The author, Xinyang Wang, is a social historian who reassesses the history of early Chinese immigrants in New York City, departing from the ethnic-heritage and racism analyses of immigrants' adaptation to America. Instead, he pursues an actor-oriented approach, showing how economic forces played an important part in the decision-making activities of the immigrants, such as the selection of neighbourhoods for settlement, participation in the labour movement, return to China, and intensification of intra-group solidarity.