China in America A study in the social life of the Chinese in the eastern cities of the United States

This study opens a window onto the everyday world of Chinese immigrants who arrived on the eastern seaboard of the United States in the 1880s. Drawing on detailed observations from cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston, the author maps the diverse regions of Guangdong from which the laborers came, explaining how distinctions such as the “Three Towns” and “Four Towns” shaped their identities. The narrative captures the physical landscape of their homeland and the way those familiar hills and rivers echo in the cramped urban neighborhoods they built.

Within those neighborhoods, tightly knit clan networks, guild halls and the powerful Six Companies become the backbone of communal life. Readers learn how families from the same village or bearing the same surname stick together for mutual aid, settle disputes, and establish shops that reflect their regional customs. The book also touches on the gender imbalance of the era, noting the predominance of single men and the limited presence of Chinese women, while revealing how traditions from the old country were both preserved and adapted in a new, bustling America.