Opening the Gates to Asia - by Jane H Hong (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Over the course of less than a century, the U.S. transformed from a nation that excluded Asians from immigration and citizenship to one that receives more immigrants from Asia than from anywhere else in the world. Yet questions of how that dramatic shift took place have long gone unanswered. In this first comprehensive history of Asian exclusion repeal, Jane H. Hong unearths the transpacific movement that successfully ended restrictions on Asian immigration.

The mid-twentieth century repeal of Asian exclusion, Hong shows, was part of the price of America's postwar empire in Asia. The demands of U.S. empire-building during an era of decolonization created new opportunities for advocates from both the U.S. and Asia to lobby U.S. Congress for repeal. Drawing from sources in the United States, India, and the Philippines, Opening the Gates to Asia charts a movement more than twenty years in the making. Positioning repeal at the intersection of U.S. civil rights struggles and Asian decolonization, Hong raises thorny questions about the meanings of nation, independence, and citizenship on the global stage.

Review Quotes

"Broadly researched and insightful . . . This monograph will . . . speak to scholars concerned with migration, international relations, and immigration policy studies."--Journal of Asian Studies

"By exploring the nuances and negotiations that took place among Asian Americans, Asian nationalists, and white elites in Washington, Hong provides both a forthright critique of the limits of American racial liberalism as well as a far richer understanding of repeal."--Pacific Historical Review

"Hong advances the history of the repeal of Asian exclusion in the US beyond its longstanding pre--WW II focus on China and Japan. . . . As the author mines public and private research sources across the Pacific, she keenly elucidates these questions and hints that this is merely part of a much larger analysis of post--WW II immigration."--CHOICE

"Hong masterfully chronicles how, over the course of less than a century, a transpacific movement transformed the United States from a country that barred Asians from immigration and citizenship to the nation that receives more immigrants from Asia than anywhere else in the world."--California History

"Hong's efforts to expand the history of Asian exclusion and its repeal have resulted in a significant work. It is a must read for any scholar interested in American immigration history."--Southern California Quarterly

"Jane Hong's persuasive and crisply written book traces repeal efforts to overturn Asian exclusion in US immigration policy. . . . It very effectively and carefully illuminates the contributions of both ordinary and better-known Asians and Asian Americans in their battles for racial and civic inclusion. Hong's book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in Asian American struggles for equality."--Journal of American Ethnic History