Book report: Longtime Californ

"Longtime Californ" , is a documentary study of an American China town. It is a collection of taped interviews with people living in San Francisco's Chinatown¹, and a detailed history of the historic process of Chinese immigration as the first, free, nonwhite people to America. Written by Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee; published 1973, it's a Pantheon Village Series book.

I don't remember buying this book, but it might have been one of my many purchases from the public library's sale table. In any case, I came across it while browsing the bookcases in my guest room when looking for a book to read.

Having visited San Francisco's China town many times, I became fascinated with the interviews and the social structure of the community which lies hidden behind the restaurants and businesses that cater to tourists.

The book highlights three coexistent societies, the "Bachelor society" or male laborers who dominated Chinatown during the nineteenth century, the small business centered, and "Family society" which grew with the presence of women later in the twentieth century, and the emerging society of working class families composed of immigrants in large numbers since 1965.

This book taught me a lot about Chinese people, and I wish I had known some of this history during those long ago days when I enjoyed being a tourist in that section of San Francisco.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_San_Francisco

Longtime Californ
Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee