From Library Journal
The public perception of San Francisco's Chinatown, home to thousands of ethnic Chinese since the earliest years of the city, has been largely based on the writing and imagery of non-Chinese observers with varied agendas. Portrayed by some as an exotic and dangerous site of tong wars and opium dealing, it was also seen as a crowded living space occupied by sensible, hard-working immigrants. Lee (art, Mount Holyoke Coll.) has attempted to show how outsiders pictured Chinatown by closely analyzing almost 150 photos and paintings from the 1850s to the 1950s. Included are the well-known works of Arnold Genthe and Dorothea Lange, as well as images from the San Francisco Police book of mug shots. Missing from the roster of mostly formal and artistic works are the scores of casual snapshots that must exist in private hands. In addition, Lee does not attempt to use images found in the commercial advertising or popular media of the day. The result is well written, well researched, and beautifully produced, but ultimately this is an academic study that carefully notes crisp facts and then shelves them for other academics to pore over in quiet libraries far from the streets of Chinatown. The real question that Lee approaches but never really descends from the ivory tower to wrestle with is how it feels to have your place in America always defined by other people. David McClelland, Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Library Journal
"Well written, well researched, and beautifully produced."


Doubletake magazine
"Contains over 160 striking images made between 1850 and 1950."


Book Description
This visually and intellectually exciting book brings the history of San Francisco's Chinatown alive by taking a close look at images of the quarter created during its first hundred years, from 1850 to 1950. Picturing Chinatown contains more than 160 photographs and paintings, some well known and many never reproduced before, to illustrate how this famous district has acted on the photographic and painterly imagination. Bringing together art history and the social and political history of San Francisco, this vividly detailed study unravels the complex cultural encounter that occurred between the women and men living in Chinatown and the artists who walked its streets, observed its commerce, and visited its nightclubs. Artistic representations of San Francisco's Chinatown include the work of some of the city's most gifted artists, among them the photographers Laura Adams Armer, Arnold Genthe, Dorothea Lange, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins and the painters Edwin Deakin, Yun Gee, Theodore Wores, and the members of the Chinese Revolutionary Artists' Club. Looking at the work of these artists and many others, Anthony Lee shows how their experiences in the district helped encourage, and even structured, some of their most ambitious experiments with brush and lens. In addition to discussing important developments in modern art history, Lee highlights the social and political context behind these striking images. He opens a fascinating window onto Chinatown and he asserts the centrality of art history in American studies.


From the Back Cover
"Lee has written a book that promises to make a significant contribution in terms of both subject and methodology. The residents of his Chinatown are not merely subjects of an orientalizing gaze, they are themselves producers of images, shapers of the neighborhood's distinctive physical appearance, followers of both American and Chinese political and cultural developments. . . . [This] book asserts the possibilities of images as sources of cultural meaning and reinserts art history into a central position in American cultural studies."ÑMartha A. Sandweiss, Professor of American Studies and History, Amherst College "The author invites the reader to understand the paintings and photographs he is examining. . . as sites of human enactment where Chinese and non-Chinese alike participate in acts of cultural encounter." ÑRodger C. Birt, Professor of Humanities and American Studies, San Francisco State University


About the Author
Anthony W. Lee is Associate Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke College and author of Painting on the Left: Diego Rivera, Radical Politics, and San Francisco's Public Murals (California 1999).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Lee has written a book that promises to make a significant contribution in terms of both subject and methodology. The residents of his Chinatown are not merely subjects of an orientalizing gaze, they are themselves producers of images, shapers of the neighborhood's distinctive physical appearance, followers of both American and Chinese political and cultural developments. . . . [This] book asserts the possibilities of images as sources of cultural meaning and reinserts art history into a central position in American cultural studies."￯﾿ﾽMartha A. Sandweiss, Professor of American Studies and History, Amherst College

"The author invites the reader to understand the paintings and photographs he is examining. . . as sites of human enactment where Chinese and non-Chinese alike participate in acts of cultural encounter." ￯﾿ﾽRodger C. Birt, Professor of Humanities and American Studies, San Francisco State University

Author Biography: Anthony W. Lee is Associate Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke College and author of Painting on the Left: Diego Rivera, Radical Politics, and San Francisco's Public Murals (California 1999).

SYNOPSIS

This visually and intellectually exciting book brings the history of San Francisco's Chinatown alive by taking a close look at images of the quarter created during its first hundred years, from 1850 to 1950. Picturing Chinatown contains more than 160 photographs and paintings, some well known and many never reproduced before, to illustrate how this famous district has acted on the photographic and painterly imagination. Bringing together art history and the social and political history of San Francisco, this vividly detailed study unravels the complex cultural encounter that occurred between the women and men living in Chinatown and the artists who walked its streets, observed its commerce, and visited its nightclubs.

Artistic representations of San Francisco's Chinatown include the work of some of the city's most gifted artists, among them the photographers Laura Adams Armer, Arnold Genthe, Dorothea Lange, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins and the painters Edwin Deakin, Yun Gee, Theodore Wores, and the members of the Chinese Revolutionary Artists' Club. Looking at the work of these artists and many others, Anthony Lee shows how their experiences in the district helped encourage, and even structured, some of their most ambitious experiments with brush and lens.

In addition to discussing important developments in modern art history, Lee highlights the social and political context behind these striking images. He opens a fascinating window onto Chinatown and he asserts the centrality of art history in American studies.

FROM THE CRITICS

Doubletake

Contains over 160 striking images made between 1850 and 1950.

Library Journal