A different take on Chinese migration to California – and a new way to look at Hong Kong
- Historian Elizabeth Sinn argues that far from being shipped overseas as indentured labourers, Chinese emigrants to California chose to go there under their own steam
- Sinn is one of five people whose works are featured at the ‘History Writers’ exhibition at this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair
When Hong Kong historian Elizabeth Sinn Yuk-yee wrote a book about Chinese migrants chasing the gold rush in California, she challenged the traditional view of them as being simply “coolie labourers”.
“It was not a coolie trade because people who went really wanted to go. It was voluntary,” said Sinn, 74, author of Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration and the Making of Hong Kong.
In Sinn’s book, which is centred on the early waves of Chinese migration to California through Hong Kong in the 19th century, she cites reasons uncovered through her studies of massive amounts of archives.
She said unlike those who were shipped to places such as Peru and Cuba where plantation owners paid for their journey, people who left for California did not have employers and bought their own boat tickets. These early gold prospectors also asked their families and relatives to join them.
