Description
Book SynopsisThe Coolie Speaks focuses on Chinese laborers who worked side by side with African slaves in Cuba and wrote of their experiences of new bondage. Examining these narratives of resistance, the book reconceptualizes diasporic representations and histories to offer transformative re-examinations of "Chinese," "African," and "Latino" in mutually imbricated contexts.
Trade Review"The book begins with an impressive contextualization of the movement of coolie labor across the Pacific, by far the most detailed analysis at hand. The core of Yun’s book, however, is an examination of the coolie testimonies themselves.... This is a major addition to our understanding of the subjectivity of subaltern peoples and of the power relations in which subaltern texts are embedded. It should be obligatory reading for historians working in many fields—Latin American and Caribbean history, most obviously, but also the politics of testimonial production in general."
—The American Historical Review
"The Coolie Speaks is a breakthrough of scholarship. It provides a new map not just of the Atlantic slave trade, Chinese diaspora, and modern capitalism, but of scholarly means to articulate the words, places, and stories that tumble outward from the violent and fractured history of modernity. Like Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Coolie Speaks seems to find a root language to remember and memorialize human suffering and agency, while teaching us again as scholars and citizens of the world to listen carefully to the cries, whispers, and exhortations of the past."
— Callaloo
“[L]ittle critical attention has been paid to one of the most important testimonials in Latin American history: The Cuba Commission Report. Lisa Yun’s timely and well-written book is undoubtedly the most complete study to date on this jewel for the study of race relations, labor migration, and the international division of labor. Her outstanding analysis of the testimonial is complemented with other testimonies related to the so-called coolie trade in Cuba. In this sense, the book rescues from oblivion the abuses committed against southern Chinese indentured laborers… The Coolie Speaks is of interest not only for Chinese diaspora studies but also for Latin American, Caribbean, and Pan-African studies and literary criticism. This book is bound to become a seminal work for the study of the Chinese presence in the Americas.”
—The Colonial Latin American Historical Review
“In this exceptional study, Yun uniquely compares the original depositions in Chinese with the translated versions and meticulously explores the fascinating, complex world views of this element of the population. She superbly contextualizes the heterogeneous world of contract labor involving Africans, Indians, and Chinese around the world. This examination...represents an enormously significant contribution to the field. Summing Up: Highly recommended.”
—Choice
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Epistemic Elasticities
Chapter I/ Historical Context: Coolies to the Americas
The Narrative of Transition
The Early Experiments
Chinese and Indian Coolie Labor
Chinese Coolies and Tea with Sugar
Coolies on Ships and The Passage
Coolies on American Ships
Coolies on Land: Coolie Slavery
The Beginning of the End
Chapter 2/ The Coolie Testimonies
Coolie Testimonies
The Commission and Transpirational Testimony
Methodological Challenges
Apprehending Testimonies as Narratives: Methods for Reading
Reading the Testimonies: Who Were the Coolies?
Chapter 3/ The Petitions
The Petitions: Writing as Resistance
The Witness Petition: Shouting Out the Names
The Verse Petition: "Thousands of words are under the sweep of our brushes"
The Argument Petition: Radical Visions of the Contract and Freedom
Philosophical Prelude
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase Petitions: Slaves of the Market
Chapter 4/ The Depositions
Race and Resistance
Resistance and Spectacular Subordination
The Peculiar Fatality of Color
Struggle Before Solidarity
The Cost of Domination
Chapter 5/ Next Generation: From Coolie to Merchant
Contrary Genealogies of Diaspora
The Author: The Subversive and The Translator
The Motley Tongue: Heterogeneity and Hybridities
Liberation: In Solidarity and "Socio-political Adultery"
Social Representation in the Making of Diasporic Class: Coolies and Californians
Conclusion and Research Note: Old and New Mappings of the Coolie
