Between Mao and McCarthy

In the peak postwar years of American Red-baiting, Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans were considered suspicious by the mainstream whether or not they were actually Communists. Far more than other immigrant or ethnic groups, Chinese Americans found that their political activism intersected with U.S. foreign policy, larger Asian American struggles for access to equal opportunity, the growth of Great Society programs, and the black civil rights movement, making for an exceptionally dense and fraught experience. This was particularly apparent in the two cities that saw the development of the largest and most prolific Chinese and Chinese American communities, New York and San Franciscoeach of which saw Chinese American men and women form political clubs, campaign both secretly and openly for an array of local, state, and federal politicians, serve in both parties' bureaucracies, and push for racial equality and access to social welfare programs. Brooks highlights the many facets of Chinese American political culture in the postwar decades. The Chinese American community of New York, a city with a tradition of radical and leftist politics, contained both the founders of the Chinese Anti-Communist League and the communist sympathizers who ran the China Daily News. San Francisco's outspoken Chinese American liberals, meanwhile, worked to forge multiracial coalitions and encourage voting and moderate activism. Across this spectrum, Brooks focuses not only on political activism but on the meanings of political involvement vis-a-vis ethnic identity and Americanization.