In the first decades of the 20th century, almost half of the Chinese Americans born in the United States moved to China-a relocation they assumed would be permanent. At a time when people from around the world flocked to the United States, this little-noticed emigration belied America's image as a magnet for immigrants and a land of upward mobility for all. Fleeing racism, Chinese Americans who sought greater opportunities saw China, a tottering empire and then a struggling republic, as their promised land. American Exodus is the first book to explore this extraordinary migration of Chinese Americans. Their exodus shaped Sino-American relations, the development of key economic sectors in China, the character of social life in its coastal cities, debates about the meaning of culture and "modernity" there, and the U.S. government's approach to citizenship and expatriation in the interwar years. Spanning multiple fields, exploring numerous cities, and crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean, this book will appeal to anyone interested in Chinese history, international relations, immigration history, and Asian American studies.

Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Sources, Names, Data, and Translations Introduction 1. New Lives in the South: Chinese American Merchant and Student Immigrants 2. The Modernizers: US-Educated Chinese Americans in China 3. The Golden Age Ends: Chinese Americans and the Rise of Anti-imperialist Nationalism 4. The Nanjing Decade: Chinese American Immigrants and the Nationalist Regime 5. Agonizing Choices: The War against Japan, 1937-1945 Conclusion Epilogue Notes Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index