In 1923, Tsung Yee Loo, the Chargé d'affaires for the Republic of China in Peru, collaborated with Aurelio Pow San Chia, Fon Shan King and Tomas Yui Swayne, three prominent Lima-based Cantonese merchants, along with Francisco Leon, the Director of the Lima-based newspaper The Voice of the Chinese Colony (La Voz de la Colonia China), to gather information and photographs from prominent Chinese businessmen for the publication of a community album that would be presented to the members of Congress. The album would “allow the rest of Peru, particularly the officials, high commerce and Lima society, to marvel at the commercial prosperity and achievements attained by the Chinese in Peru through hard work and action, which is always friendly towards Peru” (Colonia 1924, 9). Published in 1924, The Chinese Colony in Peru: Representative Men and Institutions: Its Beneficial Action in the National Life appeared just as an informal two-year suspension of Chinese migration came to en end, the result of a failed effort to pass a formal law banning Chinese migration to Peru. The album reflected a strategic attempt by Chinese political and economic elites to counter anti-Chinese sentiment by crafting an image of a prosperous foreign merchant community that brought great economic benefits to its host nation.
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