John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life under American Racial Law

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) cordially invites you to a special conversation with Beth Lew-Williams, Professor of History and Director of the Program in Asian American Studies at Princeton University, on her new book John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life under American Racial Law.

In this revelatory work, Prof. Lew-Williams uncovers how everyday life for Chinese residents across the American West was shaped by thousands of state and local regulations enacted between the 1850s and the early twentieth century, decades before federal exclusion sealed the border. Often recorded in official documents under generic names like “John Doe Chinaman” or “Mary Chinaman,” Chinese immigrants and their American-born families navigated a dense web of laws governing labor, education, health care, property, business, and family life.