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Reviews
THE OPIUM DEBATE AND CHINESE EXCLUSION LAWS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN WEST
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by Diana Ahmad
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| University of Nevada Press, Reno and Las Vegas, 2007. Notes, bibliography, index. 132 pages. $34.95 cloth. |
| As its title clearly indicates, The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-Century American West is centered on a topic that has not previously been given just consideration. Divided into five sections, the book provides only cursory information on Chinese immigration and community, but the text shines in its overview of the growing frenzy over substance abuse, of racial profiling, and of how the government built a case for addiction intervention through federal treaties and immigration law. |
1
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Ahmad uses numerous primary documents that have not been previously included in a history of Chinese America. The Opium Debate begins to make connections between the rising use of opium and the Chinese presence in America, factors that ultimately contributed to the passage of federal Chinese exclusion laws beginning in 1882. |
2
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The book gives readers an excellent overview of the Burlingame and Angell treaties, both of which addressed Chinese immigration prior to passage of exclusion laws. The final chapter builds a compelling case as to why a diminishing Chinese population did not directly decrease the amount of opium that was being imported into and used in the United States. Ahmad points out that the 1882 Exclusion Law was not effective in that it did not address the national addiction that was already an issue, and that the "plan to eliminate opium by prohibiting Chinese immigration failed, but the belief that the Chinese addicted Anglo-Americans to the substance remained" (p. 77). |
3
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The Opium Debate's strongest argument has to do with the common interests of those who ascribed to pervasive Victorian societal views and of medical professionals who wanted to stop a substance both groups viewed as a contributor to the degradation of American society and morals. The book enlightens readers on the difference between medicinal and "smoking" varieties of opium and the addiction that became sensationalized fodder for nineteenth–and twentieth-century media, which ultimately targeted Chinese immigrants. It contains numerous direct quotes about the activity of smoking opium and its physical effects on the body, along with commonalities among the descriptions of opium dens that were published in local newspapers and medical journals throughout the United States. It is fascinating to read the 1870s accounts of arrests and local court cases. Sadly, this work did not include any of the visual images that were frequently included in journals and newspapers to exemplify what reporters claimed to have seen. |
4
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Early in the text, the author clearly states that the book offers opium as another dimension of Chinese Exclusion Law passage and that it "focuses on Anglo-American perceptions of the Chinese and is not designed to present the Chinese side" (p. xi). In keeping that narrow topical focus, the book does not provide readers with a foundation that would broaden their understanding of economic recession or of violence that occurred in urban and rural Chinese communities at the same time addictions were becoming more pronounced. Readers should also note that there is little detailed information on the Chinese immigrant demographic profile or, most importantly, on the reasons segments of the immigrant population were led to vice that included opium substance abuse in China and in the United States. While the Western states are the geographic focus, there is no mention of the proportional numbers of Chinese to Anglo-American populations within those locations. |
5
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For these reasons, The Opium Debate is not a good text for general readers or beginning scholars of Chinese American history. It is, however, a good companion text for readers who are interested in a more holistic view of the contributions that the substance and addiction made to Chinese immigration law. |
6
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| Marie Rose Wong
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| Seattle University |
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