ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on the main features of immigrant interaction with the dominant national culture in the United States early in the century, as an example of the larger phenomenon. The rates and diverse sources of immigration increased fairly steadily in the twentieth century, providing an important form of contact among cultures, which has powerful effects on gender. One of the groups subjected to the most intense gender pressure from American culture involved immigrant Chinese women, and through them many men. Chinese immigration to the United States began in the mid-nineteenth century, a result of American labor needs, particularly in the railroad development of the American West, and of Chinese population growth. Many Indian immigrants, adapting to European or American education and business styles, pointedly emphasized the importance of arranged marriages, sometimes returning home to accept a spouse their families had selected. The immigration, often deliberately sought to challenge gender identities.
