34 (of 44) weekly issues: Vol.1, 1935 (Nov. 22, Dec. 6, Dec. 20, Dec. 27, 1935); Vol. 2, 1936 (Jan. 10; Feb. 14, 28; Mar. 13, 20, 27; Apr. 3, 17, 24; May 8, 15, 22, 29; June 12, 17; July 3, 24, 31; Aug. 28 ; Sept. 4, 18, 25; Oct. 2, 16, 23, 30; Nov. 6, 13, 27) 16pp. each. Illustrated.
“Though a humble publication with a small publication”, according to a 1987 scholarly study, the Chinese Digest was a most significant source on the American Chinese community of the 1930s – focusing on the lives, events, problems and opinions of second-generation, American-born Chinese in San Francisco Chinatown.
While the periodical at first highlighted tumultuous events in war-torn China, the news reports and articles and sociological statistics soon began to reflect the Depression-era life-style of Chinatown residents – not just the accomplishments of the educated elite, but also the “thoughts and feelings” of “ordinary” people about social problems, “such as the humiliation they felt when they went on welfare, the loneliness of single men, the frustration of children having to attend both American and Chinese schools and the causes of juvenile delinquency, poor health and conflicts with the family…”