Mortal Mobilities: The Six Companies and the Transnational Repatriation of Chinese Remains from San Francisco, 1842-1900

Abstract

After the First Opium War and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, Hong Kong, China rapidly assumed dual historical identities. It functioned simultaneously as a strategic colony of the British Empire and as a crucial transfer station facilitating the transportation of the first major wave of Chinese labor migrants to the United States. Often historically referred to as "Coolie Labour," these early migrant workers faced exceptionally harsh living and working conditions. Tragically, a significant number of these migrants died prematurely from severe illness, physical abuse, or extreme exhaustion. Oftentimes, their remains were discarded or buried randomly in foreign soil without a proper name, formal identity, or traditional funerary rites. In response to this humanitarian crisis, some wealthy Chinese merchants and established Chinese Americans, driven by deep cultural sympathy for the plight of these impoverished migrants, generously donated funds. These financial contributions were specifically allocated for the systematic repatriation of their bones back to their ancestral homelands in China, alongside the meticulous categorization of the deceased's bodies according to their respective native towns and villages. Consequently, many of the earliest Chinese benevolent associations in San Francisco, widely known as huiguan or gongsuo in the United States, were initially established to provide these essential bones repatriation services. In this article, I will comprehensively examine the pivotal role of the Six Companies in San Francisco in organizing and providing transnational bones repatriation services in the United States throughout the late nineteenth century, highlighting their broader socio-cultural impact on the diaspora.