Jian Gao

Jian Gao (pronounced like "John Gal") is a historian specializing in Chinese migration to the Americas during the first half of the twentieth century, with a particular focus on the interplay between transnational networks, migration, identity, and emotions. His works have appeared in The Latin Americanist, Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, The International Report on Drug Studies, and History Compass. His papers have won multiple awards from the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies (RMCLAS), Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS), and the World History Association (WHA). Among his notable achievements is his article “Restoring the Chinese Voice during Mexican Sinophobia, 1919-1934,” which received four national and international awards. He is currently working on publishing his monograph, tentatively titled Journeys of Longing and Belonging: Migration and the Modern Chinese Mexico. 

Jian's second book project is an in-depth examination of the evolution and impact of the national origins quota system in the United States. Tentatively titled From Race to Birth: Refashioning Chinese Exclusion in America, this work promises to offer an incisive analysis of the metamorphosis of U.S. immigration laws, particularly focusing on the shifts occurring in the second half of the twentieth century. This study will chart the course of U.S. immigration policies from explicit racial classifications to subtler, birthplace-based systems. This study preliminarily argues that exclusionary practices, once overtly racial, were reengineered into natality-based discrimination, allowing a subtle persistence of exclusion under a veneer of legality and neutrality. This project dissects the interplay between policy, nativity, and discrimination. It poses vital questions about the very notions of nationality and citizenship, exploring how they are entangled with histories of racial discrimination and social exclusion in the United States.

Jian is fluent in English, Chinese, Spanish, and French.