Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave (review)

Reviews 597 tivities in the 1930s and 1940s, therefore, can be seen, on the one hand, as Chinese nationals' patriotic support oftheir homeland's national salvation movement and, on the other hand, as a struggle to improve their image and status in American society" (p. 83). This book achieves something few other studies ofAsian Americans have done. It clearly identifies the significant contributions ofChinese in America to Chinese in China. Additionally, the realities oflife for the Chinese in New York are explored over three decades. This study destroys such myths as "the apolitical Chinese heathen" and explores the inner dynamics ofan ethnic community. Yu brings to life the humanity ofmen perceived by many as nameless and faceless. He reminds us that Chinese laundrymen, just like other Americans, had histories, interests, needs, and dignity. Gregory Yee Mark University ofHawai'i NOTES1. For additional information referto Paul C. P. Siu, The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation (New York: New York University Press, 1987), and John Gioia, "A Social, Political , and Legal Study ofYick Wo v. Hopkins," in The Chinese American Experience: Papers From the Second National Conference on Chinese American Studies, ed. Genny Lim (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society ofAmerica and Chinese Culture Foundation, 1980), pp. 211-219. 2. Gregory Y. Mark, "A Chinese Laundryman Fights Back: Case of In Re Byron Mark," in Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1988 (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1988), pp. 58-79. Min Zhou. Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential ofan Urban Enclave. Foreword by Alejandro Portes. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. xxiv, 275 pp. Hardcover $44.95. Paperback $18.95. Immigrant adaptation has been an interest of sociologists since the emergence of the Chicago School ofintergroup analysts and the writings ofone ofits founders, Robert E. Park. Park's Cycle ofRace Relations (cited in McLemore 1991), ofwhich assimilation is the last stage wherein the smaller ofthe groups in contact is even-© 1995 by University tuallymerged into the larger, has influenced generations ofscholarswho work in ofHawai'i Pressthe field ofrace relations. Over the latter halfofthis century, a number ofstructural theories have emerged and fueled the debate within the study ofimmigrant adaptation in American society. One such theory, the dual or segmented labor 598 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 market theory, views the economy as made up oftwo markets: the first is the primary market, which has the positive characteristics ofjob stability, good working conditions and wages, and vertical mobility; the second is the secondary labor market, which has the negative characteristics ofjob instability, poor wages and working conditions, and little opportunity for promotion (Wilson and Portes 1980). The enclave-economy hypothesis was deduced from this body ofliterature. It states that immigrant workers who find work in the immigrant enclave will have significant economic returns from past human-capital investments similar to those in the primary sector. Those who find work in the secondary labor market will have less-favorable returns from their past human capital investments (Wilson and Portes 1980). The belief, then, is that in segregated ethnic-immigrant communities, the economy in these communities can provide "positive economic consequences" (Portes and Jensen 1987), that is, be conducive to positive adaptation . This body of sociological theory and this particular hypothesis form the theoretical perspective of Min Zhou's book. Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential ofan Urban Enclavéis a book of dualisms . It is constructed of two distinct halves. The first part of the book is historical and descriptive. Chapter 2 contains the obligatory discussion ofthe "sojourning " nature ofthe migration ofthe early Chinese to the Gold Mountain and the social and legal discrimination they encountered here in the United States that forced them into segregated enclaves—the Chinatowns. Zhou presents tables offacts about Chinese immigration to the United States—for example province ofemigration, when they emigrated, and how many arrived. In addition, Zhou provides aggregate figures, by decade, on the sociodemographic characteristics of the Chinese population in the United States and in New York. These figures, along with interviews interspersed throughout the text, give a quick history and description of Chinese immigration and adaptation to the United States. This history is found elsewhere (Barth 1964; Lyman 1974; Mark 1982; Miller 1969...