Making an American Festival

Offers a history of the largest annual Chinese celebration in the United States - the Chinese New Year parade and beauty pageant in San Francisco. This book provides a picture of how an ethnic community shaped and was shaped by transnational and national politics, economics, ethnic movements, feminism, and queer activism.

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This provocative history of the largest annual Chinese celebration in the United States - the Chinese New Year parade and beauty pageant in San Francisco - opens a new window onto the evolution of one Chinese American community over the second half of the twentieth century. In a vividly detailed account that incorporates many different voices and perspectives, Chiou-ling Yeh explores the origins of these public events and charts how, from their beginning in 1953, they developed as a result of Chinese business community ties with American culture, business, and politics. What emerges is a fascinating picture of how an ethnic community shaped and was shaped by transnational and national politics, economics, ethnic movements, feminism, and queer activism.