Chinese Immigration in the 19th and 20th Century

CHINESE IMMIGRATION IN LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Student Name
Instructors Name
Course Title
Date of Submission
1 Introduction
Immigration has been a major feature of the United States since its establishment, and this has resulted in a population that is culturally diverse. America's economy and society have been profoundly altered by immigration. The notion of America as a "melting pot" has long dominated popular culture, implying that all ethnic and cultural diversity is "melted up" to create one national identity. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the notion of multiculturalism evolved into the concept of cultural pluralism, which described the country as a blend of many ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, all coexisting and contributing to the new nation. American identity and the "genuine" American has been a subject of controversy for millennia. Many of these clashes eventually led to the American Civil War (American Civil War) (1861–1865). As a result of the Civil War, Congress enacted Amendment 14 to determine if freed slaves could become citizens. Those born and raised in the United States are citizens of the United States, according to the Amendment. However, the discussions about who is a "genuine" American, who should be allowed to remain in the nation, and who should be expelled, have not abated at all. China was a major immigration group that had a significant impact on the economics of nineteenth-century America, particularly in the west.[Locgov. 1885. “To the President of the United States, and to the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress Assembled [Protest against Ill-Treatment of the Chinese. 1885.” Loc.Gov. 1885] [Gelwicks. 1870. “The Chinese Question ; Report of the Special Committee on Assembly Bill No. 13 ; Report of the Special Committee on Assembly Bill No. 13.” Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 - Curiosity Digital Collections. 1870.] [Erika Lee. "The Chinese exclusion example: Race, immigration, and American gatekeeping 1882-1924." Journal of American Ethnic History (2002): 36-62.]
The discovery of gold in California and the ensuing Gold Rush in 1849 sparked a wave of significant Chinese immigration. At first, the Chinese worked in mining, but they soon expanded their roles to include farming and manufacturing as well. For the Chinese, the Transcontinental Railroad was also a key source of labor. Unskilled and inexpensive employees were in high demand throughout the westward expansion of the United States. A large number of non-Chinese employees resented Chinese immigrants because of the low wages they offered in exchange for their labor. When many white workers became unemployed, anti-Chinese movements began to urge laws to be enforced against the Chinese. The Miner's Tax, enacted in 1852, was one of their earliest coercive measures. This led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which made it illegal for anybody from China to enter the United States. Wellborn asserts that the early exclusion measures, although being unconstitutional, were still highly successful. Eight or ten miles south of Sonora, the Chinese were ejected from a mining site in 1849. No Asian or South Sea Islander could mine in Tuolumne County's Columbia area for themselves or anybody else and no one could sell a claim to an Asian. As far as we know, this is the only long-standing statute in the United States allowing immigration based simply on race.[Wellborn, Mildred. "The events leading to the Chinese exclusion acts." Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California 9, no. 1/2 (1912): 49-58] [Wellborn 50]
China-US ties were frequently the focus of national publications in the United States at that time. Such topics were addressed in a variety of ways in the form of political cartoons and graphics, as well as in editorials and other media outlets. Using the drawings and comics, students may learn a great deal about how Chinese people lived in the United States in the 19th century. A look at some of these comics and pictures from 1857 to the end of the Exclusion era in 1882 will be presented in this paper in order to provide light on how many Americans perceived the Chinese at the time. A shift in public opinion toward Chinese immigrants occurred within a short time period, and they became the subject of both humorous and degrading cartoons. Editorialist pieces like these and cartoons about the "Chinese Question" were aimed at an upper-class audience of white men. The paper seeks to argue on the Chinese questions under the following topics; Coming to America; Celestial ladies painting; the beginning of anti- Chinese movements; the anti –Chinese wall and the impact of Chinese exclusion[Locgov 1]
2 Background information
1 Coming to America
Chinese migrated to America because they believe that they can find a better employment opportunity if they move. Chen argues that Chinese moved to California as a choice rather than a desperate flight. The paper finds Chen’s argument to be true because Chinese immigrants first moved to the US in the 1850s, ready to flee the economic crisis in China and make an effort at the California gold rush. Once the Gold Rush ended, cheap labor became an attractive option for Chinese Americans. As farmhands, gardeners, domestics, laundry workers, and, most famously, railroad employees, they were able to find work quickly. The Transcontinental Railroad was developed by Chinese Americans in the 1860s. The American economy was in a deep recession by the 1870s, and work was hard to come by. Chinese American laborers had become the target of anti-Chinese sentiment. It was at this point that Congress approved the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, effectively barring all Chinese immigration to the United States. Congress eventually overturned the Exclusion Act in 1943, when China joined the Allies in World War II. Immigration from China was still restricted to just 105 people per year even at that time. It was in 1965 that all limitations were eliminated, allowing a flood of Chinese immigrants to enter the United States. As long ago as 1900, the first Chinatowns appeared in American cities. 100,000 Chinese-American people live and work in Chinatown, the largest one in the country. It's in New York City, and it's still growing.[Yong Chen, 1997. The internal origins of Chinese emigration to California reconsidered. The Western Historical Quarterly, 28(4), pp.521-546.]
Similarly we can also analyze migration of Chinese to America with Borthwick’s image in the contemporary world. The sketch Chinese Camp in the Mines was painted by J.D Borthwick and belongs to his design book 3 Years in California which was authored in 1857. Borthwick´s image is one of the first records on Chinese immigrants that shifted to California. Chinese miners and their camp in California's gold fields are depicted in this artwork. A group of Chinese guys sit in a circle around a pot of rice in the lower right corner. Rice is being eaten with chopsticks by a group of dressed-up men in traditional Chinese garb. A lone man stands close to the group on the left and gazes at one of the two tents. In the lower left corner, a guy in a traditional Chinese hat is stroking another man's hair while wearing a traditional Chinese hat. Two Chinese guys are braiding their hair into a typical Chinese ponytail in the backdrop on the right side. In the distance, a group of Chinese miners are hard at work with their equipment. Forests around the campsite It represents a typical scenario at a California gold mine. As a result of the gold rush, hundreds of Chinese laborers came to the United States. It wasn't only a matter of avoiding poverty and awful political conditions in their homeland that drove them to emigrate. According to immigration statistics, the vast majority of Chinese immigrants did not intend to stay in the United States for long.[Douglas Borthwick. Three Years in California. With Eight Illustrations by the Author. William Blackwood, 1857] [Douglas Borthwick, Three years in California 112-127]
People were hostile to the initial waves of Chinese immigrants who arrived on steamships and rapidly established themselves as a major source of labor. They had a reputation for being hard-working and loyal. Borthwick's goal was to depict every ethnic group that came to the United States during the Gold Rush era. Rather than fear or ridicule, his artwork expresses inquiry. The first images of the newcomers were published in major newspapers and magazines to give the public an idea of what they looked like and how they fit in. There was a lot of interest in the immigrants, particularly on the east coast. The image depicts their everyday routine and way of life. The men in the back help to support the idea that Chinese workers are dependable and hard-working because they are always there when they say they will.[Douglass Borthwick 112]
Among other things, the artist depicts their everyday routines, such as grooming and cooking. They form a tight-knit community and lend a hand to one another. The image does a good job of capturing their shared feeling of identity, but it's not only their ethnicity that binds them. According to Borthwick, Chinese immigrants were exploited and forced to perform the most dangerous work in the mines as the population swelled. In the mining industry, Chinese immigrants accounted for one-third of all workers by 1859, with the majority of them working in California. There was a shift in the mood once the initial interest in meeting the newcomers had faded. Because they were worried that Chinese miners would take their employment, angry European miners turned violently against the Chinese. In order to escape persecution, Chinese miners were forced to perform the most hazardous tasks in the mines in big groups. It was Borthwick's intention to educate and shed light on the first wave of Chinese laborers that arrived in the United States. In both the West and the East, there were a number of comparable images that appeared in the press. A series of short editorials provided the reader with further information regarding how the Chinese were able to integrate into the workforce and how they lived. With the passing of the first anti-Chinese law in 1852, the miner's tax, editorials, and drawings all changed in a big way.[Douglas Borthwick 128] [Douglas Borthwick 127]
2 Celestial ladies
On January 30, 1885, Harper's Weekly published the picture Celestial Ladies on page 68. The creator is unknown, but a lengthy, racist description of "Celestial Ladies" accompanies the artwork. The "Yellow Peril Propaganda" aimed to portray Chinese people as culturally incompetent.A view from the side of the three ladies shows how different groups are in terms of race and culture.[Brothers. "Celestial Photography." Astronomical register 4 (1866): 34-38] [Guiying Zhou. "On ups and downs of Chinese cultural confidence." Asian culture and history 4, no. 2 (2012): 140]
Analyzing the image of one lady, her hair is styled in a massive knot, and she's dressed in traditional clothing with a lot of volume. She's got long nails and she's leaning on an umbrella to keep her from falling over. Both of the women in the backdrop have their hair in a braided ponytail and are dressed in lengthy traditional clothing in keeping with the time period. She's holding a scale in her right hand, and she's the only one without shoes. Each of the three Chinese women had a strikingly similar face. As a result of their large eyelids, they have a large cheekbone. Thick lips simply serve to accentuate the woman's already horrifying facial expression. Whites were able to express a prejudiced view of the Chinese by employing the Yellow Peril Rhetoric. With their "white supremacy," they intend to keep the "yellow" Chinese out. All other races, such as the Chinese, were seen as inferior and uncultivated by the Chinese.[Guiying Zhou,142]
Additionally, blacks were also viewed as a race that was inferior in terms of mental, physical, and cultural attributes. The "Celestial Ladies" depicted in the picture have black-like traits on their faces, such as their thick lips. The artist's goal was to demonstrate that people of all races are subject to the same stereotypes. A Hong Kong-based Harper's Weekly writer wrote a series of vignettes on the Chinese. According to the reporter, they were described as a nasty and boorish group, half-horse and half-stevedor. It's not certain if the women known as "Celestial Ladies" were the spouses of "quasi-crippled" men or sex slaves. Looking down on women in China, the author was persuaded that only males who had a liking for "the baboon-like faces of Hong Kong women" would find their haircuts appealing. The accompanying commentaries were typically savage in their support of these repulsive and obscene representations of the Chinese people. Images like this were widely disseminated, and they had a profound effect on readers.[Brothers 34-38]
3 The beginning of the anti-Chinese movement
On March 20, 1880, Harper's Weekly – Journal of Civilization published Thomas Nast's picture The Ides of March: Do not—Put Him out of His Suffering on the cover. In a black-and-white magazine illustration, Thomas Nast shows Denis Kearney as the driving force behind anti-Chinese activism. As seen in the artwork, a white, masculine man stands in the middle. Short hair and a moustache give him a European appearance. The man is dressed in boots, slacks, and a shirt tucked into a vest. Despite the fact that his sleeves are tucked in, his hands are extending out to both sides. That confidence and strength are evident in his face. It appears like the man's neck is dangling from a plate that reaches down to his legs. Citation: factors that make Chinese migration unique, according to Ling, are cited. In contrast to the Chinese, whites come from various corners of the country. Unlike Europeans, the Chinese only visit one place at a time. Educators and traders from Europe came to educate, trade, and toil in the fields, while laborers from China came to toil in the fields.[Thomas Nast. 1998. “Denis Kearney and the California Anti-Chinese Campaign.” Harpweek.Com. 1998.] [Pyau, Ling. "Causes of Chinese emigration." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 39, no. 1 (1912): 74-82]
Five Chinese males may be seen around the man w...