Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885-1945Brokering Belonging traces several generations of Chinese "brokers," ethnic leaders who acted as intermediaries between the Chinese and Anglo worlds of Canada. At the time, most Chinese could not vote and many were illegal immigrants, so brokers played informal but necessary roles as representatives to the larger society. Brokers' work reveals the changing boundaries between Chinese and Anglo worlds, and how tensions among Chinese shaped them. By reinserting Chinese back into mainstream politics, Brokering Belonging alters common understandings of how legally "alien" groups' helped create modern immigrant nations. Over several generations, brokers deeply embedded Chinese immigrants in the larger Canadian, U.S. and Chinese politics of their time. On the 19th century Western frontier, bilingual Chinese businessmen competed with each other to represent their community. By the early 1920s, a new generation of brokers based in social movements challenged traditional brokers, shifting the power dynamic within the Chinese community. During the Second World War, social movement protests helped reconfigure brokerage relations. By 1947, Chinese had won voting rights in British Columbia and repeal of Canada's Chinese exclusion act. The history of brokers' work adds new transnational dimensions to many central topics in Canadian, U.S., and Chinese Diaspora history: immigration policy-making, party machines, law, migration, unions, civil rights movements, and the founding of immigration studies. Indeed, Chinese brokers' dealings with researchers from the Chicago School of Sociology had an enduring impact on immigrant scholarship, including beliefs that Asians were a diligent, patient "model minority." Based on new Chinese language evidence, this book recounts history from the "middle,' a view that is neither bottom up nor top down. Through brokerage, Chinese wielded considerable influence, navigating a period of anti-Asian sentiment and exclusion throughout society. Consequently, Chinese immigrants became significant players in race relations, influencing policies that affected all Canadians and Americans. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Negotiating Protection Illegal Immigration and Party Machines | 15 |
Arguing Cases Legal Interpreters Law and Society | 49 |
Popularizing Politics The AntiSegregation Movement as Social Revolution | 69 |
Fixing Knowledge Pacific Coast Chinese Leaders Management of the Chicago School of Sociology | 89 |
Transforming Democracy Brokerage Politics and the Exclusion Eras Denouement | 111 |
Conclusion | 131 |
Notes | 135 |
191 | |
217 | |
Other editions - View all
Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885-1945 Lisa Rose Mar Limited preview - 2010 |
Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885-1945 Lisa Rose Mar Limited preview - 2010 |
Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885-1945 Lisa Rose Mar No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
alliances anti-segregation Asian American Association boycott British Columbia Brokering Belonging Chicago China to Canada Chinatown Chinese American Chinese and Anglo Chinese brokers Chinese Canadians Chinese Freemasons Chinese head tax Chinese Immigration Act Chinese in Canada Chinese legal interpreters Chinese merchants Chinese newspapers Chinese workers court Cumyow David Lew DHGB ethnic Exclusion Foon Sien Wong Freemasons gambling Gong Bao head tax helped Hong Kong Ibid illegal immigration interview Japanese Jianada Huaqiao Shi July labor lawyers legal brokers Lew Fonds Lew’s Liberal Party migration MIRC Moore Whaun movement Nationalist nese officials organized Pacific world policies political power brokers protest race relations racial Raushenbush RCCF researchers Sept social survey’s tion transnational unions United Vancouver Daily Province Vancouver Sun Vancouver World Vancouver’s Chinese Victoria White Man’s Province Won Alexander Cumyow Wong Papers Wong’s Yip On’s Yip Sang Yip’s