Asians in America: A Bibliography of Resources in the Primary Source LibraryReference Material "Chinese Americans". Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Daniels, Roger. American Immigration: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Odo, Franklin, ed. The Columbia Documentary History of the Asian American Experience. New York: Columbia U.P., 2002. A collection of letters, diaries, government documents, news reports, and other short materials that provides thorough chronological coverage of the Asian-American experience, and covers a wide range of ethnic groups. "Text of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, May 6, 1882. DISCovering U.S. History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. October 2001. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC/. Arkush, R. David. Land Without Ghosts: Chinese Impressions of America from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Barth, Gunther. Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964. A close look at anti-Chinese sentiment in California before the 1870’s. Bean, Cathy Bao. The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: A Memoir and Manual. Alllamuchy, N.J.: We Press, 2002. A first-person memoir of a Chinese American woman married to a Caucasian man and raising a family in the 1950s. Bitter & funny. Cao, Lan & Himilee Novas. Everything You Need to Know about Asian-American History. New York: Plume, 1996. An interestingly organized tour of factual, historical, biographical, and cultural information about Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders in America. Chan, Sucheng, ed. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America,1882-1943. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1991. Chang, Lan Samantha. Hunger: A Novella and Stories. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. Chang, Iris. The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. New York: Viking, 2003. Chang, Leslie. Beyond the Narrow Gate: The Journey of Four Chinese Women from the Middle Kingdom to Middle America. New York: Penguin, 1999. The lives of four women, who emigrated to America from China, are examined. Chen,Jack. The Chinese of America. New York: Harper and Row, 1981. A well-documented history of Chinese immigration, labor, settlement, exclusion, and community development. Includes many useful maps, tables, and graphs. Chinese American Literature. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Globe Book Co., 1993. Excerpts of works from authors such as Amy Tan, Lensey Namioka, Diana Chang and others. Choy, Philip P., ed. The Coming Man, 19th Century American Perceptions of the Chinese. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. Includes 116 editorial cartoons selected from American newspapers and magazines dating from 1869 to 1900 that depict early Chinese immigrants and reveal the hostility and tension of exclusion. Chu, Doris C.J. Chinese in Massachusetts: Their Experiences and Contributions. Boston: Chinese Culture Institute, 1987. Bi-lingual overview beginning with the early Chinese merchants and sailors coming to Massachusetts, right up to information about present day organizations and people. Espiritu, Yen Le. Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws and Love. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997. Genthe, Arnold. Genthe’s Photograph’s of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown. Selection and text by John Kuo Wei Tchen. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1984. Photographs of everyday life in Chinatown from 1985 to 1906. Gillenkirk, Jeff. Bitter Melon: Inside America's Last Rural Chinese Town. Berkeley: Heydey Books. 1987. Oral memoir and photographs of a century of the experiences of a group of Chinese agricultural workers in the Sacramento Valley. Glick, Clarence Elmer. Sojourners and Settlers, Chinese Migrants in Hawaii. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, c1980 Gyory, Andrew. Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. A detailed look at all aspects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the legislation that barred practically all Chinese immigration from America for 10 years Hagedorn, Jessica, ed. Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction. New York: Penguin, 1993. Short fiction by and about Asian Americans written from the 1930s to the 1990s. Ketchum, Liza. The Gold Rush. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1996. Includes a section on the Chinese involvement with the Gold Rush; one of the companion volumes to the Public Television series ‘The West’. Higgins, James & Joan Ross. Southeast Asians: A New Beginning in Lowell. Lowell, Mass.: Higgins & Row, 1986 Photographs and short commentaries focused on recent immigrants to this Massachusetts city. In English, Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese. Hoobler, Dorothy. The Chinese American Family Album. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Oral and written histories provide a look at the experiences of Chinese immigrants, relating stories about their homeland, the voyage and arrival to America, and the integration of each generation into this new society. The Immigrant Experience. Peterborough, N.H.: Cobblestone Publishing Company, 1996. Vol. 1 1840-1890; Vol. 2 1890-1925. Contains reproductions of historical documents and classroom activities around immigration. Kwong, Peter. The New Chinatown. New York: Hill & Wang, 1996. A penetrating look at Chinatowns in the United States, their social, political, and cultural history and current conditions. *Lai, Him Mark, ed. Island, Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. San Francisco: Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, 1986. While Chinese immigrants were detained at Angel Island, "the Ellis Island of the West," they carved poems into the barrack walls. Translated into English, these poems are accompanied by photographs and text. Lee, Anthony W. Picturing Chinatown: Art and Orientalism in San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001 An indepth study of how artists and photographers from Dorothea Lange to Theodore Wores found and portrayed Chinatown from the late 19th century to mid-20th century. McClain, Charles J. In Search of Equality, The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Well documented chronicle of Chinese American efforts in California to combat discrimination in housing, employment and education through the U.S. court system. Includes useful index of cases for further research. McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories, 1828-1988. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. Includes brief biographies of eight early Chinese pioneers who struggled to make a contribution to American society despite exclusion. McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. An Illustrated History of the Chinese in America. San Francisco: Design Enterprises of San Francisco, 1979. McCunn, Ruthann Lum. Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Biographical Novel. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988. McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. Wooden Fish Songs. New York: Penguin, 1996. "In nineteenth century China, wooden fish songs were the laments sung by the Chinese women left behind by husbands, sons, and brothers looking for a better life on ‘Gold Mountain’." Historical fiction about an immigrant to America in the late 1900’s and his experiences in the West, New England and Florida. Miller, Stuart Creighton. The Unwelcome Immigrant: The American Image of the Chinese,1785-1882. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Okihiro, Gary Y. Common Ground: Reimagining American History. Princeton: Princeton U.P., 2001. Written from an Asian American perspective, this book is a series of essays looking at American history in terms of the binary ways of thinking embedded in American thought, including: East/West, black/white, man/woman, heterosezual/homosexual. Rangaswamy, Padma. Asian Immigration to the United States: a unit of study for grades 8-12. Los Angeles, CA: Organization of American Historians, 2001. *Salyer, Lucy E. Laws Harsh as Tigers: Chinese Immigration and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. An authoritative account of the social and legal history of immigration laws designed to exclude Chinese immigrants from the United States. The book details the enforcement of these laws between 1891 and 1924 and provides rich information on how thousands of Chinese immigrants contested these laws, often successfully. *Saxton, Alexander. The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement In California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. See, Lisa. On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. The author’s great great grandfather left China for ‘Gold Mountain’ (the Chinese name for the United States) in 1867. This is the story of her family’s life and experiences between two cultures. Srikanth, Rajini, and Esther Y. Iwanaga, eds. Bold Words: a Century of Asian American Writing. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers U.P., 2001. A collection of writing from a wide range of Asian ethnic groups, covering the early twentieth century to the present. Includes memoir, fiction, poetry, and drama. Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. This narrative history focuses on Asians and their various experiences entering and living in the United States. Thibaut, Amy Nelson. The Chinese Immigrant Experience in the United States: A Simulation. Denver, CO: Center for Teaching in the United States, University of Denver, 1992. A simulation game to recognize the tools of racism and the effects it has on society; appropriate for grades 7 and up and useful to accompany a unit on the Transcontinental Railroad or any lesson on prejudice. Tsai, Shih-Shan Henry. The Chinese Experience in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. Wong, Don. Chinese Americans Past and Present: A Collection of Chinese American Readings and Learning Activities. San Francisco: Association of Chinese Teachers, 1977. Wong, K. Scott. Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Act. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. A collection of essays that helps fill an important historiographical gap – stories and voices from Asian immigrants and their offspring affected by the anti-Asian sentiment of the late 19th and early 20th century. Wong, Vivian Wu. Early Chinese Immigration and the Process of Exclusion: A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12. Los Angeles: Organization of American Historians and the National Center for History in the Schools, 1998. Teaching units based on primary sources and background materials for teachers on many aspects surrounding Chinese Americans in the late nineteenth century. Yung, Judy. Chinese Women of America, A Pictorial History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986. Examines the experience of Chinese women in America from their arrival in 1834 to the present day. Documents selected from 274 oral history interviews and 135 photographs from public and private collections from throughout the country. Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. New York: Farrar Strauss & Giroux, 2000. A series of essays by a Chinese-American author and journalist. Contains perspectives on immigrant situations in various parts of the U.S. over recent decades. Resources for Students Asian American Literature. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999. (HS) Short stories, fables, folk tales, nonfiction, and poetry from Chinese and Japanese authors. Baker, Hugh. The Overseas Chinese. London: B.T. Batsford, 1987. ES/HS Reviews Chinese migration around the Pacific Rim region during the 19th and early 20th century. Carling, Amelia Lau. Mama and Papa Have a Store. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1998. ES A young girl describes what a day is like in her parents’ Chinese store in Guatemala City. The story is based on the real life experiences of her parents who fled China in 1938 and settled in Central America. "Chinese Americans", Cobblestone. Vol. 12, No. 3, March 1991. MS Entire issue devoted to articles about various aspects of life in America for those of Chinese descent. Chinese in the Building of the West. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Globe Book Company, 1995. MS Covers period from mid 19th century up to the Depression, and gives a short background of conditions in China which led some to emigrate as well as what they came to America to do. Textbook format, with key ideas, questions, activities following each chapter. Accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide. Daley, William. The Chinese Americans. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. MS Part of The Peoples of North America series; an overview of the history, culture and religion of the Chinese, the factors that encouraged their emigration, and their acceptance an an ethnic group in America throughout the years. Deitch, JoAnne Weisman. Immigration. Carlisle, MA: Discovery Enterprises Ltd., 2000. (MS) Anthology of documents relating to immigrants who came to America at the turn of the 20th century. Includes research activities for middle school students. Freedman, Russell. Immigrant Kids. New York Puffin Books, 1980. (ES/MS) Text and period photographs chronicle the lives of immigrant children at home, school, work and play during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Kite, Lorien. We Came to North America: The Chinese. New York: Crabtee Publishing, 2000. (ES/MS) An illustrated history of Chinese immigration from mid-nineteenth-century to the present, concentrating heavily on conditions and events in China that affected migration. Leathers, Noel L. The Japanese in America. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1991. (MS) An overview of Japanese immigration and adaptation since the late 19th century, focusing on Japanese labor, business, and farming, as well as prejudice and World War II. Chronicles recent Japanese American leaders in government, business, sports, etc. Lewis, Rose. I Love You Like Crazy Cakes. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2000. (ES) The author relates her own experiences of adopting a child from China in a wonderful picture book, illustrated by Jane Dyer. Lingen, Marissa K. Chinese Immigration. The Changing Face of North America: Immigration since 1965. (Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Pub., 2004) (MS) A look at recent Chinese immigrants and their integration into U.S. and Canadian society. Considers issues of politics (Chinese & U.S.), labor, culture, crime, and adoption. Lord, Bette Bao. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. New York: HarperCollins, 1984.(ES/MS) Classic story of a young Chinese girl who moves to New York and who’s transition to America is helped by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. Pie-Biter. Arcadia, CA: Shen’s Books, 1983. (ES) A story in the tradition of John Henry or Paul Bunyan; a young Chinese boy arrives in America to work on the railroad, and his size and strength is helped by his love of pies. In English, Chinese and Spanish. Mak, Kim. My Chinatown: One Year in Poems. New York: HarperCollins, 2002 ES/MS A beautifully illustrated book of poems about all the wonders of Chinatown for a young Chinese American child. Nam, Vickie, ed. Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. (HS) A collection of personal writings by young Asian American girls on the unique challenges they face in their lives. Namioka, Lensey. Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear. Boston: Joy Street Books,1992. ES/MS First in a popular and humorous series of four books about the Yang Family and their adventures learning to live in contemporary Seattle. Great for those just starting to read chapter books, or as a read aloud. Nunes, Susan. The Last Dragon. New York: Clarion Books, 1995. ES/MS While spending the summer in Chinatown with his great-aunt, a young boy finds an old ten-man dragon in a shop and gets a number of people to help him repair it. Stepanchuk, Carol. Exploring Chinatown: A Children’s Guide to Chinese Culture. Berkeley, Pacific View Press, 2002. ES/MS A close look at Chinatown as a "Neighborhood. Tourist destination. Home Workplace. Haven for the newly arrived, [and] a place where the well-established can touch their roots". Includes recipes, holiday information and other cultural details. Tan, Amy. The Moon Lady. New York: Macmillan, 1992. ES/MS Telemaque, Eleanor Wong. It’s Crazy to Stay Chinese in Minnesota. New York: Thomas Nelson, 1978. MS Westridge Young Writers Workshop. Kids Explore America's Japanese American Heritage. Santa Fe, N.M.: John Muir Pub., 1994. (ES/MS) Written by kids, for kids, and contains narratives delving into history, cultural and social practices, as well as famous Japanese Americans. Yee, Paul. Ghost Train. Vancouver : Douglas & McIntyre, 2001. MS/HS A picture book for older readers about the often untold story of the building of the transcontinental railroad: the numbers of worker deaths that resulted from the difficult job. Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. A Newbery Honor book, and just one of many award-winning books by this Chinese American author. Yep writes in several genres about China, the Chinese and the experiences of Chinese Americans. Some of his best work is historical fiction about the Chinese in America during the Gold Rush and building the Transcontinental Railroad. Yep, Laurence. The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner. New York: Scholastic, 2000. MS Written for the ‘My Name is America’ series, the story of a young boy who travels to California in 1852 to join an uncle during the Gold Rush. Yep, Laurence. The Lost Garden. New York: Beech Tree Books, 1996. MS/HS The prolific children’s author describes his early years in San Francisco and how his writing came to celebrate his heritage. Yep, Laurence. When the Circus Came to Town. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. ES/MS Yep's latest book is set in turn of the century Whistle, Montana, where an Asian cook and a Chinese New Year celebration combine to help a young girl recover from smallpox. Yin. Coolies. New York: Philomel Books, 2001. ES/MS A young boy learns the story of his great-great-great grandfather and uncle who came to America to build the transcontinental railroad. Videos Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies, Sailors, Settlers. San Francisco, CA: Center for Educational Telecommunications, 2000. (62 min.). The untold story of how Asians--Filipino, Chinese, Asian Indian--first arrived in the Americas. Film crosses centuries and oceans from the 16th century Manila-Acapulco trade, to the Opium War, to the 19th century plantation coolie labor in South America and the Caribbean. Beyond Barbed Wire. Steve Rosen, dir. 1997. This video features interviews with Japanese-American veterans who fought in Europe and Asia during World War II, who freed Americans units trapped by Germans in Italy as well as freeing Jews held in Concentrations camps while there families were held in relocations camps in America. *Carved in Silence. Directed and produced by Felicia Lowe. San Francisco: National Asian American Telecommunications Association, 1988. (45 min.) A docudrama about Angel Island, the ‘Ellis Island of the West’, features scenes recreated in the actual barracks and interviews of former detainees. The Chinese Americans. New York: Produced and distributed by WLIW, 1999. (90 min.) Examines the roles Chinese schools, family associations and religious organizations play in transforming Chinese immigrants into Chinese Americans, while maintaining the traditions of their culture. Chinese-American Heritage. Wynnewood, PA: Schlessinger Video Productions, 1997. (25 min.) Introduction to the vast land and culture of China as well as the immigration of Chinese Americans and the traditions they observe today. Island of Secret Memories. Loni Ding, dir. & prod. Berkeley, Cal.: CET Productions, 1988. 20 mins. a short, powerful drama on the experience of early Chinese immigrants who were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in the San Francisco Bay from 1910 - 1940, the Ellis Island of the West Coast. The story is told through the eyes of young children on a tour of the now restored facility located in Angel Island State Park. Monterey's Boat People. Spencer Nakasako and Vincent DiGirolamo prod./dirs. San Francisco: National Asian American Telecommunications Assn., 1982. 29 mins. Closely examines the tension between the established Italian fishing community and the recently arrived Vietnamese fishermen in California's Monterey Bay peninsula. A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States. John de Graaf, prod. San Francisco: National Asian American Telecommunications Assn., 1992. 30 mins. During WWII, Gordon Hirabayashi refused to be interned on the grounds that Executive Order 9066 violated his Constitutional rights. This video offers a personal look at Constitutional rights in practice. Rabbit in the Moon. Emiko Omori, dir. Hohokus, N.J.: New Day films, 1999. 85 mins. A documentary/memoir about the lingering effects of WWII internment on the Japanese American community *Sewing Woman. Directed and produced by Arthur Dong. San Francisco: National Asian American Telecommunications Association, 1982. (14 min.) The story of "one woman’s journey from an arranged marriage in old China to life as a garment factory worker for over 30 years…Her reflections reveal the inner strength which helped her over come U.S. immigration policies, family separation and the hard life of a first-generation immigrant." Thousand Pieces of Gold. Los Angeles: Hemdale Home Video, 1990. (105 min.) Adapted from the novel by Ruthann Lum McCunn; the film tells the story of a young Chinese woman torn from her homeland and forced to survive on the American frontier. Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice. Pat Saunders, and Rea Tajiri, dirs. San Francisco: National Asian American Telecommunications Assn., 1993 A documentary about a Japanese American political activist, who was interned during WWII, and later involved with nuclear disarmament, Black Liberation, political prisoners' rights and the Japanese American Redress movement. Teacher Created Curriculum Units Dolan, Mary Ann. Chinese Immigration in America: Past and Present. Watertown, MA: Primary Source, 1996. Designed to introduce high school students to the history and impact of Chinese immigration to the U.S., this 7-day #curriculum unit explores issues of discrimination, employment, and gender issues. Learning activities include discussing texts and cartoons, essay-writing , watching a play, and visiting the adoptive parents of Chinese children. Provides newspaper articles, and texts of anti-Chinese documents of the California government of the mid-19th century.(high school) Walcott, Joanne. Finding Evidence of Ancient China in Boston’s Chinatown.Watertown, MA: Primary Source, 2001. Although really a 4th grade unit on Ancient Civilizations, these lessons provide a real life look at Chinatown and combines a field study with a series of activities. Ye, Hiu. The Stories of My Life: Autobiographies by Recent Immigrants. Watertown, MA: Primary Source, 1994. Personal accounts by the two authors of their experiences as immigrants to America. (middle/high) |
Educating for Global Understanding
