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About the cultures of China and America
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From the 1800’s to 1900’s, the Chinese struggled immensely to earn a place in America. They wanted the same as any other Irishman, German, or Englishman, a job to make money to survive. When Chinese people set foot into the U.S, they were not welcomed with open arms. Instead they were targeted and attacked. There were many disputes on whether these immigrants should be here or deported home. Around the 1870’s, many people took violent approaches toward them and caused a number of deaths. As the Chinese population increased to over 100,000 people, congress and president Chester A. Arthur decided to terminate them in 1822, resulting in a massive change. They felt like the image of America was slipping away because that image didn’t consist of Chinese immigrants. …show more content…
They were harshly oppressed by everyone for the littlest things like the way they talked or the food they cooked. Often times, the immigrants were made a mockery of in entertainment, like in document A. The first document is a play, written in 1879 by a man named Henry Grimm, in San Francisco. The play is called, “The Chinese Must Go”: A Farce in Four Acts” and is basically a sum of common stereotypes Chinese people were faced with by ignorant people during this time period. The very first act is belittling to them because they speak in broken english and he drags this out. The majority of the scene is comparing a Chinese and American worker. It’s unfortunate how much aggression others had toward the Chinese and continued to have to push them out of the U.S because the fear of diversity. They saw how Chinese workers were taking over majority of jobs because the Americans grew lazy, and so this contributed to placing the Chinese Exclusion Act and extending it ten more
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s. Chinese sailors visited New York City in the 1830s (“The Chinese Experience”); others came as servants to Europeans (“Chinese Americans”). However, these immigrants were few in number, and usually didn’t even st...
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
In many cases throughout America’s history immigrants have settled here for many different reasons. In conclusion these reasons were known as push and pull factors. Push factors are factors that repel migrants from their country. And pull factors are factors that attract migrants to move. In my main immigrant group which is the Chinese, there were several push and pull factors that I will be mentioning. First, some of the push factors that were included in my group were the fact that there were a lot of disasters. For example there was draught, poverty, a famine, and floods were also included in these disasters. To state these factors more specifically, it was around the 1840s and 1850s when China faced these disasters. In the fact of the draught, it was a place called Henen that suffered this tragic event. Then two years later that’s when the famine struck Guangxi. The flood affected many provinces such as Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu which was caused by the Yangtze River. These factors killed and injured a lot of people, as a result numerous amounts of them settled in the United States. On the other hand Chinese also came to the United States because of pull factors. Which I mentioned before that it is a factor that attracts a migrant to move. The things that attracted them to the United States were the fact of having better jobs, education, health, and economic funds. But the most important and major factor that lured the Chinese to the U.S was the California gold rush. The way that they have obtained their information on the opportunities that America held were from random people, advertisements, and last but not lease the most important way that they learn was by trading vessels. Th...
According to Lee, Erika, and Reason (2016), “The Chinese Exclusion Act ...barred Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years and allowed entry only to certain exempt classes (students, teachers, travelers, merchants, and diplomats” (p. 4). The Chinese immigrants were excluded from certain rules and laws like Blacks and other minority groups. Also, they were not permitted to request citizenship or settle in the United States. For decades, the Chinese laborers did not have legal rights to enter into the United States until the decision was overturned. Lee, Erika, and Reason noted, “Chinese activist turned their attention to opening up additional immigration categories within the confines of the restrictions…some 300,000 Chinese were admitted into the United States as returning residents and citizens” (p. 4). The activists fought for the rights of the Chinese people to overturn the decision for leaving and entering as pleased to the United
The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 encouraged Chinese immigration for work on railroads and southern plantations while simultaneously withholding the privilege of naturalization. This encouraged the emergence of ‘coolie’ laborers, whose passage into the United States was paid for under the agreement that they would work as indentured servants for a pre-determined period of time. Although the Chinese helped build the transcontinental railroad, their unusual style of dress still created prejudice against their ethnicity. This lead to the creation of Chinatowns as a necessary cultural barrier used for protection against the rest of society. After encouraging Chinese immigration, the government realized that these immigrants would procreate and needed to decide what immigration status children born in America would hold. The Naturalization Act of 1870 was the solution to this question, declaring any child born in the United States a citizen of the country, regardless of the race of the child. This necessarily lead to more immigration restrictions since a...
Americans “thought [the] Chinese had some kind of superpower since they worked for such low wages and lived in small crowded areas” (“The Chinese Experience in 19th Century America”). The Chinese just wanted to have a better life since that was the reason they came to America and they were just working hard to achieve their American Dream of living a better life than the one in their country. They did not mind working hard for what they wanted and they did, but they were just thought of as different and as exorcists for doing this. There were Yellow Peril novels written about how the Chinese wanted to take over the American government so they could put in place their own culture. On the other hand there were groups of people who did feel the Chinese were welcomed. At the very beginning, “The Chinese were welcome in California in the mid 1800’s because there was a lot of work and not enough workers, but Chinese people had to live separately from Americans. When the economic conditions got worse, discrimination against the Chinese increased” (The History of Chinese Immigration to the United States). Yes the Chinese were welcomed at first, but the Nativists only used them for a little and wanted the Chinese gone. Once they saw things getting worse within the country and started calling them exorcist and demonic because they worked really hard and put up The Chinese Exclusion act so they
As gold discoveries slowed down and the Civil War gradually came to an end, the First Transcontinental Railroad was finally completed between Omaha and Sacramento. Over time, unemployment began rising across the country, especially in California, where a vast majority of Chinese immigrants resided in. The welcoming of Chinese immigrants slowly began to wear off as the white working class perceived a threat to their livelihood that these immigrants could potentially cause, leading to an increase in racial tensions. These growing tensions culminated in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and eventually closed U.S. borders to all Chinese laborers, with the exception of ethnic Chinese individuals. This paper highlights the significant impact of large-scale Chinese immigration to California during the Gold Rush, the lasting contributions made by the Chinese towards Western ...
When thousands of Chinese migrated to California after the gold rush the presence caused concern and debate from other Californians. This discussion, popularly called the “Chinese Question,” featured in many of the contemporary accounts of the time. In the American Memory Project’s “California: As I Saw It” online collection, which preserves books written in California from 1849-1900, this topic is debated, especially in conjunction with the Chinese Exclusion Act. The nine authors selected offer varying analyses on Chinese discrimination and this culminating act. Some give racist explanations, but the majority point towards the perceived economic competition between the Chinese and the lower class led to distrust and animosity.
Chinese exclusion act of 1882). This act was made to undermine the Chinese people and to force an end to immigration from China. The act would later set a precedent for future laws to exclude “Mongolian races” which would include the Japanese people. It was during this time that white workers would frequently take violent actions against the Chinese immigrants to secure white supremacy in “white jobs”. This act was justified by white, nativist, worker-unions of this time that felt the “Yellow Peril” was stealing their jobs in railroad construction.
When the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in May 1882, it was followed by a rapidly decreasing amount of new immigrants to the United States. Regardless of problems that the United States attempted to solve with the Act, violent massacre and persecution of Chinese people in the United States continued. Because of this, many Chinese immigrants that did stay in America continued on for years to receive prejudice and racism in the labor market and cultural society. This then continued to force many Chinese immigrants further and further down the path of segregation and into the protection of Chinatowns and poverty, counteracting the great American idea of the “melting pot.”
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
In chapter thirty five, author Shelley Sang-Hee Lee explains that “Immigration is an important part of our understanding of U.S. social experience” (Hee 128). Asian immigrants bring their diverse culture, language and custom from various Asian countries. They help improve American economic development. Also, they play an important role in American society. The first Asian immigration flow is the Chinese Immigration in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Asian immigrant population grew rapidly between 1890 and 1910 (Hee 130). The increasing of population of Asian immigrants have brought a lot of problems. Many of them were facing the issue of ethnicity, discrimination, and the process of assimilation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and proscribed foreign-born Chinese from naturalized citizenship and the Asian Exclusion Act League in 1907 which limited the entry of Asian immigrants have reshaped the demographic of Asian immigrants in the U.S (Hing 45). With the rise of anti-Asian movements, many Asian immigrants were rejected from entering America or deported to their homeland. In the early history of immigration in America, the issue of deportation is an important part of the Asian American experience in the
The United States of America was founded on the idea that anyone could leave their destitution and ‘make it’ in America. This idea came to be called the American Dream; a phrase that was written into being around 1850. Not thirty years later, however, an entire immigrant group would be barred from entering the country, and that bar would last for sixty-one years. The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into law by President Chester Arthur in 1882 and repealed in 1943. During that period, all Chinese laborers were barred from immigrating to the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act stagnated the growth of Chinese Culture in the United States and led to the racial stigma that fueled racism against Japan in the Second World War.
...xperienced harsh discrimination and even legal exclusion from our country. They were blamed for the lack of job opportunities and low pay of jobs and received extremely unfair treatment that labeled them as an inferior race. However, the inter-ethnic tension blinded us from seeing how the immigrants were contributing to our country in positive ways. They not only created economic and social gains for us, but also opened our minds to a whole new way of life and prepared us for the multicultural years to come. With all of the help and modernization that they contributed to our country, the racism and discrimination that the Chinese immigrants received day-in and day-out was not rightly justified or deserved.