This provocative history of the largest annual Chinese celebration in the United States--the Chinese New Year parade and beauty pageant in San Francisco--opens a new window onto the evolution of one Chinese American community over the second half of the twentieth century. In a vividly detailed account that incorporates many different voices and perspectives Chiou-ling Yeh explores the origins of these public events and charts how from their beginning in 1953 they developed as a result of Chinese business community ties with American culture business and politics. What emerges is a fascinating picture of how an ethnic community shaped and was shaped by transnational and national politics economics ethnic movements feminism and queer activism.