Pacific Crossing
ISBN: 9789882208780
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Hong Kong University Press, HKU
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Gold mines and mining; Chinese; Chinese;

During the nineteenth century tens of thousands of Chinese men and women crossed the Pacific to work, trade, and settle in California. Drawn initially by the gold rush, they took with them skills and goods and a view of the world which, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling infant colony into a prosperous international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora. Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of transpacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that the migration was primarily a OC coolie trade, OCO Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an OC in-between placeOCO of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies."


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