Untitled research work

Chinese St. Louis is a notable and much needed addition to the growing field of Chinese American studies. While the majority of literature on the Chinese immigrant experience focuses on the San Francisco and New York Chinatowns, this book provides the only comprehensive historic account of a Chinese American urban and suburban settlement in the Midwest. Huping Ling's research provides an extensive review of the literature that examines immigration, migration, and scholarly theories on the levels of assimilation that have been attained by Chinese Americans. Her use of documentation, which includes immigration records, census information, periodical accounts, and oral histories, reveals the origins and growth of the St. Louis Chinese population from the 1850s to its contemporary status, and it creates a vivid and artful picture of Chinese immigrant life. Ling chronicles the early development of the St. Louis Hop Alley Chinatown core and its gradual physical demise from urban renewal projects that were a part of the city's post-World War II redevelopment history. She discusses the connection between the loss of Chinatown and the eventual dispersion of the once-homogeneous urban social community into American suburban life. The book provides an insightful look at interracial marriage, the role of women, and Chinese burial practices, along with the interaction between the Chinese and peer society. The evolution of the ethnic community's early economic livelihood as a preponderance of service industries, including laundries and restaurants, was tied to the urban ethnic core. This has since emerged into professional representation in fields such as engineering and university education that is independent of residential and commercial place making. For the contemporary community profile, Ling identifies the influx and addition of Chinese from Vietnam and Korea, which began in the 1960s, and how that has contributed to a growing community network.