Chinatown: San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake and the Paradox of American Immigration Policy

How disaster remade San Francisco's Chinatown-and revealed the limits of belonging in America. San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia.Spanning 30 city blocks and home to tens of thousands of monolingual Chinese residents, its endurance is remarkable-especially given how close it came to erasure.In this fascinating history, Dafeng Xu uncovers the contested history of this vibrant community, focusing on the transformative period surrounding the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed 80 percent of the city, including Chinatown.White San Franciscans saw the disaster as an opportunity to permanently displace the neighborhood.Instead, Chinatown was rebuilt-but not without conflict or consequence.Using detailed census data and other historical documents, Xu examines how this rebuilt Chinatown differed socially and physically from its earlier form-and the many ways it stayed the same.He explores whether the earth