Coming Home in Gold Brocade/Chinese in Early Northwest America
by Bennet Bronson and Chuimei Ho, Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee, Seattle, WA
copyright 2015 by Bronson and Ho ISBN-13: 978-1505228021, ISBN-10: 1505228026
book cover photo of Chin Yoke, wife of Honorary Consul Goon Dip, in official robe of the Qing Dynasty. Seattle, ca. 1909 (photo courtesy Dick Kay)
vii = Chinese summary in Chinese
Chapter 1: through Chinese eyes; government suspicion/support, North American Chinese view themselves
Chapter 2: patterns in time, space & population: Before 1850 1788 with Meares, Cape Flattery, WA perhaps first Chinese on US soil, 1789 with Colnett at Vancouver Island, 1790s on other Western ships, Haida Gwaii or Alaska--Xie Qinggao's account, other possibel arrivals before 1850; 1850s-1870 miners and merchants in first northwestern Chinatowns; 1870-1885 clourish with railroad, cannery, mining work, farming, fishing; rise of anti-Chinese violence; 1885-1887 hostility vs Chinese with Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, violence starts Anaconda, April A885, Rock Springs Sept 1885, Squak and Coal Creek Sept 1885, the Conspirators 1885-1886, the "Tacoma Method Nov 1885, Seattle Riot Feb 1886, Portland March 1886, violence elsewhere in the northwest 1885-1886, Snake River/Deep Creek May 1887; 1888-1900 slow recover, renewed racism and vilnce east of the Cascades, increasing urbanization in Coastal areas; after 1900 with future trends
Chapter 3: economic life: merchants and contractors, cannery workers in Columbia River Canneries, Alaska Canneries, ethnicity and wages at canneries, ONLY first-hand acount by Chinese Cannery worker before WWII, Railroad workers who got no credity for their work plus railroad maintenance workers; in lumber mills, gold and coal miners, Canadian Opium industry with factories 1886 price war in opium business and smuggling opium; restaurant trade; laundrymen; in domestic service; fishermen; farmers and gardeners; commercial services and factory work
Chapter 4: community structure: Tongs: Hongmen Society, Chinese Masons, Chee Kung Tong, Bing Kunb & Bow Leong Tongs, Hip Sing Tong, other Tongs, Tong Wars; county/district associations: Huiguan and Shantang, Shantang in Victoria and Vancouver, beyond Vinctoria and Vancouver, the Hakka Speech Group Association; Consolidtated Benevolent Associations: in the Northwest, Portland's Jong Wah & Co., in Victoria and Vancouver, Seattle's Chong Wa Benevolent Association; clan or surname associations in Voctoria and Vancouver, the Le Associations, the Chens/Chins and the Oak Tin in Seattle and Portland, associations outside the main urban centers; Temples: Independent Multi-Deity temples, independent temples for Suijing Bo, an independent Hakka temple, Tong shrines, decline of traditional shrines and temples; Non-traditional Organizations: Chinese Empire Reform Association or Baohuanghui, America-born Chinese Brigade, other progressive non-traditional groups; Chirstian churches and mission schools
Chapter 5: private lives in the Northwest: Chinese men born rich, self-made and working classes; Chinese women China-born prostitutes/entertainers, China-born respectable women, native-born; marriage and intermarriage, civil and property rights, diet and health, opium use, illness and death, funerals-burials-memorials-repatriation with wakes and funerals, cemeteries, memorials, repatriation and reburial, contrastinb lives and deaths: Lee Yau Kan vs Moy Back Hin
Appendices: How many Chinese died in building the first transcontinental railroad?
Chinese populations in inland and coastal areas 1870 & 1880
Chinese Women in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington from 1880 and 1900 censuses
CHUNG SAI YAT PO on substituting for the authority of absent parents
there are photos and illustrations throughout book