In Pursuit of Gold: Chinese American Miners and Merchants in the American West by Sue Fawn Chung (review)

Sue Fawn Chung’s In Pursuit of Gold shifts our attention from California—the region that has been a focal point of considerable study on Chinese immigrants in America—to three little-studied mining towns in the American West. Through the examination of these relatively isolated, predominately Chinese mining towns—John Day, Oregon; Tuscarora, Nevada; and Island Mountain, Nevada—this study sheds fresh light on how local milieus could shape the experience of Chinese miners and merchants, and on their interactions with local EuroAmericans and native Americans in the American West. Chung also addresses the experiences of Chinese physicians, laundry men, cooks, and farmers.

Chung’s diligent survey of a spectrum of primary sources, such as census manuscripts, archaeological findings, local newspapers, and government and business records, enables her to reconstruct multiple dimensions of the Chinese communities. She provides interesting details about Chinese food products, entertainment, house layouts, occupations, demographic characteristics, and community services, offering glimpses of the texture of Chinese life in these sites.

Chung begins with a discussion of the historical background of southern Chinese migration during the onset of the California Gold Rush, along with these Chinese immigrants’ encounters with anti-Chinese sentiments and adaptation to their new environment after arrival. Starting from Chapter 2, she focuses on the Chinese who left for neighboring regions after gold became harder to find in California. She offers an overview of the Chinese in Oregon and Nevada, paying particular attention to John Day, Tuscarora, and Island Mountain, where the Chinese became the majority of the population. She shows that the Chinese played a major role in mining and were not driven out of these regions from 1850 to 1900, in general. Unlike in many other larger EuroAmerican-dominated mining towns, especially those in California, different ethnic groups worked together in a relatively harmonious atmosphere. As Chung puts it, “The atmosphere of hostility among different ethnicities was not as obvious if and when it existed at all” (p. 121). Influential local officials—such as Emanuel Penrod in Island Mountain, who did not support anti-Chinese legislation—shaped a local niche that allowed the Chinese to live there for many decades with much less anti-Chinese prejudice than what was present in other mining towns. In the conclusion, Chung locates Chinese miners and merchants’ experience within the perspective of the Chinese diaspora. She outlines connections among Chinese communities in other parts of the world, as well as similarities and differences between them.

By painstakingly uncovering these understudied mining towns, this work interrupts the dominant perception about nineteenth-century Chinese immigrant communities as isolated enclaves consistently subject to anti-Chinese sentiments and racial violence. Chung contends that the immunity to anti-Chinese agitation derived from a prominent presence of the Chinese in the local population, along with economic interdependence that led to positive social interactions. The Chinese merchants not only served as intermediaries between Chinese and EuroAmericans but also became integral parts of the larger community, which relied on their much-needed services. Moreover, the towns “were often too small to segregate the population into separate ethnic groups” (p. 70). Even in the relatively larger towns that had Chinatowns, such as John Day, “some EuroAmerican residents were interspersed among the Chinese residential units and three Chinese laborers lived with a EuroAmerican laborer from California” (p. 70).

Furthermore, Chung aims to dispel the unwarranted generalization that early Chinese immigrants were sojourners who aspired to return to China. Some of them converted to Christianity and had Western religious wedding ceremonies. According to Chung, despite being away from their families, surprisingly, these “merchants who were married—and some who had children—were not interested in returning to China even when the economy of the towns declined” (pp. 183–184).

Chung’s investigation of the experiences of Chinese gold miners and merchants offers insights into those who...