IF THEY DON'T BRING THEIR WOMEN HERE by George Anthony Peffer, Roger Daniels (Editor), Roger Daniels (Foreword) ( 9780252024696 )

Item Details

Title:

IF THEY DON'T BRING THEIR WOMEN HERE
CHINESE FEMALE IMMIGRATION BEFORE EXCLUSION

By:

George Anthony Peffer, Roger Daniels (Editor), Roger Daniels (Foreword)

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£16.99
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ISBN 10:

0252024699

ISBN 13:

9780252024696

Publisher:

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Pub. date:

1 July, 1999

Series:

The Asian American Experience

Pages:

184

Description:

Presents an account of Chinese American women's lives in the preexclusion era. This book documents the habeas corpus trials in which the wives and daughters of Chinese laborers were required to prove their status as legal immigrants or be returned to China.

Synopsis:

Seven years before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 comprehensively disqualified all members of China's laboring class from immigration status, the Page Law sought to stem the tide of Chinese prostitutes entering the United States. Yet during these seven years it was not just prostitutes but all Chinese females who encountered at best hostility and at worst expulsion when they reached the 'Golden Door'.In this first detailed account of Chinese American women's lives in the preexclusion era, George Anthony Peffer investigates how administrative agencies and federal courts enforced immigration laws. Peffer documents the habeas corpus trials in which the wives and daughters of Chinese laborers were required to prove their status as legal immigrants or be returned to China.He also surveys the virulently anti- Chinese coverage these trials and the issue of Chinese immigration received in California newspapers, confirming that Chinatown's prostitution industry so dominated the popular imagination as to render other classes of female immigrants all but invisible.In the words of one immigration judge, the United States remained favorable to Chinese immigration in the preexclusion period 'if they don't bring their women here'. This important study amplifies the voices of immigrant women who did not fit into the preconceived categories American officials created and establishes a place for them within the historiographic framework of Chinese American studies.

Publication:

Imprint:

University of Illinois Press

Returns:

Non-returnable

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