |
|
