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Suzanna Melendez
11/8/2016
Blog #6
Scott Zesch’s The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 delivers a riveting and well researched moment in American history that is often overlooked. During the 1870s a small-scale turf war began between three Chinese gangs in a small Los Angeles neighborhood. To settle the dispute, a group of Angelenos lynched a group of eighteen Chinese men. Scott Zesch’s research on the Massacre of 1871 offers a compelling account of one of California’s earliest hate crimes. As a historian, his research process was extremely difficult and challenging. During the 1850s and 1880s, the Chinese communities left behind very few written documents. Throughout the book, there are examples of Chinese men writing letters to friends and family back in China. Unfortunately, due to the lack of Chinese sources, Zesch relied heavily on American journalists and Los Angeles County court records. Therefore, as a scholar he emphasized on the historical and political context of the early-Chinese communities in California.
The framework of the book is chronologically organized and provides a thorough background of Los Angeles. In addition, Zesch provided in depth details about the Chinese intention to sail to the U.S., eventually, settling in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a scholar, he did an exceptional job detailing their traditional roots of family and culture. “Unlike those immigrants from Europe who pulled up stakes and essentially cut their ties with their pasts, the first Chinese who came to America remained closely connected with their kin back home.”(8) Family and culture were important values emphasized in Zesch’s scholarship. In relation to Zesch’s research, Ari Kelman’s A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over Memory of San Creek focused on the Natives attempt to preserve their history and traditional values. aly692 wrote that “They are trying to provide agency to their ancestors and heritage in order to make sure all narratives are being displayed for the Sand Creek Massacre … not the ones the Federal government wants us to hear regarding the ill treatment of Natives.” During the Gold Rush an influx of immigrants traveled to California to earn enough money for their families back in China. Despite the prejudices against the Chinese “new buildings were constantly under construction, and manual laborers were in demand. A local newspaper broadly welcomed immigrants in 1869, proclaiming: Let them come and settle with us; there is room for them and more.” (11) In a paradox, by 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the U.S Congress and therefore, prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers.
Overall, it was astonishing to read about the hurdles and violence inflicted against the Chinese. As a migrant community, they strived to build businesses and permanently settle in America. Although the author provided a detailed historical background of the Chinese in California, only one chapter is dedicated to the lynching. In spite of the lack of resources, one critique that I would give Zesch is that he could have explored the lynchings more in detail. Moreover, the topic of gender was what intrigued me the most in the book. My classmate sbremer highlighted some interesting points about gender. “For the Chinese women in the sex trade in Los Angeles at this time, I think the argument that they are given no voice or agency a compelling one. There are only a few instances where Chinese women are given a voice and a surprising degree of agency.” Despite the violence and bloodshed inflicted on the Chinese population, Zecsch did a phenomenal job researching a little-known event that would forever stain our history.