Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton
Subtitle: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocers
Publisher: Yin and Yang Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cypress, Ca.
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 254
Description: The story of how a few Chinese immigrants found their way to the Mississippi River Delta in the late 1870s and earned their... More >  living with small family operated grocery stores in neighborhoods where mostly black cotton plantation workers lived. What was their status in the segregated black and white world of that time and place? How did this small group preserve their culture and ethnic identity? "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton"is a social history of the lives of these pioneering families and the unique and valuable role they played in their communities for over a century.
Table of contents: title: Table of Contents; title: Foreword i Preface viii; title: 1. Why Chinese Came To The Delta 1; title: 2. Lives of Early Delta Chinese Immigrants 19; title: 3. Why Grocery Stores, And Not Laundries? 36; title: 4. Chain Migration to the Delta 61; title: 5. Life in Chinese Grocery Stores 80; title: 6. School and Church Connections 109; title: 7. Segregation and Race Matters 135; title: 8. Growing Up Chinese in the Delta 154; title: 9. Chinese Identity And Community 175; title: 10. Legacy of Delta Chinese Grocery Stores 204; title: Bibliography 223; title: Index 228