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Chinatown U.S.A.

  • [I]Chinatown U.S.A.[/I] is a photobook published by the German émigré photographer Elizabeth Coleman in 1946 focusing on American-Chinese communities in New York and San Francisco.
  • Photobook
  • Chinatown U.S.A.

    Word Count: 4

  • Elizabeth Coleman
  • 1946
  • 1946
  • book

  • The John Day Company, 2 West 45th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

  • English
  • New York City (US)
  • Chinatown U.S.A. is a photobook published by the German émigré photographer Elizabeth Coleman in 1946 focusing on American-Chinese communities in New York and San Francisco.

    Word Count: 26

  • The photobook consists of an historical overview of Chinese emigration to America and a further text on the contemporary living and working conditions of Chinese-American communities in American society with a special focus on the Chinatowns of New York and San Francisco. The text, by Elizabeth Coleman, is followed by the photographic section. The images are each printed on a single page and vary in size and placement. Short explanatory captions accompany the black and white photographs.
    The images provide a photographic survey of the everyday lives and living conditions of the Chinese-American communities in New York and San Francisco. A series of portraits of families taken in private and public places, in Chinese schools and kindergartens, involved in a variety of professions and cultural and religious practices, as well Chinatown street scenes, show both the community's acceptance in American society and its separateness, preserving its own codes and practices. Although the images do not reveal signs of conflict and present the life of Chinese émigrés and second and third generation Chinese-Americans as peaceful and harmonious, the ambivalence that existed between the two cultures is described by Elizabeth Colman in the text: “However, it has not been entirely a question of free choice for the parents of these children to send them to Chinese Schools. Chinese-Americans have with hardly any exception found it a necessity to study the language of their ancestors. Until recent years even college and university graduates of Chinese descent could not obtain jobs outside of Chinatown. There was an invisible but almost impenetrable wall erected around them and they were thrown back to their own group where there were hardly any possibilities for them to use their training. […] Working knowledge of Chinese reading and writing and of Chinese customs is essential for a job of any importance in one of the Chinese-American firms, especially in import and export houses. Chinese-Americans without sufficient Chinese background have found themselves tragically stranded between two cultures, only partially accepted by the one and unable to participate completely in the other.” (Coleman 1946, p. 14) The text, along with the three last images and their captions, questions the future of Chinese-American children and proclaim the need for equal human rights and the acceptance of minority groups in American society. Elizabeth Coleman's history as a German refugee living in exile in different countries and the recently ended World War II must be seen as the context of this photobook. Another photographer, the Austrian émigré Lilly Joss Reich, also focused in one of her series on Chinese-American communities, as well as on Chinese schools and kindergartens.

    Other photobooks with the topic on New York published by émigré photographers include: Manhattan Magic by Mario Bucovich, 5th Avenue by Fred Stein, Times Square by Rolf Tietgens and New York by Andreas Feininger as well as a collection of essays and images by Ann Tizian Leitich in her book New York. Furthermore, it existed several exile publishing houses as Pantheon Books, J.J. Augustin (where the art director and photographer Alexey Brodovitch published a photobook),  Oceana Publications (where the photographer Marion Palfi published a photobook) and Schocken Books as well as Querido Inc. Other émigrés photographers who published their work in book form were Ylla and Lilo Hess as well as Tim Gidal.

    Word Count: 547

  • Cover of Chinatown U.S.A., by Elizabeth Coleman (The John Day Company, 1946).
  • Front page of Chinatown U.S.A, edited by Elizabeth Coleman, The John Day Company, 1946 (Archive Helene Roth).
    "Learning to read and write English in Public school ... and Chinese in Chinese school." Chinatown U.S.A., by Elizabeth Coleman (The John Day Company, 1946).
    Last page of Chinatown U.S.A., by Elizabeth Coleman (The John Day Company, 1946).
    Review of Chinatown U.S.A. in The Pittsburg Press, 25 August 1946, p. 46.
    Review of Chinatown U.S.A in Popular Photography, October 1946, p. 184.
  • Coleman, Elizabeth. Chinatown U.S.A. The John Day Company, 1946.

    Phillips, Zlata Fuss, editor. German Children’s and Youth Literature in Exile 1933–1950. K.G. Saur, 2001.

    Word Count: 25

  • Helene Roth
  • New York
  • No
  • Helene Roth. "Chinatown U.S.A.." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/2948/object/5140-11010470, last modified: 07-06-2021.
  • Carola Gregor
    PhotographerSculptor
    New York

    The German émigré photographer Carola Gregor was an animal and child photographer and published some of her work in magazines and books. Today her work and life are almost forgotten.

    Word Count: 30

    Henry Rox
    PhotographerSculptor
    New York

    Henry Rox was a German émigré sculptor and photographer who, in 1938, arrived in New York with his wife, the journalist and art historian Lotte Rox (née Charlotte Fleck), after an initial exile in London. Besides his work as a sculptor, he began creating humorous anthropomorphised fruit and vegetable photographs.

    Word Count: 50

    Elizabeth Coleman
    PhotographerWriterEditor
    New York

    The German émigré photographer Elizabeth Coleman emigrated in 1941 to New York, where she photographed and published the photobook Chinatown U.S.A..

    Word Count: 22

    Manhattan Magic. A collection of eighty-five photographs
    Photobook
    New York

    Manhattan Magic is a photobook which was published in 1937 by the German émigré photographer Mario Bucovich in New York City.

    Word Count: 20

    New York
    BookPhotobook
    New York

    In 1932, after her remigration to Vienna, the Austrian journalist Ann Tizia Leitich published New York, an account of her life and writing experiences started as an emigrant in New York in the 1920s.

    Word Count: 33

    5th Avenue
    Photobook
    New York

    5th Avenue was the first photobook by Fred Stein and was created in 1947 with the publishing house Pantheon Books.

    Word Count: 19

    Pantheon Books
    Publishing House
    New York

    Pantheon Books was a publishing house founded in 1942 by the German émigré Kurt Wolff (1887–1963) and aimed at the exiled European community in New York.

    Word Count: 24

    Andreas Feininger
    PhotographerWriterEditor
    New York

    Andreas Feininger, was a German émigré photographer who arrived in New York with his wife Wysse Feininger in 1939. He started a lifelong career exploring the city's streets, working as a photojournalist and writing a large number of photography manuals.

    Word Count: 39

    Fred Stein
    PhotographerLawyer
    New York

    Always accompanied by his camera, the German émigré photographer Fred Stein discovered New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. His pictures provide an human and multifaceted view of the metropolis.

    Word Count: 31

    Alexey Brodovitch
    PhotographerArt DirectorGraphic Designer
    New York

    Alexey Brodovitch was a Belarus-born émigré graphic artist, art director and photographer who, from 1933, worked in New York for Harper’s Bazaar magazine and at the New School for Social Research.

    Word Count: 31

    Rolf Tietgens
    PhotographerEditorWriter
    New York

    Rolf Tietgens was a German émigré photographer who arrived in New York in 1938. Although, in the course of his photographic career, his artistic and surrealist images were published and shown at exhibitions, his work, today, is very little known.

    Word Count: 39

    Marion Palfi
    Photographer
    New York

    Marion Palfi was a German émigré photographer who lived in New York from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her photographic engagement in social and political topics made her name for her use of the camera to draw attention to social injustices.

    Word Count: 41

    Mario Bucovich
    PhotographerEditor
    New York

    Only a few details are known of the life and career of émigré photographer and publisher Mario Bucovich, who, after emigrating to New York, published the photobooks Washington D.C. and Magic Manhattan.

    Word Count: 33

    Tim Gidal
    PhotographerPublisherArt Historian
    New York

    Tim Gidal was a German-Jewish photographer, publisher and art historian emigrating in 1948 emigrated to New York. Besides his teaching career, he worked as a photojournalist and, along with his wife Sonia Gidal, published youth books.

    Word Count: 35

    Lilo Hess
    Photographer
    New York

    The German émigré Lilo Hess was an animal photographer working for the Museum for Natural History and the Bronx Zoo, as well being a freelance photographer and publisher of children's books.

    Word Count: 31

    Lilly Joss
    Photographer
    New York

    Lilly Joss was an émigré freelance photographer in New York. She worked for the Black Star photo agency and magazines and was also a portrait and theatre photographer.

    Word Count: 28

    Ylla
    Photographer
    New York

    Ylla was an Austrian-born photographer who emigrated to New York in 1941. Specialising in animal photography, she produced not only studio photographs, but also shot outside on urban locations in the metropolis.

    Word Count: 31

    Ann Tizia Leitich
    JournalistAuthorArt Critic
    New York

    Ann Tizia Leitich was an émigré Austrian author, journalist and art critic, who wrote essays, feuilletons and reviews on the American society and women for German and Austrian newspapers.

    Word Count: 29

    J.J. Augustin Incorporated Publisher
    Publishing House
    New York

    J.J. Augustin was a German publishing house in Glückstadt with a long history, going back to 1632. In 1936 the American branch opened in New York with a large artistic and cultural focus.

    Word Count: 33

    Schocken Books
    Publishing House
    New York

    Schocken Books was a publishing house established in 1945 in New York by the Russian émigré Salman Schocken (1898–1959). It specialised in books on Judaica and Hebrew topics.

    Word Count: 26

    Oceana Publications
    Publishing House
    New York

    Oceana Publications Inc was a publishing house specialising in law and civil rights founded by the British émigré Philip F. Cohen (1911–1998) in 1945.

    Word Count: 22

    Querido Inc.
    Publishing House
    New York

    Fritz H. Landshoff’s Querido publishing house was originally an offshoot of Emanuel Querido's Querido Uitgeverij Dutch publishing house in Amsterdam. Querido Verlag was created in 1933 to publish work by German political exiles.

    Word Count: 33