Barth, Gunter Paul in his book "Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870" depicts the life of Chinese immigrants during the periods of 1850-1870. Barth portrays the experience that the Chinese went through at the Pearl River delta in China to get to the United States and there arrival here in California. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Chinese immigration to America was influenced by both the "pull" of California's Gold Rush and the""push" created by China's impoverished conditions. Years of drought, floods, disease, and famine ravaged China, a country already burdened with over-population and internal instability. European and American exploits into the region further exacerbated China's economic, political, and social problems. Chinese peasants, particularly in the rural Pearl River Delta area in the southeastern province of Guangdong, were desperate for relief. They began to migrate to urban centers in search of employment and survival. When this proved insufficient, the Chinese migrated to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region. Word soon reached China that "Gum Saan," the "Gold Mountain" as the Chinese referred to America, was a land of opportunity for those seeking a better life. The first large number of Chinese arriving in America in the mid-1850s, like many other immigrants to the new land, found no "gold mountain" from which instant wealth could be attained. However, America's expansion to the West and the economic boom of the Gold Rush era did provide particular employment possibilities for the Chinese. They quickly became an inexpensive but formidable work force for the construction of the western portion of the transcontinental railroad system. They also played an important ... ... middle of paper ... ...at the Chinese were living outside of the work camps and Chinatown, "a small but ever-increasing number of Chinese came to view the United States as a country in which they could live, marry, and raise children. Living in America began to be accepted as a substitute for the traditional aim of returning to China."(Barth 212) If the Chinese never immigrated to the United States, we would not have what we have now. Overall, "Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States" is a good history of the Chinese in America. Despite the fact that he wrote this book back in 1964. I'm pretty sure he could have added a lot more information today then back then. I would highly recommend this book to other readers who are interested in Chinese history. I was really not but this book made me feel like I needed to do some research on Korean American history
In port cities of China, leaflets distributed by labor brokers said, “Americans are very rich people. They want the Chinamen to come and make him very welcome. There you will have great pay, large houses, and good clothing of the finest description. Money is in great plenty and to spare in America.”
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
Based on your viewing of "Gold Mountain Dreams," Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, what were the major factors that caused men to leave their villages in China and come to California and other parts of the United States? The major factors that caused Chinese men to leave their villages was because of a great flood that destroyed their villages in China and also at the time there was a civil war was going on that kilt 30 million people in there home land. These were the two main factors that drove young men leave head to the seaports to leave China. The men knew they had an obligation to their villages and families to provide and leaving China to go to America provided them the opportunity to take care of their families. There was
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
This investigation is designed to explore to what extent did attitudes toward the Chinese immigrants during the building of the transcontinental railroad differ from those towards Irsih immigrants? To assess the attitudes toward the Chinese immigrants, this study focuses on the building of the transcontinental railroad in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. This study investigates the views, tasks given during the building of the railroad, and benefits given to the Chinese and Irish immigrants and the impact of their work on the views toward each group of immigrants.
For nearly a century, spanning from the latter half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants endured discrimination from the United States government and its people. The Chinese are another group of people that were treated as less than in America’s long history of legal racism. The Chinese experience is often overlooked as other
With the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the first significant restrictive immigration law in United States history was instituted that would provided a framework to be used to racialize other threatening, excludable aliens. Furthermore, this marked the first time that groups of immigrants were excluded based on their race and nationality. At the time, America could be identified as being an Anglo-Saxon dominated nation where native-born citizens had the ultimate say in government and societal issues. The influx of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century posed a problem for many of these nativists. The Chinese immigrants were coming to America at an astounding rate and willing to work for less money, thereby, endangering American values and civilization. Additionally, they were deemed as a threat to the white supremacy in the West. In order to bring this racial threat to light, many Anti-Chinese activists’ compared the new immigrants to African Americans in that both were believed to be inherently inferior savages only suitable for degrading labor in which they were often employed (Lee 34). However, the strongest argument against the Chinese focused on them being unwilling and incapable of assimilating into society. In the ...
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Chinese men began to flock to America. Following stories of the untold wealth and riches that awaited them on the “Gold Mountain” and escaping the stagnant economic position they experienced in China, these sojourners made their way to the United States by any means possible. Often taking money from supportive family members promising them that upon their homecoming they would repay their debts and more with their newly acquired fortunes was the only way to realize their oversea dreams. These men would make the arduous journey by boat to an unfamiliar new land. Upon arriving to their new home it was not riches that they found but a welcome of hostility and conflict consisting of “prejudice, economic discrimination, political disenfranchisement, physical violence, immigration exclusion, social segregation, and incarceration.” Once in the cities where they were to live, these Chinese men were segregated to enclave communities, often known as “Chinatowns”. Despite the hostilities of the Caucasian majority population many people in these enclaves flourished, opening their own businesses and eventually bringing their families to live with them, or simply making new families. This is very similar to the life of Fong See in “On Gold Mountain”. When he came to find his father, he ended up finding an environment in which his natural entrepreneurial ability would let him realize the life of success many men came to find. Fong See’s experience on “Gold Mountain”, however, was different from the daily toil of the “coolie” labour class, as well as the Chinese merchant class of the time as he strived to live by Chinese custom in an untraditional setting. Fong See started and maintained a ...
American objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the United States did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.
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.
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
Kwong, Peter. 1999 “Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor” Publisher: The New Press.
Harsh treatment, long hours, and extremely low wages were only a small part of the brutal-ness both races faced. The Chinese men came to America hoping to provide a better life for theirs families back in China. Most of them received jobs working for the corrupted railroad companies. They faced horrific working conditions, which some died from, low wages, and long hours. The Chinese men wasted years of their lives and sacrificed seeing their families so that they can make enough money to support them.
The Chinese race has been a big part of the United States for a long time now. Chinese were among the first to immigrate to the United States during the California
During the nineteenth century, a major source of immigrants was China. The Chinese settled on the west coast where they participated in the construction of the first transcontinental railway. They also opened numerous restaurants and laundry facilities.