Scan barcode
Reviews
Eurasian: Mixed Identities in the United States, China, and Hong Kong, 1842-1943 by Emma Jinhua Teng
cameliarose's review
4.0
This review is rather my reading notes. Eurasian: Mixed Identities in the United States, China, and Hong Kong, 1842-1943 is an analysis of policy/law evolution and public opinions about intermarriages and Eurasian identities. Well researched. It contains a dozen original photos.
Part One - Debating Intermarriages. Although overall attitude was negative, mixed-race marriages were sometimes accepted by both cultures, if only conditionally and temporally.
Main Cases Studies:
- Yung Wing （容闳）and Mary Kellogg
A prominent figure in late Qing Dynasty, a social reformer educated in US. Source: Yung Wing's memoir "My Life in China and America".
- Tiam Hock Franking (Huang Tianfu) and Mae Munro Watkins.
Tiam Hock Franking was a rich businessman's son who later became Republic of China's consulate in San Francisco. Source: My Chinese Marriage, which is Mae's ghost-written autobiography. Apparently the book became quite populate on both sides of the Pacific ocean for different reasons.
Brief mentions:
Lisa See's great-grandparents
Princess Der Ling (a court lady to Empress Dowager Cixi)
Han Suyin's parents
Part Two - Debating Hybridity
Part Two contains the writer's analysis of various historical texts of topics such as polygenism, social Darwinism, eugenics and hybridity. Some very disturbing content. I am not surprised to find out White superiority and race based discrimination were held by both Chinese scholars and (white) American scholars at the time but in different and very complex ways. Part Two is harder to read because of the lengthy academical analysis.
Historical texts and speeches included in Part Two:
- Born to Crime by Louise Beck, a book about George Washington Appo
- Speeches and articles by many late Qing, early Republic of China scholars
-- Kang Youwei's One-world Treatise (康有为《大同书》)
-- Zhang Jingsheng's A Way of Life Based on Beauty (张竞生《美的人生观》)
-- Wu Tingfang ( 伍廷芳)
-- Zou Taofen (邹韬奋)
-- Tang Caichang (唐才常)
Case Studies:
- George Washington Appo, a Chinese-Irish American arrested for various crimes in New York at the turn of 20th century, who was used as the epitome of race degeneration
- Sir Robert Ho Tung of Hong Kong
The second half of Part Two discusses the shift of focus from biological to sociological aspects regarding hybridity around 1920s to 1930s, even though biological emphasis was never entirely erased. The “marginal man” became somewhat a new standard viewpoint for the so-called "Eurasian Problem". The author analyses viewpoints of Robert Ezra Park, who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology, as well Wu Jingchao (吴景超), a Chinese student of Park who wrote his dissertation on American Chinatown. Wu later returned to China and became a prominent sociologist. The author also exams Herbert Day Lamson's work (The Eurasian in Shanghai) and compares the differences between Park's Chicago school and Lamson's.
Case Study:
George Sokolsky and Rosalind Phang, a Jewish American reporter and a daughter of Balaclava’s leading Chinese merchant. Source: My mixed Marriage: A Jewish-Chinese Union by Rosalind Phang.
Part Three - Claiming Identity
Part Three exams the identity seeking by various Eurasian people in history and their different resolutions. For me, it is the most interesting part of the book.
Notable sources and cases:
- Survey of Race Relations
- Everett Stonequist - The Marginal Man
- Harry Hasting's story
- Edith Eaton's writings and biography
- George Appo's autobiography
- Huie family of New York
- Yung Wing's sons: Bartlett Golden Yung ( Rong Jintai) and Morrison Brown Yung (Rong Jintong)
- Lady Clara HonTung, Irene Ho Cheng
- Han Suyin
Emma Teng explains that an individual Eurasian's life experience is determined by hybridity matrix: race, gender and class. Colour line is never a simple issue. Edith Eaton's experience as an Eurasian was very different from children of Huie family. I have read several books by or about Edith Eaton. Most Chinese American scholars today focus on her identity as Chinese. However, Emma Teng tells from a new angle - Edith also identified with her English roots. She was an Eurasian, not just Chinese.
It's also interesting to know that even at the same side of Pacific Ocean, in different cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, Eurasians may have had very different experiences. The social structure in Shanghai was more liberal while the colour line was more rigid in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Eurasians were more likely to identify with Chinese to avoid half-cast prejudice, even those with White fathers. This was due to the fact Eurasian in Hong Kong were mostly decedents of European men and Chinese women, unmarried and poor. Shanghai Eurasians were mostly identified with their fathers. Again, the race, gender and class matrix.
The last two chapters are about Eurasian identities after 1943 (the end of Chinese Exclusion Act). Emma Teng sees that both hybridity degeneration and hybridity vigour reinforce race stereotypes.
This book is a good education on history of mixed identities and racial prejudice (from and towards both races). It also sheds light on today's social issues.
Part One - Debating Intermarriages. Although overall attitude was negative, mixed-race marriages were sometimes accepted by both cultures, if only conditionally and temporally.
Main Cases Studies:
- Yung Wing （容闳）and Mary Kellogg
A prominent figure in late Qing Dynasty, a social reformer educated in US. Source: Yung Wing's memoir "My Life in China and America".
- Tiam Hock Franking (Huang Tianfu) and Mae Munro Watkins.
Tiam Hock Franking was a rich businessman's son who later became Republic of China's consulate in San Francisco. Source: My Chinese Marriage, which is Mae's ghost-written autobiography. Apparently the book became quite populate on both sides of the Pacific ocean for different reasons.
Brief mentions:
Lisa See's great-grandparents
Princess Der Ling (a court lady to Empress Dowager Cixi)
Han Suyin's parents
Part Two - Debating Hybridity
Part Two contains the writer's analysis of various historical texts of topics such as polygenism, social Darwinism, eugenics and hybridity. Some very disturbing content. I am not surprised to find out White superiority and race based discrimination were held by both Chinese scholars and (white) American scholars at the time but in different and very complex ways. Part Two is harder to read because of the lengthy academical analysis.
Historical texts and speeches included in Part Two:
- Born to Crime by Louise Beck, a book about George Washington Appo
- Speeches and articles by many late Qing, early Republic of China scholars
-- Kang Youwei's One-world Treatise (康有为《大同书》)
-- Zhang Jingsheng's A Way of Life Based on Beauty (张竞生《美的人生观》)
-- Wu Tingfang ( 伍廷芳)
-- Zou Taofen (邹韬奋)
-- Tang Caichang (唐才常)
Case Studies:
- George Washington Appo, a Chinese-Irish American arrested for various crimes in New York at the turn of 20th century, who was used as the epitome of race degeneration
- Sir Robert Ho Tung of Hong Kong
The second half of Part Two discusses the shift of focus from biological to sociological aspects regarding hybridity around 1920s to 1930s, even though biological emphasis was never entirely erased. The “marginal man” became somewhat a new standard viewpoint for the so-called "Eurasian Problem". The author analyses viewpoints of Robert Ezra Park, who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology, as well Wu Jingchao (吴景超), a Chinese student of Park who wrote his dissertation on American Chinatown. Wu later returned to China and became a prominent sociologist. The author also exams Herbert Day Lamson's work (The Eurasian in Shanghai) and compares the differences between Park's Chicago school and Lamson's.
Case Study:
George Sokolsky and Rosalind Phang, a Jewish American reporter and a daughter of Balaclava’s leading Chinese merchant. Source: My mixed Marriage: A Jewish-Chinese Union by Rosalind Phang.
Part Three - Claiming Identity
Part Three exams the identity seeking by various Eurasian people in history and their different resolutions. For me, it is the most interesting part of the book.
Notable sources and cases:
- Survey of Race Relations
- Everett Stonequist - The Marginal Man
- Harry Hasting's story
- Edith Eaton's writings and biography
- George Appo's autobiography
- Huie family of New York
- Yung Wing's sons: Bartlett Golden Yung ( Rong Jintai) and Morrison Brown Yung (Rong Jintong)
- Lady Clara HonTung, Irene Ho Cheng
- Han Suyin
Emma Teng explains that an individual Eurasian's life experience is determined by hybridity matrix: race, gender and class. Colour line is never a simple issue. Edith Eaton's experience as an Eurasian was very different from children of Huie family. I have read several books by or about Edith Eaton. Most Chinese American scholars today focus on her identity as Chinese. However, Emma Teng tells from a new angle - Edith also identified with her English roots. She was an Eurasian, not just Chinese.
It's also interesting to know that even at the same side of Pacific Ocean, in different cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, Eurasians may have had very different experiences. The social structure in Shanghai was more liberal while the colour line was more rigid in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Eurasians were more likely to identify with Chinese to avoid half-cast prejudice, even those with White fathers. This was due to the fact Eurasian in Hong Kong were mostly decedents of European men and Chinese women, unmarried and poor. Shanghai Eurasians were mostly identified with their fathers. Again, the race, gender and class matrix.
The last two chapters are about Eurasian identities after 1943 (the end of Chinese Exclusion Act). Emma Teng sees that both hybridity degeneration and hybridity vigour reinforce race stereotypes.
This book is a good education on history of mixed identities and racial prejudice (from and towards both races). It also sheds light on today's social issues.
More...