The American Dream: Beliefs Of The American Dream

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Recommended: Essays on being chinese american

Weize Tan
History 7B
29 April 2014
American Dream
The American Dream was an ideology which believed that America is a country with freedom and opportunity for prosperity and success. Many Chinese immigrants believed this ideology and migrated to the United States. The person that influenced my life the most would be my great grandfather. His experience moving to American has affected of who I am today and where I live. In 1869, my great grandfather decided to move to America because he heard of the Gold Mountain from America. My great grandfather heard of a story that America is covered with gold, there are gold everywhere, everywhere you look, and all you can see are gold. With that story, my great grandfather believed in the American Dream and the Gold Mountain to lead his life and family for a better future.
In the 19th century, Chinese came to Gold Mountain, as they called America, to join the Gold Rush that begun at California. By 1851, news of the gold rush had reached to South China. More than twenty-five thousands Chinese migrated to California to pursue this gold. This gave a lot of hope to the Chinese that they can have a fortune of money from the gold. After hearing rumors about the Gold Mountains, my great grandfather gathered the savings from everyone in the family, so he will be able to get the trip he needs to get to United States. Most of the Chinese immigrants were poor male villagers who left their wives and children behind with the idea of making enough money to return to China, they called themselves sojourners. For instance my great grandfather left my great grandmother to take care of 5 children. As the lure of gold diminished, Chinese immigrants came simply to work. Chinese could be found throughout the r...

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...d a community within large cities to replicate mainland of China, called Chinatown. The Chinatown in San Francisco, where my great grandfather stayed, was for many years the most powerful network for Chinese in America, and was the home for many traditional activities.
Throughout remaining of his life, my great grandfather remained in San Francisco, continuing to support his family. My family did not come to American until my aunt move to America. My great grandfather influenced me to work hard in life to provide a good care for the family. My great grandfather left me with this quote, “To be successful, one must know their failures.”
Work Site
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print

“Chinses Exclusion Act (1882).” Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US,. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2014

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