Includes bibliographical references and index.

The old country: Imperial China in the nineteenth century -- America, a new hope -- "Never Fear, and You Will Be Lucky", journey and arrival in San Francisco -- Gold rushers on Gold Mountain -- Building the transcontinental railroad -- Life on the western frontier -- Spreading across America -- Rumblings of hatred -- Chinese Exclusion Act -- Work and survival in the early twentieth century -- New generation is born -- Chinese America during the Great Depression -- "The Most Important Historical Event of Our Times", World War II -- "A Mass Inquisition", the Cold War, the Chinese Civil War, and McCarthyism -- New arrivals, new lives, the chaotic 1960s -- Taiwanese Americans -- Bamboo curtain rises, Mainlanders and model minorities -- Decade of fear, the 1990s -- High tech vs. low tech -- Uncertain future.