Charlotte Brooks's American Exodus provides a captivating account of the immigration of Chinese Americans from the United States to China. Within migration studies, there has been a long-standing effort to diversify the field with studies that pay increased attention to transnational movements of students, funds, and personal or familial networks. Immigration from the United States to China, along with return migration, is an understudied phenomenon. This book makes great strides to remedy that.
Brooks identifies two types of Chinese American immigrants. The first consisted of the sons and daughters of Chinese immigrants who returned to Guangdong Province or Hong Kong through family and merchant networks to study or work. The second included Chinese Americans who studied at US universities and then sought the kinds of vocational opportunities in China that were closed to them by American racism. Because in many cases they dreamed of using their knowledge to aid in...
