The Chinese Question by Mae Ngai
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.
"Ngai brilliantly reconstructs how race became woven into the fabric of international capitalism and wired into the politics of nationsA 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 Today
"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 Today
Mae Ngai is Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and professor of history at Columbia University. She is the author of the award-winning book Impossible Subjects and The Lucky Ones. She lives in New York City and Accokeek, Maryland.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781324036104 |
| ISBN 10 | 1324036109 |
| Title | The Chinese Question |
| Author | Mae Ngai |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2023-01-06 |
| Number of pages | 480 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |