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Emma Lazarus' sentiments aside, immigrants have seldom been welcomed with open arms in America, though over time the painful struggles in the Bowery and on Hester Street among the tired and poor finally became mythic and worthy of national pride. But as Iris Chang points out in her new book, The Chinese in America, the U.S. still hasn't gotten around to honoring the immigrants who came from China, who created their own Hester Streets in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. In fact, it's only very recently that these Americans have been considered fellow Americans at all.
Chang's book, which she subtitles "a narrative history," finally gives the Chinese-American community its due by structuring the story on the words of hundreds of forgotten immigrants. It's a powerful book that leaves...