The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City

by Mary Ting Yi Lui

In the summer of 1909, the gruesome murder of nineteen-year-old Elsie Sigel sent shock waves through New York City and the nation at large. The young woman's strangled corpse was discovered inside a trunk in the midtown Manhattan apartment of her reputed former Sunday school student and lover, a Chinese man named Leon Ling.


Through the lens of this unsolved murder, Mary Ting Yi Lui offers a fascinating snapshot of social and sexual relations between Chinese and non-Chinese populations in turn-of-the-century New York City. Sigel's murder was more than a notorious crime, Lui contends. It was a clear signal that attempts to maintain geographical and social boundaries between the city's Chinese male and white female populations had failed.


When police discovered Sigel and Leon Ling's love letters, giving rise to the theory that Leon Ling killed his lover in a fit of jealous rage, this idea became even more embedded in the public consciousness. New Yorkers condemned the work of Chinese missions and eagerly participated in the massive national and international manhunt to locate the vanished Leon Ling.


Lui explores how the narratives of racial and sexual danger that arose from the Sigel murder revealed widespread concerns about interracial social and sexual mixing during the era. She also examines how they provoked far-reaching skepticism about regulatory efforts to limit the social and physical mobility of Chinese immigrants and white working-class and middle-class women.


Through her thorough re-examination of this notorious murder, Lui reveals in unprecedented detail how contemporary politics of race, gender, and sexuality shaped public responses to the presence of Chinese immigrants during the Chinese exclusion era.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Ethnic Studies, American History, The United States Of America, Aapi

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this book has yet again ignited that since subdued spark in me to pursue a phd in history. i could tell she had a lot of fun writing this book.

[Karis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! definitely referring to this again and again as a model for historical narrative and research, and also to be reminded of those complex, liminal histories that existed in chafing realities of rigid surveillance not that different from the present. also as a reading experience it is just: so clever. and fun, dare i say.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting look at anti-Chinese racism in NYC in the 19th century using the story of a murder that made the headlines. This is definitely more academic so I wouldn't recommend it for the casual historical true crime reader, but for someone interested in 19th century NYC it is an enlightening read.

[jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class. I think this book does a really good job at emphasising the multiple ways Chinese men and White women were perceived during this time period. The book basically just uses the Trunk mystery as a vessel for discussing larger matters of Chinese spatial and social mobilisation, the Chinese missionary work, interracial relationships.

[Mary Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a textbook/sociology type book than true crime, but it was interesting anyway. I learned how terrible chinese/asian men were looked upon and treated in the 19th century. Also I was surprised to learn that many Irish women preferred marrying Chinese men over Irishmen. So all in all, a good read.

[Kim Ess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so well written. It is so interesting how NYC Chinatown was for created and why. It reads like a novel. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing how the ethnic neighborhoods of NYC were formed during the turn of the century.

[Evangeline Reyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

murder mystery narrative detailing the racialization of space in Manhattan's Chinatown.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

great ideas, but poorly organized.