Xenophobia And Fear Of Chinese Immigration And The Chinese Exclusion Act Of 1882

“Why the Chinese Should Be Excluded” by James D. Phelan paints a picture of Chinese immigration in late 19th century America, arguing for the renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. When reading it, you would expect to see factual evidence to support his claim, but instead, the narrative is filled with prejudice, fear, and flawed assumptions. I think that the people who were in favor of the Chinese Exclusion Act never had any factual support for their reason, but only their own self-centered opinion and ideals. For a start, the text heavily relies on generalizations and stereotypes. Labeling Chinese as "non-assimilative" and "undesirable citizens" dismisses their contributions to American society.

In the mid 19th century, America was viewed as a hotspot for freedom and wealth. When the noise of the gold rush flooded the world, immigrants started to see America more appetizing than ever. The Chinese saw America as a place to have a fresh start and as a place of refuge because of it’s generosity, so they immigrated to the west in great numbers. There was a large Chinese population in Virginia and all along the Pacific coast. Writers Mark Twain and Maxine Hong Kingston both wrote in great detail about the Chinese Immigrants. They went into detail about the immigrants and how they came over and why. Although Twain and Kingston both wrote about the immigrants in a positive light, Twain was sympathetic of the immigrants and Kingston focused more on their image and her ancestors.

In the late 1800s, America passed a fierce act due to the rising tension between the Chinese immigrants and whites. Chinese immigrants were troubled with biased laws and stereotyping. The Chinese Exclusion Act was one of these law. It... The immigrants were stereotyped as barbarians, anti-christian, anti-white, or as slaves. They were called heathens, racial slurs, and much worse; and the Chinese were seen as idolaters, the lowest, and the vilest. Some may argue they were taking over jobs because of how they were willing to work for less. But ultimately, the most influential factor in why Americans passed the Chinese Exclusion Act was racial prejudice toward the Chinese.

The influences that contributed to the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 was nativism and racial prejudice against Chinese immigrants.

The Chinese exclusion act was a movement that prohibited Chinese immigration; people used it as a discrimination against Chinese people. In one year Chinese immigration dropped from 40,000 to 23. This shows how people where violent and discriminant to Chinese fellows.

The Gold Rush brought many people from around the world to America, including China. In the year 1852, California’s governor, John Bigler, suggested restricting Chinese immigration. In a public letter, Norman Assing, a prominent San Francisco merchant, restaurant owner, and community leader opposed Bigler’s idea. The excerpt from the letter reads, “The effect of your late message has been… to prejudice the public mind against my people, to enable those who await the opportunity to hurt them down, and rob them of the rewards of their toil… ” Assing sees Bigler’s idea as a method of turning other people against the Chinese, but truly the idea of restricting immigration from China is the part that shows social inequalities.

Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants,

The Chinese Experience records the history of the Chinese in the United States. The three-part documentary shows how the first arrivals from China, their descendants, and recent immigrants have “become American.” It is a story about identity and belonging that is relative to all Americans. The documentary is divided into three programs, each with a focus on a particular time in history. Program 1 describes the first arrivals from China, beginning in the early 1800’s and ending in 1882, the year Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion act. Program 2, which details the years of exclusion and the way they shaped and distorted Chinese American

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

The United States has had tension with Asian immigrants since the first wave of migration in the 1840’s, and in 1882 the United States declared a Chinese Exclusion which was to keep all Chinese from migrating into the United States. For the Chinese already in the U.S this created worry and tension. With the Chinese people no longer being welcome the freedom for the Chinese inside which was already not much was even more condensed. The little equality that they had was taken away and they were excluded, and looked down upon everywhere they went. They had trouble living and socially because of the prejudice they were facing. An example of the Chinese struggle before the exclusion act would be the Chinese Lynching that took place in 1871. In Los Angeles a mob captured men and in this case a 12 year old boy and hung them all at a Spanish hacienda because of the citizens strong discrimination against

The government targeted the Asian Americans as a threat. As Takaki asserted, “Unlike European immigrants, Asians were also victimized by the institutionalized racial discrimination of public policies.” These policies include the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the National Origins Act of 1924. The social image of America can clearly be seen as only “whites” when the government institute policies to encourage European women to arrive to America so the immigrants can form families, while Asian women were barred the entry to prevent families to form

When the first Chinese arrived on steamships, they were greeted with hostility because they quickly became a significant part of labour. They were known to be hard and reliable workers. Borthwick´s intend was to picture every ethnic group that immigrated to America during the Gold Rush era. His drawing shows no derision or fear rather than curiosity. Big newspapers and magazines published the first pictures of the Chinese to inform the people how the newly arrived Chinese look like and how they integrate. The immigrants were a newsworthy subject, especially on the East coast. The picture shows their daily activities and how they lived. The men that are working in the back support the image of the Chinese as reliable and productive labours.

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 need to compete for possessions, jobs, and status causes people to feel animosity towards other ethnic groups. For example, during the 1800’s the Chinese occupied many of the jobs building railroads; this made the Anglo-Americans angry, they felt as if the Chinese were taking over the job market. In turn, this led the Chinese to become “victims of open discrimination and hostility”. Although the Chinese were already barred from schools and the court system, the Anglo-Americans felt that the Chinese

This paper explores the false promises that the Chinese were given by the Americans during the mass migration between the time of 1880 and 1965. The promise of wealth, education, and equality lead to a massive migrations to the United States. Excited and restless to start anew, many left their homeland for a better tomorrow. This lead to the immigration of people from all around the globe, each group with different backgrounds, skin color, and culture were all heading towards the same direction. Among these groups were the Chinese who played a significant role in the Asian American community in American. With the mass migration everyone was not given the opportunity to be treated equally. The injustice between the law and the people will leave