Main description:

When health officials in San Francisco discovered bubonic plague in their city's Chinatown in 1900, they responded with intrusive, controlling, and arbitrary measures that touched off a sociocultural conflict still relevant today. Guenter B. Risse's history of an epidemic is the first to incorporate the voices of those living in Chinatown at the time, including the desperately ill Wong Chut King, believed to be the first person infected. Lasting until 1904, the plague in San Francisco's Chinatown reignited racial prejudices, renewed efforts to remove the Chinese from their district, and created new tensions among local, state, and federal public health officials quarreling over the presence of the deadly disease. Risse's rich, nuanced narrative of the event draws from a variety of sources, including Chinese-language reports and accounts. He addresses the ecology of Chinatown, the approaches taken by Chinese and Western medical practitioners, and the effects of quarantine plans on Chinatown and its residents.
Risse explains how plague threatened California's agricultural economy and San Francisco's leading commercial role with Asia, discusses why it brought on a wave of fear mongering that drove perceptions and intervention efforts, and describes how Chinese residents organized and successfully opposed government quarantines and evacuation plans in federal court. By probing public health interventions in the setting of one of the most visible ethnic communities in United States history, "Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown" offers insight into the clash of Eastern and Western cultures in a time of medical emergency.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Before Plague
1. The People of Tang in San Francisco
A Migrant from Taishan
Framing Chinese Space
Lifestyles and Governance
Politics and Violence
2. Guarding Life and the Way of Death
Wong's Illness and Folk Religion
Cultivating Vitality
Shelters and Dispensaries
Corpses and Bones
3. Sanitation, Microbes, and Plague
Issuing Death Certificates
From Miasma to Germs
Sanitation in Chinatown
Third Plague Pandemic
The Final Diagnosis
4. Officials, Mandarins, and the Press
San Francisco and Its Health Officials
The Lords of Chinatown
Partner or Foe? The Governor and the State Health Board
"Warriors of Epidemics": The Marine Hospital Service
"Playing with Ink": Western and Chinese Journalism in San Francisco
Part II: Plague
5. Early Scenes of Terror: March-June 1900
Roping Chinatown: First Plague Diagnosis and Quarantine
New Deaths: Searches, Vaccinations, and Fear of Detention
"Wolf Doctors" Hunt for Plague
Turmoil: Another Quarantine and a Federal Lawsuit
6. The Siege Continues: June-December 1900
Federal Quarantine of California: A Political Blunder
Valuable Real Estate: Planning Chinatown's Removal
Plague Diagnoses: A Quarrel between Experts
Tarnished Image: Plague, Boxers, and Reformers
7. Plague Goes Undergroun: 1901
Expert Opinion: Adventures of a Federal Commission
Persona Non Grata: The Ouster of Kinyoun
Odd Bedfellows: The Federal, State, and City Cleanup
Hide and Seek: Tracking Sick and Dead Chinese Residents
8. Rumors and Realities: 1902
San Francisco Stand-off: Mayor versus Health Board
No Plague: "Ostrich" Policies under Fire
Federal Officials Target People and Rats
"Beating the Tiger": A Mandarin's Downfall
9. National Threat: 1903
Is San Francisco Infected? Health Conferences and Railroads
Leaders under Pressure: A Shift in Health Policies
Real Estate and the Plan to Raze Chinatown
Chinese Cooperation: Joint Sanitary Inspections
10. Sanitarians Claim Victory: 1904-1905
Puppet Show: San Francisco's New Health Board
Dawn of a Public Health Fraternity
Targeting Rats: Poisons and Demolitions
The Oriental City Project
Pyrrhic Victory
Epilogue
Appendix: San Francisco Plague Cases
Notes
Index