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Stewart Culin. “The I Hing or ‘Patriotic Rising’ / A Secret Society Among the Chinese in America” (offprint from the Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadlephia, 1887-89); and Chinese Secret Societies in the U.S. (offprint from the Journal of American Folk-lore, 1890: and Customs of the Chinese in America (offprint from the Journal of American Folk-Lore, 1890) Original wrappers. 22pp. total, not consecutively numbered. Inscribed “Compliments of the author” on front-wrapper.  With Culin’s card inserted.  

The second of three landmark Culin studies of Chinese-American society offered in this auction.

Best known as the first American academic authority on games of non-western cultures, Culin began his academic career by a pioneering study of Chinese immigrants in America, based on his investigation of the Chinese community of his native Philadelphia. His first separately-published monograph on the subject appeared in 1887. (see the offering above), In this little booklet he adds detail on various aspects of Chinese-American culture and tradition, including  American origin of secret societies such as the Triad (today synonymous with Chinese organized crime), which  preceded the sinister “Tongs" featured in  early 20^th century adventure fiction – the first such scholarly study of  this subject.