Anti Chinese Immigration

Jacqueline Maier

04.19.17

Pacific World History

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”…except No Chinese

Anti-Chinese sentiment of the United States was influenced by a complex interaction of factors. The initial racism was a product of common culture and lingering racial tensions of the Civil War. Racist portrayals of Chinese coolie labor developed into a negative caricature of the Chinese. Their character and intent in the US were perpetually called into question. Simultaneously, economic elements promoted a dislike for the Chinese. A vast influx of Chinese workers were entering the US and “stealing” US gold and jobs. This public hostility towards Chinese immigrants evolved into a politicized

agenda. Dislike for the Chinese was no longer simply a dinner conversation; it was sanctioned by the federal government. However, not all US citizens supported this blatant racism. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Journal cartoon, The Only One Barred Out, depicts the other side of the “Chinese Question.” The image was published less than two weeks before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. The artist, while unknown, mocks the obvious injustice of the racism and accompanying legislation barring the Chinese from entering the US. The Only One Barred Out exhibits the lengths lawmakers and society were willing to go to ensure the Chinese were not granted entry to the “supposed” Golden Gate of Liberty, and the artist’s disgust for this process.
The anti-Chinese mentality of most Americans can be summarized by the phrase, “Yellow Peril.” While it applied to all Asian immigrants, it can be understood, in this context, as a psycho-cultural perception of the Chinese. The Yellow Peril describes the fear and distaste for the Chinese and the associated bad qualities brought with them to their points of immigration, such as disease, drug use, and immoral or alien cultural practices. The Yellow Peril was more racial than national in nature, not necessarily a fear derived from a specific attribute of China, but from a vague existential fear of the endless, faceless, unknown horde of Chinese from a foreign world. This attitude encouraged the creation of legislation that targeted the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. Prior to the publication of the cartoon, legislation was introduced at the state level, in response to Chinese immigration.
The first significant Chinese immigration occurred with the California Gold Rush of 1848-1955. The Chinese mentality was characterized as the desire to head to California and make instant wealth. There was a perceived limited desire to assimilate to American culture and their earned money was often sent back to China, in the hopes that family may join them in America.

The immigration continued with subsequent large-scale labor projects, such as the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. During the early stages of the Gold Rush, the Chinese were tolerated. As gold and jobs became increasingly sparse, competition increased in conjunction with an aversion for the Chinese. California citizens pressured the state legislature to exclude all foreign miners, as many believed the Chinese were taking gold that belonged to the US. This led to the Chinese Police Tax Law of April 26, 1862. This law was enacted to protect free white labor against competition with Chinese coolie labor, and to discourage the immigration of the Chinese into the state of California by implementing a monthly tax of $2.50 on Chinese immigrants seeking to do business in California. The signing of this law was the signal that acknowledged and accepted subsequent state-sanctioned racism. The Chinese were segregated in schools, banned from sections of cities, subject to additional taxes and were prohibited from marrying white citizens. In 1854, the Appellate Supreme Court of California ruled that

the testimony of a Chinese man who witnessed a murder by a white man was inadmissible. This decision was based upon the fact that the Chinese were “a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior”, and due to their minimal intellectual capacity and difference in culture, had no right to participate in government affairs or to “swear away the life of a white citizen.” The 1860s welcomed the second significant wave of Chinese immigration; a large portion of whom were employed by the Transcontinental Railroad. Chinese immigrants composed upwards of ninety percent of the Transcontinental Railroad workforce, as white citizens did not want to participate in the arduous work. Despite the fact that Chinese workers earned a reputation as quiet and industrious workers, they continued to receive lower pay than their white counterparts and were responsible for providing their own food and shelter. Upon the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Chinese flocked to cities in search of jobs, cities such as San Francisco. Often, the Chinese were willing to work for less desirable jobs and cheaper wages than the white American working class. The Chinese undercut of whites’ wages provoked the emergence of racist labor movements in the US. Despite obvious distress over the growing Chinese population in America and ensuing violence, the US signed the Burlingame Treaty of 1868, which established basic measures that aimed to ease immigration restrictions and protected Chinese citizens in the US, in an effort to reinforce US trade interests in China. This treaty was eventually revised in 1880, and renegotiated under the name the Treaty of Regulating Immigration from China, which suspended Chinese immigration. The rationale was that Chinese laborers in the US, “affect or threaten to affect the interests of that country, or to endanger the good order” of the US. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, which greatly limited the immigration of Chinese women to the US, with the justification that they posed a moral threat as likely prostitutes. In 1879, California adopted a new constitution which explicitly authorized the government to regulate which individuals were allowed to reside in the state and banned the Chinese from seeking work in any form of government. The efforts of the Workingman’s Party, along with various anti-Chinese groups and political leaders advocated for a federal campaign against the “barbaric” and “heathen” Chinese. Those who ran for political office capitalized on this racist push, by linking their political platform to anti-Asian efforts, as a means to gain the white working-class vote. Rapidly, public prejudice and discrimination shifted to the federal political sphere, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, signed into law May 6th. The Chinese Exclusion Act, bolstered by previous legislative efforts, is the first and only law to prohibit a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the US.
While the Chinese Exclusion Act was not passed before the publication of the cartoon, the author was clearly aware of the direction in which the federal government was headed when considering the future of Chinese immigration. The image depicts a stereotypical Chinese man, illustrated by his long braid and traditional Chinese apparel. He sits, dejected, on his luggage, outside the Golden Gate of Liberty. His luggage reads “Industry”, “Order”, “Peace”, and “Sobriety.” Beside him, a notice reads “Notice – Communist, Nihilist, Socialist, Fenian & Hoodlum Welcome but No Admittance to Chinamen.” The image is captioned, “The Only One Barred Out. Enlightened American Statesmen ‘We must draw the line somewhere, you know.’” The image highlights the specificity and absurdity, according to the cartoonist, of anti-Chinese efforts. According to the notice, not only are Chinese immigrants barred from entering the US, but “undesirable” immigrants such as hoodlums or Socialists, who will likely bring corruption to the US, are allowed to enter. The following caption, “we have to draw the line somewhere you know” further illustrates the entirely arbitrary process by which the Chinese were targeted and discriminated against. From the author’s viewpoint, not only are the other immigrant groups more problematic than the Chinese, but the Chinese actually bring with them benefits, such as Industry, Order, Sobriety, and Peace, as shown by the Chinese man’s luggage. The inclusion of the “Golden Gates of Liberty” alludes to its phoniness, as an immigrant remains barred outside its very gates. His expression, one of exhaustion and defeat, is possibly due to the fact that he may be unable to be reunited with his family due to stringent immigration policies, that he is unable to find work or that he is barred from becoming a naturalized US citizen, even if granted entry to the US. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Journal, was based in New York. The newspaper possibly published this image since the east coast of the US was not as strongly affected, economically and culturally, by the wave of Chinese immigration, as most Chinese immigrants settled on the west coast. Additionally, the Northeast had often been a place with less racist ideologies, especially following the recent Civil War, so northeast newspapers were potentially more sympathetic to the tribulations of being a Chinese immigrant in the US. The artist and this image strive to capture the hypocrisy and injustice associated with anti-Chinese legislation, which was nothing less than the legal endorsement of racism.
The Only One Barred Out is the response to the reprehensible chain of events that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

The cartoon ridicules the tornado of political, economic, and social influences that elicited an irrationally strong sense of suspicion, fear, and loathing of the Chinese. A combination of elements so strong that an entire ethnicity was banned from the US, despite the fact that it violated the very foundation the US was built upon, the land of freedom. The cartoon of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper works to remind America of its duty to justice for all, and its unforgiveable misstep in supporting the legalization of anti-Chinese

racism.