Lotus Among the Magnolias

by Robert Seto Quan, Julian B. Roebuck

Book by Quon, Robert S.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1982

Reviews

[Aspasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew there were Chinese communities spread out all over the US but I never there was a community in Mississippi! The Chinese immigrated to Mississippi to originally work on the former plantations but left the sharecropping lifestyle when they weren't being fairly compensated for their work. The Chinese established mom-and-pop type grocery stores, mostly in black neighborhoods, because the local white populations wouldn't accept them as "white", yet they weren't "black" either. The Chinese sooned learned that hard work, saving money and staying away from the Jim Crow politics helped them earn the respect of their neighbors. This book was written in the early 1980's; it would be nice to read an updated study of the area.

[P H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years ago, I discovered a documentary about the “Mississippi Chinese,” a community of Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta region, which despite anti-Chinese immigration laws, citizenship restrictions, and Jim Crow laws managed to carve out a space in the South’s biracial community as a buffer between white and black, authority and (legislated) subordination. Quan’s book provides a deeper insight into the community through interviews, observation, and analysis of the above. While his approach was new in that he lived in the community and was not hampered by language barriers, at times the neutrality of the observations and analyses is questionable, particularly in terms of interracial relations. That said, the book *is* a product of its time, considering it was written in the 1980s, and I wish we had newer information and opportunities to engage with a group of people who resiliently navigated all obstacles and asserted itself in a region that is not exactly known for integration of any kind.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Building on James W. Loewen’s classic sociology study of the Delta Chinese and updated for the 1980s, Lotus Among the Magnolias revisits one of America’s most unlikely Chinese communities deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta to see how the community sees itself and what their vision of the future holds.

A strong sociological study, Seto Quan, by being ethnically Chinese himself, is allowed more access to the community than Loewen seems to have had and as a result we get a unique perspective into how the Delta Chinese have created a community in one of the most segregated areas of the nation, one where they have both resisted assimilation into white society and used it to better their own community.

The only issue with this is the same as with Loewen’s study: it was written decades ago and so much has changed not only in American but undoubtedly so in the lives of the Delta Chinese. Revisiting the community in the modern day would be a great way to see how community and racial identities have changed in the forty years since publication.

[Lonnye Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been born and raised in The Delta region of Mississippi (not to be confused with the area where The River empties into the Gulf of Mexico), and having attended school with many Chinese, I was very curious about the various perspectives of each ethnic group. This book gave me insights I’d never considered, but the structure and syntax is akin to reading a scientific study. The title led me astray. I expected more...warmth. Still, I liked it.