Examining the cultural politics of public health and Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, this text looks at the history of racial formation in the US by focusing on the development of public health bureaucracies.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 333-366) and index.

Public health and the mapping of Chinatown -- Regulating bodies and space -- Perversity, contamination, and the dangers of queer domesticity -- White women, hygiene, and the struggle for respectable domesticity -- Plague and managing the commercial city -- White labor and the American standard of living -- Making medical borders at Angel Island -- Healthy spaces, healthy conduct -- Reforming Chinatown.