Power networks and early Chinese immigrants in Pennsylvania

Abstract

An important part of the discourse connecting social theory and historical geography is the generation of social power and how it is projected over distances. In view of this, society can be conceived as a set of networks which overlap and stretch across space. Early Chinese immigrants in Pennsylvania were influenced by networks ranging from the global economic system to friendships with colleagues working in the same cities. Despite encountering poverty, hostility and institutional bias in the United States, Chinese immigrants were able to persist in part because their social and cultural networks complemented global and Euro-American economic networks. By efficiently exchanging a great deal of information, these Chinese networks also shielded immigrants from the hostility of Euro-Americans and the penalties of the American government.