Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese experiences in the Wild West

The Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese adventures in the American West The Chinese arrived in North America between 1565 and 1815, during the transpacific commerce, when the Spanish colonized the Philippines. On the Spanish galleons traveling between Mexican ports and the Philippines, they had made a name for themselves as traders, fishermen, and sailors. Up until 1848, California was a portion of Mexico, and according to historians, some Chinese had already made California their home by the middle of the 18th century. Later voyages by British merchant John Meares from Guangzhou to Vancouver in 1788 and 1789 required the Chinese government to employ Chinese craftsmen and sailors to construct a European-style ship, designed bought to be used in the expedition further enhancing the migration of the Chinese. After the American Revolutionary War, there was a robust transpacific maritime trade between the United States and China through commercial port Guangzhou. The chines became curious about the large mass of land in America and the opportunities following interactions with American sailors and merchants. More Chinese moved to the United States during the early 19th century either as students, sailors or merchants. After that, some of the sort temporary residence while others permanently. The population of the chines in the western part of America kept growing with time. After that, the chines faced numerous problems as they sought to settle in the United States and secure jobs. Most Americans became uncomfortable with their presence since they were fighting for the same jobs that were limited. This paper will focus on some of the challenges that the Chinese faced in the United States as they were settling.

While migrants were docking into the eastern part of the United States comprised of Europeans, the West was dominated by Mexicans and the chines owing to the proximity. The first wave of mass immigration by the Chinese was in the early 19th century with the first Chinese people making it to the United States at around 1815. More immigrants came in in the 1820s to the late 1840s, and they were mostly composed of men. However, in 1834 the first female immigrant moved to the United States and was brought to from Guangzhou to the United States by Fredrick and Nathaniel who exhibited her as the Chinese lady. The number of immigrants moving to the United States kept increasing with time with the coming in the 1880s to make their fortune following the California gold rush. In fact, by 1880, ten percent of the California residents were Chinese people. Rumors reached the east coast of North America of the presence of gold in California by August. However, president Polk confirmed the discovery in December that year while addressing the Congress and the Gold Rush took root. Americans, Chileans, Mexicans and Chinese were flocking California by 1849. The non-Indian population increased tremendously from 14,000 to 223,856 by the year 1852.

The entry of the Chinese into the United States was faced with a lot of rebellion from the Europeans who had already settled, and they faced racism. The friction between the Chinese and Europeans culminated in a massacre in the year 1870 forcing the Chinese people to relocate to concentrated town which was later on known as the China towns. Also, the United States government treated the Chinese differently from immigrants from other regions. For instance, the Chinese were paying a special tax of 20 dollars per month which was way higher compared to the other people. Furthermore, they were not allowed to marry whites and could not acquire the U.S citizenship.

California gold rush led to a significant movement of people within the United States. People came from different sources but ended up settling in California. James Marshall discovered gold n tailrace of a piece of land that he had hired from John Sutter who was a swizz entrepreneur. Stutter upon learning of the presence of gold in the area, and he tried to conceal the information to protect his empire from a possible gold rush into the area currently known as Sacramento. However, by May, the news had reached San Francisco of the discovery of gold in the area. In June and August, Hawaii and Oregon were aware of the presence of gold in California. More and more countries gained knowledge of the presence of gold within a short period, by fall Chile, Peru Mexico had learned of Marshalls Gold discovery and all the parts of the world sent miners to the region.

The chines started having problems with the Americans and Europeans while working in the gold mines, most of the Europeans stole the Chinese work permits, and since there was a high level of anarchy at the time, the chines could not pursue the robbers carefully. The whites stereotyped the chines as a bad exotic and degraded race that could not be civilized irrespective of the duration they stayed in the United States. In response to the hostile response by their fellow miners, the Chinese opted to work in large groups as a form of defense. Further, the moved to the land mines that were perceived unproductive by the Europeans and Americans so as to avoid conflict. The Chinese remained in the land mines long after the other minors had left. Due to their high level of organization, they were able to produce more products as compared to their colleagues. Following the success by the chines, efforts to displace the Chinese from the gold mines were initiated by whites by 1869. Most of the White believed that the Chinese were mining gold that belonged to them. On the other hand, the California legislature had also instituted some taxes on the miners. In the year 1852, the California legislature developed the foreigner’s tax which was aimed at the Chinese since the Chinese had been labeled ineligible for US citizenship. While enforcing the tax collection, tax collectors could take property belonging to the Chinese in case they were not able to pay the high tax required of them. Some people took advantage of the Chinese who could not speak English properly and posed as tax collectors hence stealing from the Chinese. As a result, many of the Chinese miners had been kicked out of the gold mines by 1870 to look for other jobs due to the failure to pay the foreigner tax. The foreigner’s tax was in place up 1870 when it was repealed.

Anti-Chinese movement

Dennis Kearney, the leader of the workman's party, led to the development of the anti-Chinese movement during the 1870s. Dennis’s move was brought about by the economic crisis in the United States which resulted in the loss of jobs by the majority of the Americans hence resulting in the fighting got the few that were available for the immigrants. The workman’s party had the famous slogan Chinese must go and took aim against the Central Pacific Railroad and the Chinese immigrant labor which employed them. Despite the fact Dennis ant-Chinese attach was virulent and openly racist, he received tremendous support from the majority of the white Americans in the west. Eventually, the sentiments led to the development of the exclusion act and the development of the angle Island immigration station. The workman’s party propaganda dented the Chinese image branding them as perpetual foreigners who provided cheap labor hence preventing the Americans from going to work. After the economic depression in the year 1893, there were anti-Chinese riots that escalated into massacres and racists violence. After 1890, the California agricultural works which were made up of 75% Chinese, were expelled and the Chinese sought refuge in the Chinatowns of the major cities. The agricultural jobs left after the Chinese expulsion were unattractive for the white American’s and were filled by Mexicans and the Chinese.

All over the United States, several Chinese clustered in Chinatowns within big cities and the majority settled in San Francisco. Most of the Chinese came from Taishan, and it is the home to most of the Chinese who are overseas. In fact, almost half a million of the American Chinese are of the Taishanese descent. In the year 1882, the flow of immigration was limited by the Chinese exclusion act. The cat outlawed the immigration of the Chinese to the United States and denied citizenship to those who had immigrated earlier. In 1892 the law was renewed and after that extended in the year 1902. The Chinese population, the United States, continued to decline up until the year 1943 when the Magnusson Act repealed it. Formal discrimination of the Chinese was evident at all levels of government. The president of the united states in the year 1888 outlawed the Chinese publically terming them as elements of ignorance that cannot assimilate to the Americans lifestyle hence they posed a danger to the welfare and the peace of Americans. Several states in the western part of the United States, enacted the exclusion act hence making it impossible for the Japanese and the Chinese to own land in the West America. Also, the Chinese were required to pay more tax as outlined in the anti-Chinese laws since they were foreigners who could not become citizens following the naturalization act of 1790 which excluded the Chinese.

California was the biggest beneficially of the discriminatory laws against the Chinese, and it collected up to 5 million dollars from the Chinese people. To further discourage the Chinese from immigrating to California, any foreigner who could not attain citizenship in the country was supposed to pay tax, and if one owned a ship, he or she was meant to pay 50 dollars for each passage in the ship that could not become a US citizen. However, the law was struck down by the Supreme Court judge Yick Woo. V Hopkins in the year 1886. In his ruling, he said that the law aimed at taming a particular group and the business, the Chinese in this case. Another discriminatory act against the Chinese was the Surgeon General Walters request to quarantine the China town during the early 20th century following a bubonic outbreak in the Chinatowns. However the Chinese together with governed Henry Gage fought against his quarantine in various courts. In their lawsuit, they did sure the Marine Hospital Service for the violation of the human rights as enshrined in the American constitution. Later on the mayor of San Francisco together with other sixty labor unions formed an Asiatic exclusion league which almost achieved their aim of bringing forth a segregation to the Asian school children.

Jacob Riis in his book “how the other half lives” he portrayed the Chinese who were living in New York as a terrible menace to the society. Riis was referring to the perception in most whites on the Chinatown in New York City. The Chinatown were viewed as places of illegal activities that included the use of opium, prostitution, and gambling. Even through some of the information given by Riis was true, the American media gave a sharp description of the differences between the Anglo-Americans and people of the Asian origin. However the Chinese mostly smoked tobacco through the pipes, the affluent European Americans, sought to experience the Chinatown lives through a process known as slamming. The Slammers frequented regions that were occupied by the chines and paid a visit to opium smoking dens hence came up with the conclusion that smoking of opium was rampant in most of the Chinatowns throughout the United States. Later on, most of the spammers opted out of the activity in the late 19th century.

Better days for the Chinese people were brought about by the Magnusson Act which was aimed at repealing the exclusion act in the year 1943. However, the timing of the bill which was signed into law at that time was designed to strengthen the diplomatic relationships between China and the United States who were allied during the World War II. Through the act, the United States allowed Chinese who have been living in the United States to gain citizenship by naturalization. This was the first time that a Chinese was gaining citizenship from the year 1790. At the same time, the government allowed 105 new immigrants from China every year; the immigrants had to be selected by the government of China. Until 1979, the United States regarded the government of the Republic of China is the sole party for the Chinese people and those from Taiwan. Hence anybody emigrating from Taiwan had to pass through mainland China.

From the 1980s to date, the majority of the immigrants from China are undocumented people who have fled their country for the lower status jobs in the United States. Most of the undocumented Chinese people are concentrated in the main cities like the New York City. There are also some students and professional who have emigrated from China. In most cases, there are little interactions between the highly educated chines people in the United States with the poorly trained. In the 1980s the people the Republic of China complained of brain drain since most of the graduates in the United States did not return home. In the recent years, there has been great changes in the number of graduates going back home leading to brain gain for the people’s republic of china. Immigrants to the United States from the 1990s to date, have set a different culture. Upon their arrival, they did not join the current Chinese movements but formed their own. They also established some Chinese schools to teach the children simple Chinese characters to enhance communication and ensure that they do not lose the Chinese culture. Also, the children and their parents engage in a flag raising ceremonies as they are carried out back at home.

Concisely, the Chinese people have gone through a rough time in their history in the United States. Atrocities against the Chinese people stretched to form the 17th century to the 20th century hence making the lives of the chines people unbearable in the United States. Notwithstanding, most of the Chinese people persevered through the hard times to stay put in the United States. Today the United States and its population condemn the atrocities committed by the Chinese people during their immigration and settlement. The rebuking of the acts can be due to the tremendous changes in the social, cultural fabric of the United States and the economic growth. In fact, even the African Americans who were once regarded as slaves in the United States, today they have the same rights and access similar facilities.

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