Vancouver's Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980 (Mcgill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History, No 10)
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Book Overview
Anderson charts the construction of Chinatown in the minds and streets of the white community of Vancouver over a hundred year period. She shows that Chinatown -- from the negative stereotyping of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to its current status as an "ethnic neighbourhood" -- has been stamped by changing European ideologies of race and the hegemonic policies those ideas have shaped. The very existence of the district is the result of a regime of cultural domination that continues to exist today. Anderson clearly rejects the concept of "race" as a means of distinguishing between groups of human beings. She points out that because the implicit acceptance of public beliefs about race affects the types of questions asked by researchers, the issue of the ontological status of race is as critical for commentators on society as it is for scientists studying human variation. Anderson applies this fresh approach toward the concept of race to a critical examination of popular, media, and academic treatments of the Chinatown in Vancouver.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0773513299
ISBN13:9780773513297
Release Date:June 1995
Publisher:McGill-Queen's University Press
Length:336 Pages
Weight:0.96 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Facinating (if one-sided) ethnic history...
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
An intelligent, enjoyable work on the development of the Chinatown district in Vancouver, focusing on how the dominant European class worked to shape and control the Chinese community through political, legal, social, and cultural means. Anderson's writing is thoroughly readable, academically rigorous but free from the dry, heavy dialogue that plagues so many other scholarly works. My only criticism is her decision to exclude the Chinese immigrants' perspective on the development of their district, instead opting to focus only on how the Europeans perceived the Asian 'intruders'. Providing the opposing view would have given the work better balance and a greater level of depth. Nevertheless, an excellent book for those interested in Canadian history or ethnic/urban politics.
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