A Chinaman's Chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier / Edition 1

by Liping Zhu

Overview

Writers and historians have traditionally portrayed Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth-century American West as victims. By investigating the early history of Idaho's Boise Basin, Liping Zhu challenges this image and offers an alternative discourse to the study of this ethnic minority.

Between 1863 and 1910, a large number of Chinese immigrants resided in the Boise Basin to search for gold. As in many Rocky Mountain mining camps, they comprised a majority of the population. Unlike settlers in many other boom-and-bust western mining towns, the Chinese in the Boise Basin managed to stay there for more than half a century.

Thus, the Chinese portrayed all the stereotypical frontier roles-victors, victims, and villains. Their basic material needs were guaranteed, and many individuals were able to climb up the economic ladder. Frontier justice was used to settle disputes; Chinese-Americans frequently challenged white opponents in the various courts as well as in gun battles.

Interesting and provocative, A Chinaman's Chance not only offers general readers a narrative account of the Rocky Mountain mining frontier, but also introduces a fresh interpretation of the Chinese experience in nineteenth-century America to scholars interested in Asian American studies, immigration history, and ethnicity in the American West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870815751
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	02/15/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Editorial Reviews

Offers general readers a narrative account of the Rocky Mountain mining frontier and introduces scholars to a fresh interpretation of the Asian experience in 19th-century America. Challenges the stereotype of Chinese immigrants in the 19th-century American West as victims, showing that their experience in the early history of the Boise Basin, Idaho, was marked by material success and accommodating relations with Euroamericans. Includes b&w photos. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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