Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?

the long version

This study recovers the history of immigrants who left scant records of their struggle to survive in a society in which the Chinese were reviled as dangerous, opium-soaked, and unassimilable. It is based on about 3,000 contemporary newspaper and magazine articles that reflect the prejudices of the times, a major element shaping the history of the Chinese in New York. More than 170 illustrations from newspapers and magazines of the time recapture the stereotyping that justified ghettoization and denial of employment opportunities.