The Chinese Exclusion Act: A Black Legacy
http://sun.menloschool.org/~mbrody/ushistory/angel/exclusion_act/
Passed in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was a climax to more than thirty years of progressive
racism. Anti-Chinese sentiment had existed ever since the great migration from China during the
gold rush, where white miners and prospectors imposed taxes and laws to inhibit the Chinese
from success. Racial tensions increased as more and more Chinese emigrated, occupied jobs, and
created competition on the job market. By 1882 the Chinese were hated enough to be banned
from immigrating; the Chinese Exclusion Act, initially only a ten year policy, was extended
indefinitely, and made permanent in 1902. The Chinese resented the idea that they were being
discriminated against, but for the most part they remained quiet. In 1943, China was an important
ally of the United States against Japan, so the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed; however, a
lasting impact remained. The act was both cause and effect: it came from decades of Chinese
discrimination, and initiated decades of Chinese exclusion.
The Chinese flocked to America in search of opportunities; most fled from their collapsing
empire for economic reasons. The Gold Rush happened during a period of poverty in China,
which both pushed and pulled the Chinese to emigrate. In California, the Chinese newcomers
soon became an exploited work force, especially since they were predominantly male, but the
wages they received in the burgeoning 1850's economy were still "considerably higher than they
could earn at home" (Daniels 15). Many Chinese became miners, and some developed the
laundry business (highly lucrative in overpopulated San Francisco).
But opposition in California was both immediate and strong. During the Gold Rush, thousands of
Americans from the East, where they had opposed European immigration, frequently came with
nativist attitudes. And non-American whites (Irish, Russian), who had suffered from Eastern
nativism, saw that in attacking the Chinese, they elevated their own (shaky) status. Thus, Chinese
immigrants faced discrimination from many different groups, including American miners, who
felt that the hard-working and low-paid Chinese were reducing their wages.
It is the duty of the miners to take the matter into their own hands and
erect such barriers as shall be sufficient to check this asiatic inundation
The Capitalists who are encouraging or engaged in the importation of these
burlesques on humanity would crown their ships with the long tailed, horned
and cloven-hoofed inhabitants of the infernal regions if they could make a
profit on it. (McLeod, qtd. in Daniels, 34)
Thus, during the financially unstable 1870's, the Chinese became an ideal scapegoat: they were
strangers, wore queues, kept to their own kind, and were very productive (conditions not
inspiring great love, especially among the American laboring class). Legislation, including
immigration taxes, and laundry-operation fees, passed in order to limit the success of the Chinese
workers. Cartoons and other propaganda reinforced the view that the Chinese "worked cheap and
smelled bad" (Daniels 52); demonstrators marched with anti-Chinese slogans.
WE WANT NO SLAVES OR ARISTOCRATS
THE COOLIE LABOR SYSTEM LEAVES US NO ALTERNATIVE
STARVATION OR DISGRACE
MARK THE MAN WHO WOULD CRUSH US TO THE LEVEL OF THE MONGOLIAN
SLAVE WE ALL VOTE
WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND NO MORE CHINESE CHAMBERMAIDS (Daniels, 38)
"A Statue for Our
Harbor"
(click on picture for an
enhanced view of the head)
Courtesy of: Choy, Philip.
Dong, Lorraine. Hom,
Marlon. The Coming Man.
University of Washington
Press: Seattle and London,
1994. Page:136
Racial tensions finally snapped in 1882, and Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882, barring immigration for ten years; the Geary Act extended the act for another ten years in
1892, and by the Extension Act of1904, the act was made permanent.
"The Last Load"
Courtesy of:Choy, Philip. Dong, Lorraine. Hom, Marlon. The
Coming Man. University of Washington Press: Seattle and London,
1994. Page:157
But immigration still went on, however, as the exclusion
laws were frequently bypassed. After the earthquake fires
destroyed all family records in 1906, Chinese immigrants
effectively donned false names and identities, and came
to their "relatives" already in the US as paper sons and
daughters. In response to this continuing Chinese influx, the city of San Francisco created a
prison-like detention center for incoming immigrants at Angel Island in 1910, where officials
screened and deported dubious incomers.
Americans justified their actions with two main claims. First, the Americans claimed that jobs
were scarce, and the Chinese were stealing the only jobs that there were because of there
willingness to work for smaller wages. Americans also claimed that the Chinese were sending
too much gold back to China-they believed that the wealth should remain within the United
States (Knoll 24). Anti-sentiments against the Chinese were high in the United States, however,
Chinese continued to immigrate to the United States. Not only was the majority of Chinese
excluded from immigrating, however, the few Chinese that did immigrate were treated
inhumanely. Many of their customs and traditions were violated, they were insulted, they were
imprisoned, beat and in some cases killed.
Why did we have to depart from our parents and loved ones and come to stay in
a place far away from our homes? It is for no reason but to make a living. In
order to make a living here, we have to endure all year around drudgery and
all kinds of hardship. We are in a state of seeking shelter under another
person's face, at the threat of being driven away at any moment. We have to
swallow down the insults hurled at us. (Knoll, 28)
The Chinese resented the fact that they were being discriminated against, yet they continued to
immigrate to the United States because they felt their opportunities in the United States were still
better than in China.
For sixty-one years, the Chinese were excluded from entering the United States and becoming
natural citizens when on December 17, 1943, the United States Congress pass the Chinese
Exclusion Repeal Act, which allowed Chinese to enter the United States legally once again.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed mainly for political reasons rather than for human
rights reasons. The main political reason was that the Chinese became an ally of the United
States extremely fast when World War II broke out. Since the Chinese were viewed as allies
now, the American government wanted to keep sentiments between the two countries high, so
the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, and Angel Island no longer remained a detainment
center for Chinese immigrants. This was a victory for people from China and ChineseAmericans; however, the American reputation remains tainted by its inhumane and racist
exclusion policies towards the Chinese in the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of
the 20th century.
Bibliography:
BOOKS:
Choy, Philip. Dong, Lorraine. Hom, Marlon. The Coming Man. University of
Washington Press: Seattle and London, 1994.
Daniels, Roger. Asian America. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.
Jones, Maldwyn Allen. American Immigration. The University of Chicago Press:
Chicago, 1960.
Knoll, Tricia. Becoming Americans. Coast to Coast Books: Portland, 1982.
WEB ADDRESSES:
www.itp.berkeley.edu/~asam121/1882.html
www.cetel.org/1904_extension.html
www.cetel.org/1943_repeal.html