The First Chinese American – The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo
Posted: March 13th, 2013 | No Comments »Scott Seligman’s The First Chinese American looks interesting – as usual blurb and details below…
Chinese in America endured abuse and discrimination in the late nineteenth century, but they had a leader and a fighter in Wong Chin Foo (1847–1898), whose story is a forgotten chapter in the struggle for equal rights in America. The first to use the term “Chinese American,” Wong defended his compatriots against malicious scapegoating and urged them to become Americanized to win their rights. A trailblazer and a born showman who proclaimed himself China’s first Confucian missionary to the United States, he founded America’s first association of Chinese voters and testified before Congress to get laws that denied them citizenship repealed. Wong challenged Americans to live up to the principles they freely espoused but failed to apply to the Chinese in their midst. This evocative biography is the first book-length account of the life and times of one of America’s most famous Chinese—and one of its earliest campaigners for racial equality.
“Wong Chin Foo was the earliest, most visible Chinese public advocate speaking and writing in English for the rights of Chinese in the U.S. Scott Seligman has rescued his life story in a thoroughly enjoyable narrative that adds significantly to our knowledge of the late 19th and early 20th century history of the Chinese in North America.” — John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York University  Â
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- The first book-length account of the life and times of Wong Chin Foo (王清ç¦) — a firebrand and a trailblazer with a fascinating and very compelling life story.
– Provides a forgotten chapter in the struggle for equal rights in America, and fills a gapping hole in the Chinese American narrative.
-Â Will appeal to readers interested in American history, and especially the history of immigration and the lives of “hyphenated” Americans.Â
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Scott D. Seligman is a writer, a historian, a genealogist, a retired corporate executive and a career “China hand.” He is the author of Three Tough Chinamen, Chinese Business Etiquette, and Dealing with the Chinese, and co-author of the best-selling The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, Chinese at a Glance, and Now You’re Talking Mandarin Chinese.   Â
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