This book compares the political activism of Chinese Americans in New York City and San Francisco, California, between the Great Depression and the advent of the Asian American movement of the late 1960s. It examines Chinese American participation in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Kuomintang, the Chinese Third Force, the Communist Party, and other organizations against the backdrop of America’s relationship with the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. The book argues that the US-Taiwan alliance and the dominant anti-communism of American domestic po ... More

This book compares the political activism of Chinese Americans in New York City and San Francisco, California, between the Great Depression and the advent of the Asian American movement of the late 1960s. It examines Chinese American participation in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Kuomintang, the Chinese Third Force, the Communist Party, and other organizations against the backdrop of America’s relationship with the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. The book argues that the US-Taiwan alliance and the dominant anti-communism of American domestic politics in the 1950s and 1960s helped establish the limits of Chinese American political activism. Still, the book concludes that these forces neither eliminated political activism in these communities nor ever really suppressed their diverse array of voices. Instead, the distinctive local political cultures of New York and San Francisco ultimately determined how much the Sino-American relationship affected Chinese American politics in each city. In New York, the Tammany Hall political machine rewarded a handful of loyalists but did little for a population that consisted of large number of unlawful entrants known as “paper sons.” This situation enabled the Kuomintang to remain extremely powerful in New York. In contrast, San Francisco Chinese Americans became quite active in local politics, particularly the city’s emerging multiracial liberal movement, and laid the foundation for long term Chinese American political influence in the Bay Area.