{"product_id":"to-2026-068","title":"The Heathen Chinee","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHARTE, Bret. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heathen Chinee.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFIRST EDITION THUS\u003c\/strong\u003e. San Francisco: Bray \u0026amp; Beran, 1930.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e[10] pp., printed in orange and black on one side, on 7 unnumbered double leaves in a Chinese-style format, with Chinese characters to the margins and cover; string-tied in orange and gold wrappers. Composition and design by C. Raymond Beran, with a woodcut by Edgar Vaughan Simpson. A near fine copy, with faint edgewear and rubbing. Laid in is a contemporary review of this edition, \"Literary Notes\" from the \u003cem\u003eOakland Tribune\u003c\/em\u003e of August 24, 1930.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA San Francisco fine-press setting of Bret Harte's poem \"Plain Language from Truthful James,\" better known as \"The Heathen Chinee.\" Harte first published it in the \u003cem\u003eOverland Monthly\u003c\/em\u003e in September 1870, writing it as a satire on the anti-Chinese prejudice then widespread in California — he had a genuine interest in Chinese culture and deplored the treatment of Chinese immigrants. The irony was largely lost on its audience: the poem was widely misread and embraced for the very prejudice it set out to mock, becoming a fixture of the anti-Chinese movement and reinforcing the stereotypes that fed the era's exclusionist politics in the years before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU\u003c\/strong\u003e TO-2026-068\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harte, Bret","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":46459952726177,"sku":"TO-2026-068","price":245.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0729\/7001\/0785\/files\/TO-2026-068_02.jpg?v=1785811045","url":"https:\/\/twoorangesbooks.com\/products\/to-2026-068","provider":"Two Oranges Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}