Abstract
Monterey Park became a city shortly before the First World War and undertook plans for development that would transform the small farming community into an elite suburb. To lay the foundation for this study of Chinese immigration, I have divided the city’s demographic history into three periods: its incorporation and push to develop, during which racial segregation policies were common and condoned; its growth from the end of the Second World War to 1970, when diverse groups of newcomers seemed to be united by a spirit of optimism and a sense of opportunity; and the coming of the immigrant Chinese,