Rise of a Japanese Chinatown: Yokohama, 1894–1972

Evan Dawley of Goucher College reviews Rise of a Japanese Chinatown: Yokohama, 1894–1972, by Eric Han. This book is about the vicissitudes of identity formation among Chinese in Yokohama and Chinatown’s shifting social position within Japan’s second largest city. Han’s history revolves around a central paradox: How could Chinatown’s ethnic distinctiveness become a core piece of Yokohama identity within a monoethnic Japan? His primary concern, however, is with the transformation of a small conglomeration of people from China’s southeastern provinces who became ethnically Chinese, nationally Chinese, and hamakko or Yokohama-ites.

Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12255