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.