| The first Chinese that came to America were prospectors
seeking their share of gold in the "Golden Mountain" of California.
The Gold Rush didn't last long but the Chinese found
work as farmers, laborers
and other fields where employers appreciated their
diligence, productivity, and, most importantly,
their willingness to be paid less than their Caucasian
counterparts. The building of the Transcontinental
Railroad employed over 11,000 Chinese laborers, many
working on the most dangerous portions of the construction
effort. After the completion of the
railroad, many Chinese dispersed to other parts of
the country in search of work. The willingness of the
Chinese to work for lower wages, however, won them
open enmity from Caucasian laborers, resulting in the
passage of a number of discriminatory regulations,
culminating in
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first act
to exclude a people solely based on their national
origin. This act, which barred the entry of most Chinese
immigrants, was in effect until 1943, when
World War II made China an ally
of the US. Even then, the number of new immigrants
allowed was a token number of 105! In fact, the numerical
cap did not substantially increase until 1965. New
waves of immigration would result from the defeat
of the Nationalist government in the Chinese mainland
and later on from more liberal emigration policies
from the Communist regime. However, the effect of the
Exclusion law can still be seen: although the
first Chinese immigrants came at about the same time
and the Germans and the Irish, the number of Chinese
Americans today stands at only 2.3 million or less
than 1% of the US population. Ms. Chang's devotes quite
a few pages to describing the historical settings that
launched each wave of immigrants and their
mixed reception in the US. This background, of both
Chinese and American history, helps ensure
that all readers reach the same level of understanding
but at times the information is so basic that it borders
on patronizing.
The narrative is sprinkled with many first-hand accounts by immigrants
and even stories gathered from the author's own family.
Overall, this
"eyewitness" approach is useful as it livens up the
narrative and gives flesh to cold historical facts.
At times, however, one wonders whether the examples
cited should really be extrapolated to represent the
view of a whole group. For instance, in describing
the experience of Taiwanese students in the US colleges,
she asserts that "American food repulsed them" and
quotes the wife of a graduate student who "almost threw
up when served a dessert of cored apples".
But is this experience representative of all students
or is it just the bias of one very picky eater? My
informal poll of my Taiwanese friends and relatives
would seem to indicate the latter. Most first-generations
Chinese Americans I know find American fare easy to
like even though they may still prefer to eat food
they have grown up with. In
fact, my sister-in-law gained 20 pounds in her first
year in a US college because she just loved
the food s much. In another, more important
instance, the author asserts that many Taiwanese
employees are afraid to challenge authority because
they grew up during the so-called "White Terror" of 1950s Taiwan, a repressive period of Kuomintang rule on the island.
This seems to be an unsubstantiated assertion
considering that the very same trait can be seen on
non-Taiwanese Chinese and even Japanese workers.
In this instance, isn't it more likely that the Confucian
social and educational system tends to discourage open
discord? Even today, students in Chinese schools are
expected to listen passively rather than ask questions
or even challenge the instructor
as is done in American schools. With passages like
these, one wishes that the book, subtitled
"A Narrative History", had relied less on narrative and provided more analysis and statistical data
to prove its less conventional
assertions.
The history of the early Chinese immigrants and their bachelor societies has
already been well-documented in many books. "The Chinese in America" is one of the few that actually tries to bring the story
to the present time. This is valuable because the
story of the Chinese Americans is still
unfolding. While most early immigrants were unskilled
laborers from Guangdong province, the 1950s-1980s saw
mainly students and professionals from Taiwan, many
still fearing a Communist takeover of the island. In
the 1990s the immigrant demographics would change again.
This time the immigrants would come mainly from the
Chinese mainland both as legal immigrants from the
professional ranks as well as illegal immigrants traveling
under insufferable conditions. Official discrimination
has been outlawed but subtle discrimination in the
form of "glass ceilings" and the public perception
of Chinese Americans as perpetual foreigners
persist. In spite of the success of most Chinese Americans
in joining the middle class (their median income
actually exceeding that of white Americans) and the
success of many notable Chinese Americans in
their chosen fields, there are serious questions about
their future. For every Jerry Yang, I. M. Pei, and Michelle
Kwan, whose successes are embraced by all, we need
to remember victims like Vincent Chin, whose killers
got away with a $3,750 fine and never spent a day
in jail, or Wen Ho Lee, who was made a sacrificial
lamb by the Clinton administration when it came under
attack for accepting illegal campaign contributions.
In a survey commissioned by the Committee of 100, it
was found that Americans were less likely
to vote for an Asian American for president than for
any other major ethnic group. Facts like this should
serve as a wake up call for Chinese Americans of the
need to
be more involved in the American political system and
to increase their awareness of the long road traveled
by their predecessors. Reading this book would
be a good start in that direction. In addition to the
major historical movements, Ms. Chang also uncovers
several interesting footnotes of history such as the
existence of Chinese communities in the Deep South,
Chinese-Irish marriages in the 19th century, and the "astronaut" father and "parachute"
children phenomena of the present day, where parents
and children live and commute from opposite ends
of the Pacific Ocean. This book is an easy read as
it was obviously
targeted at the lay reader rather than the history
buff.
See also
|
