The role of the Chinese in California agriculture during the later decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century was an integral aspect of the agricultural history of the western United States. Although the number of Chinese involved in agricultural occupations at one time never exceeded 6000 to 7000 workers, their lack of numbers does not diminish their impact. Author Chan, of Chinese origin, has made extensive use of census records and county archival sources to produce the first full history of the Chinese in California agriculture.

Founded during the Gold Rush years, the Chinese community of San Francisco became the largest and most vibrant Chinatown in America. This is a detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco.

The Chinese were a visible current in the tidal wave of humanity that rushed through San Francisco’s Golden Gate in the mid-nineteenth century. Known to their countrymen as Gam Saan Haak (guests of Gold Mountain), Chinese immigrants sought great fortune. Most found only hostility and hard work, often braving the most dangerous and loathsome jobs. They endured violence and injustice, yet clung to this land with tenacity and patience and made it their own. With nearly 200 historic photographs gathered from notable collections, this book explores a century of Chinese progress in California. Retracing the immigrants’ steps—from the gold fields to the high Sierra railroad camps, to lettuce fields and olive groves, and to the Monterey coast—we visit Chinese enclaves throughout the state. We linger in San Francisco’s old Chinatown, home to cherished children and notorious tong gangs, where new arrivals first found refuge and familiar goods, and tourists later found exotic merchandise spilling from aging storefronts. These historic images recall a time when the Chinese community in California was still a world apart.

During the nineteenth century tens of thousands of Chinese men and women crossed the Pacific to work, trade, and settle in California. Drawn initially by the gold rush, they took with them skills and goods and a view of the world which, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling infant colony into a prosperous international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora. Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of transpacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that the migration was primarily a "coolie trade," Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an "in-between place" of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies.

Exploring the Chinese contribution to Californian society, approximately 1,100 entries list sites of historical or cultural significance. The book is arranged by region and by county, with sites listed in alphabetical order. Special attention is drawn to place names, street orientation, the cemetery and Feng Shui, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, levels of official recognition, Ch'ing Ming, the Tree of Heaven, and the changing of names or the naming of unnamed places. McDannold taught geography for over 25 years, and has served as president of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Originally published in 1939, this book was the first objective study of the anti-Chinese movement in the Far West, a subject that is as much a part of the history of California as the mission period or the gold rush. Some historians of the Asian American experience consider it to be, more than half a century later, the most satisfactory work on the subject. For this reissue, Roger Daniels has updated the bibliography to 1991.