The Diplomacy of Nationalism : The Six Companies and China's Policy Toward Exclusion

This is a striking, original portrait of the Chinese Six Companies (Zhonghua huiguan), or Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the most prominent support organization for Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century. As a federation of "native-place associations" (huiguan) in California, the Six Companies responded to racist acts and legislation by organizing immigrant communities and employing effective diplomatic strategies against exclusion. Yucheng Qin substantiates recent arguments that Chinese immigrants were resourceful in fighting for their rights and, more importantly, he argues that through the Six Companies they created a political rhetoric and civic agenda that were then officially adopted by Qing court officials, who at first were unprepared for modern diplomacy. Out of necessity, these officials turned to the Six Companies for assistance and would in time adopt the tone and format of its programs during Chinas turbulent transition from a tributary system to that of a modern nation-state. Eventually the Six Companies and Qing diplomats were defeated by a coalition of anti-Chinese interest groups, but their struggle produced a template for modern Chinese nationalisma political identity that transcends native placein nineteenth-century America. By redirecting our gaze beyond China to the Six Companies in California and back again, Yucheng Qin redefines the historical significance of the huiguan. The ingenuity of his approach lies in his close attention to the transnational experience of the Six Companies, which provides a feasible framework for linking its diplomatic activism with Chinese history as well as the history of Chinese Americans and Sino-American relations. The Diplomacy of Nationalism enlarges our view of the immigrant experience of Chinese in the U.S. by examining early Sino-American relations through the structure of Six Companies diplomacy as well as providing a better understanding of modern Chinese nationalism. Preface......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 1. A Meeting of Market Economies: The Arrival of the Gold Mountain Guests......Page 24 2. Continuity and Change: The Chinese Huiguan Tradition Crosses the Pacific, 1850s......Page 34 3. Toward a New Chinese Self-image: The Beginning of Modern Chinese Nationalismin California, 1860s......Page 49 4. Becoming the Chief Target: The Six Companies in the 1870s......Page 68 5. Setting the Tone and Format: The Six Companies as Spokesman, 1870–1878......Page 89 6. “Superseding the Six Companies”: The Qing Legation, 1878–1890......Page 109 7. “As Skilled in Dialectics”: The Qing Legation, 1890–1906......Page 130 Conclusion......Page 150 Notes......Page 158 Bibliography......Page 202 Index......Page 218 Yucheng Qin. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [191]-205) And Index.