Chinese Immigration (1850-1924)

Question 1

Credit-Ticket System

Answer 1

• merchant brokers in Canton facilitated migration throughout SE Asia
• they put up money for Chinese to sail to the US
• China was expected to repay debt out of earnings
• these people were Coolie labor: unpaid labor w/ GB abolition of African slavery in 1880s
• Chinese was the first group to the US in this period and set up the immigration system for other groups

Question 2

CA Gold Rush 1848

Answer 2

• people in China called CA Gam Saan (Gold Mountain)
• Gold Rush only lasted until mid-1850s, but Chinese stuck around in the hopes of striking it rich
• those who did get rich became leaders of Chinese communities, especially in SF
• some Chinese became store owners to sell Chinese goods to the workers
• these people became merchant class and wealthy later on

Question 3

Transcontinental Railroad

Answer 3

• Chinese labor essential for construction
• two sides of the railroad met at Promontory Point, UT
• one’s race determined wages and treatment
• Chinese were poorly paid and had the most dangerous jobs
• 90% of Central Pacific Railroad laborers were Chinese
• Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker made their wealth off of the backs of the Chinese

Question 4

Middleman/Merchant Class

Answer 4

• emerged to serve needs of Chinese
• built up alongside railroad work to provide clothing and food services
• also moved w/ migratory workers in agriculture

Question 5

Promontory Point, UT (1869)

Answer 5

• completion of railroad
• images of that moment exclude Chinese even though that was 80-90% of the workforce
• Chinese never even mentioned for their contributions during 100 yo celebration speech
• Chinese labor completed railroad, industrialized US, made US into core country
• scrubbing of Chinese (and Asian Americans in a broader sense) from American history –> AA invisibility

Question 6

SF and Urban Areas

Answer 6

• completion of railroad left Chinese jobless
• couldn’t get skilled industrial jobs or permanent labor jobs because of race and class structures
• urban China community in SF parallels SF as urban center
• Chinese hired as low-wage workers in race-stratified labor market (boots, shoes, clothes, tobacco, etc.)
• self-employment also key

Question 7

Racial and Labor Strife

Answer 7

• as more European American immigrants enter CA, they accuse Chinese of being “cheap labor”
• Chinese accused of lowering wages for other laborers
• basis for Chinese Exclusion Act

Question 8

Rural Agricultural Laborers

Answer 8

• prior to agricultural land, Central Valley was swampland
• Chinese central in reclaiming swamplands in Sac River and San Joaquin Delta
• made levees (arduous labor)
• were exposed to diseases in swamplands (malaria)

Question 9

Self-Employment

Answer 9

• stores, restaurants, laundries
• had to be self-employed because they were excluded from other jobs/industries
• gave rise to Chinese laundryman stereotype
• laundry seen as women’s work, so this was an American phenomenon
• could be started w/ very little capital and equipment (done by hand)
• didn’t need much English knowledge
• denigrated the Chinese in the eyes of most Americans because they were subservient to larger communities (of non-Chinese, wealthy people) and because laundry seen as feminine, women’s work
• fueled racialized perceptions of Chinese as unworthy of being in higher-paying jobs; they were worthy of exclusion (difference between person who washes your laundry vs. person who fills prescriptions)

Question 10

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Answer 10

• prevented Chinese immigration
• 10 year ban on Chinese laborers coming to US
• paved the way for Japanese to come and fill in labor demands no longer being met by Chinese immigration