The distrust of the Chinese comes from bad doings in what seem to be the small and clean businesses of Chinatown. Chinamen tend to associate themselves with drugs and gambling and will sometimes pick one of the two over food and shelter. In order to fit in, Chinamen adopted white women as their wives. From the perspective of an outsider, it appears that the wives have power in the relationship but taking a closer look you will see that they do not. Often times, wives would be beaten by the Chinamen if they were out of place.
As Americans, we are supposed to be willing to widely and attentively consider other cultures traditions, practices, and styles of life. I personally don’t presume in this line from the American anthem “the land of the free and the home of the brave. A substantial amount of Americans’ are chauvinist’s, or just simply don’t take other cultures into consideration. This is why Fan Shen chooses to be his Chinese cultured, self while writing in America. There are many differences in American and Chinese writing.
Workplaces. Ethnic discrimination. Anti-Chinese hate groups. The Chinese were more equip at building things so Americans got angry. "
Phelan had thought they were not adapting to the country and posed a threat to American jobs. Phelan claims that Chinese people are nasty, have harsh habits, and spread illness. They also work long hours for little pay. But several West Coast Americans blamed Chinese laborers for their country's economic woes and falling pay. 0.002 % of the inhabitants of the country were Chinese, notwithstanding their small number.
Faced with stereotypes in America, Lee is also tormented in China for his American nationality and lack of modern cultural awareness. Both communities view Lee and Chinese-Americans as “others”, refusing to fully accept them culturally or socially. Lee is foreign everywhere, since he is not a white American or a Chinese citizen. Only able to find solidarity in the community of “othered” Chinese-Americans, Lee feels more accepted in America than in China. However, those that only see Lee for his ethnicity and not for his inner person are racist against him because he does not fit the mold of what a “perfect” American is supposed to look and sound like.
2 From Pitkin’s letter about the reasons for American hostility toward Chinese was because so many of them wanted to work in the mines that would mean that everyone would get paid less if more people started working in the mines so therefore that is what could be infered for the reason why American were so hostility towards the Chinesse immigrant. The artist attitude towards Chinese immigrants were that they came in many and they would take all the jobs from the American people. The way the artist express their feelings towards Chinese immrigants is by deciting them as people who are doing nothing for the American people, people who are taking jobs, and that there are only men who are working .
Author Jason Newman writes on the history of Asian Americans in the United States in his essay, appropriately titled, “Asian American in U.S. History”. The essay describes the treatment of Asian Americans in the United States, along with the legislation passed against them. To open his essay, Newman writes, “Many Asian Americans have struggled against recurrent stereotypes that cast them as permanent outsiders despite their long history in the United States.” Afterward, Newman describes the early immigration of Asian Americans to the U.S. Specifically, he uses Chinese Americans to illustrate the negative reaction Americans had towards Asian immigration, listing the many laws passed to bar Chinese immigration into America.
Lee Chew lived in a unique time period for chinese immigrants in America, preceding the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and living in America after it passed. He was then confronted whether to live in America with the hope of wealth but no hope of being with his family or move back to China. This time period is recorded in a first person biography about Chew’s life, titled Life of a Chinese Immigrant. This primary source was published in a journal, The Independent in 1903. Chew had a very significant encounter with American wealth when a villager brought back huge wealth to the village after going to America.
Chapter 4- This chapter is about the deculturalization and globalization of Asian Americans in American. Large numbers of Chinese came about in the 16th to 20 centuries, to the United States; migrating from places like: South Asia, South American, Caribbean and Japan. Chinese diaspora created sub-ethnic groups that impacted globalization for the Chinese population and others. The Gold Rush brought the first Chinese migrants to the United States, in the 1850s.
Chapter six examines the anti-Chinese sentiment with the emerging class antagonism and turmoil between white capitalists and workers. The unwelcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants brought along their own social organizations such as the huiguan, fongs, and tongs. These types of social organizations secured areas of employment and housing for Chinese immigrants in California. This social structure that was unknown to Anglos led them to also categorize Chinese on the same level as Indians by depicting them as lustful heathens whom were out to taint innocent white women. These images were also perpetuated onto Chinese women, thus, also sexualizing them as all prostitutes.
According to Jeff Guo and Daron Taylor from Washington Post, when Asian immigrants arrived during the mid-1800s, they were met with intolerance as “the popular media often portrayed them as scoundrels, degenerates, and job-stealers.” Additionally, writer Jonathan Freedman pointed out that “the debased and racist attacks on Chinese” had led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was one of the early methods to limit immigration, or specifically Asian immigration. Also, fear of Asian immigrants taking control was a prevalent factor for the Exclusion Act. For example, a literature titled “The Rise of Fu Manchu” depicts of “an Asiatic villian” who plans to take over the world. It wasn’t until after the second World War when Americans opened their arms of acceptance and appreciation towards Asian immigrants.
Secondly, in the United States, foreign policies are not created to uphold morality because although some laws were enforced with the purpose to protect America’s economic interests, they instead promoted white supremacy. The Chinese Exclusion Act was immoral because it was enacted due to the accusation of Chinese labor immigrants causing economic hardships, and was the first time the United States restricted immigration explicitly on the basis of race. With political instability and declining economic opportunities in China, Chinese laborers began to immigrate to America during the mid-1800s for economic opportunities during the Gold Rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. Anti-Chinese sentiment grew as many white laborers
In the nineteenth century immigrants, specifically Chinese, had a poor reception among Americans. The Chinese immigrants were coming in at quite a steady rate and this didn’t make Americans happy because they believed that the Chinese immigrants were stealing the jobs that belonged to them. This created a problem that was large enough for the United States government to step in and create the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was something that was relevant for ten years. Part of the issue with Americans about the Chinese people was being misinformed.
It all started when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, causing the U.S. citizens to be extremely furious and unite the support of media to create propagandas. The Japanese are portrayed with slanted small eyes and buck teeth- undermining the intelligence of their race; moreover, they were even dehumanized and depicted as animals. The U.S media was very biased when comparing the Chinese to the Japanese. While the Chinese man had an amiable appearance and a slender body, the Japanese had an unpleasant frown on his face and was described as short and stout (Miles). The article “WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism” also states that “The Chinese man’s occupation implies that he helps people, while the title of Japanese warrior alludes to danger and disloyalty,” (ibid).
As the foreigners, the Chinese first avoided the interaction with the Americans, while suffering various ways of discrimination. The Chinese that worked in gold fields brought their own method for mining of gold to the United States, which improved their efficiency a lot . This caught the local Americans’ attention. Some landowners and merchants preferred Chinese coolie, which means ‘kidnapped, enslaved, or indentured servants’, and they started to employ more Chinese than the Americans. The immediate loss of job and financial support pissed the American citizens off.
