Throughout history, political cartoons have been used to express perspectives on political and social issues. Through various visual techniques, cartoonist portray their values and beliefs on diverse subjects, such as immigration. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Chinese immigration to the United States rose to unprecedented numbers, which prompted a rise in xenophobia. In “The Chinese Must Go” and “The Great Fear of the Period,” the Chinese are represented as an economic and cultural threat. Ultimately, both cartoons utilize symbolism to portray the United States nativist perception of Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century. In “The Chinese Must Go,” the symbolism highlights the United States perception that …show more content…
The Chinese man is shown leaving San Francisco with his newly acquired wealth he earned as a laundryman, which can be inferred given the washboard in his arm. The author portrays the Chinese man this way to illustrate the common stereotype of Chinese immigrants working in the laundry business during that time. This depiction is most likely due to the circumstances of the historical period of the late nineteenth century, considering “the Chinese primarily labored in lower-paying industries and firms… such as domestic and laundry work.”2 Chinese immigrants were subject to lower paying professions because the white Americans saw the Chinese presence as a threat to their socioeconomic superiority. Thus, about “ten to fifteen percent of the Chinese in San Francisco earned a living as laundrymen.”3 Americans tried to secure their economic status by using legislation to subjugate and take advantage of the Chinese. In 1876, to further set back the Chinese, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors imposed a “$15 tax on those who delivered their laundry without a vehicle.”4 The Americans justified their mistreatment of the Chinese by degrading them “to a second-class status.”5 This inferior status of the Chinese was made official within the law, established in the 1854 George v. Hall court case. Essentially, the George v. Hall ruling said that Chinese immigrants did not have the right to testify against a white citizen. Because Americans did not view Chinese immigrants as equals, they believed it was acceptable to exploit the Chinese’s labor and minimize their