The dragon in Big Lusong: Chinese immigration and settlement in Mexico, 1882--1940.

摘要

Utilizing a "diasporic-transnational" approach, The Dragon in Big Lusong provides a comprehensive historical examination of Chinese immigration and settlement in Mexico between the years of 1882 and 1940. Consistent with this approach, the dissertation examines Chinese immigration to Mexico within the context of the global Chinese diaspora of the mid-nineteenth through early twentieth centuries, and analyzes the significant historical connections between Chinese migration to Mexico during these years and earlier and contemporaneous movements of Chinese immigrants to the United States. This study illuminates the many transnational socio-economic and political linkages that members of the Chinese colony of Mexico shared with both their home villages and fellow compatriots in places such as the United States and Cuba. It examines such linkages in the forms of transnational border networks, transnational business investments in Mexican commercial projects by wealthy Chinese merchants of San Francisco, human smuggling networks involving the United States, Mexico, Cuba, and Canada, the maintenance of transpacific families, and the development of Mexican branches of mainland Chinese political organizations such as the Guamindong.;In addition to analyzing these important transnational socio-economic and political connections, this study also provides a social history of the Chinese colony of Mexico. It offers a comprehensive sociological and historical window into the lives of Chinese immigrants in Mexico, examining such varied themes as: Chinese immigration and settlement patterns; gender, family, and marriage patterns; residential and employment patterns; and, the development of Chinese community organizations.;Methodologically, the dissertation is based upon a vast array of Mexican and United States sources drawn together from nine archives and libraries. It culls various quantitative and qualitative sources, including Mexican census records and municipal manuscripts, interviews of Chinese immigrants conducted by the United States Immigration Service in the early 20th century, United States consular and Treasury Department reports and correspondence, Mexican periodicals, immigration reports issued by the Mexican federal government related to the Chinese presence in Mexico, and oral histories.