AAS 121 Week 3 PowerPoint

8/12/2019 AAS 121 Week 3 PowerPoint

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J U L I E L U O N G , A L I C E L I N , T I M O T H Y L E E ,

E M I L Y W U , E L L E N W A N G , P E T E R L I N

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ASAM 121Chinese American History


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Overview

Readings The Chinese in America by Iris Chang

Unbound Feet by Judy Yung

Supplementary Reading Current Events

Group Discussion

Summation


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J U L I E L U O N G

The Chinese in AmericaIris Chang


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Transcontinental Railroad

Americas Goal:Build railroad from east to westcoast.

Problem: White workers started demanding moremoney.

Solution: Hire Chinese workers for cheaper wagesand their diligence.


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Life on the Railroad

Many Chinese were threatened by white workers totry and drive them away.

Many workers (Chinese and white) became sick from

disease, but mostly white. Sometimes Chinese even endured whipping to finish

railroad faster


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Aftermath of Railroad

Many Chinese couldnt afford to go back to China.

Those who did go back try to encourage other malesto join them to run a business.


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What did the Chinese do then?

Many were jobless after the railroad wascomplete.

Many started farming, working on sea, becoming

entrepreneurs in businesses like laundry, shoes,cigars/tobacco, and sewing.

Those who became successful lived in niceapartments with servants and many other

luxuries. Those who were poor lived in cramp housing

where they made their furniture with junk they

could find.


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Prostitution

Many Chinese families had to sell their youngestdaughter to keep family alive.

Many young girls were tricked and deceived by men.

Escapes: Death

Getting married

Christian Activists


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Chinese Rights

Denied the right to vote and be naturalized

Were seen as equivalents to Africans and NativeAmericans

American born Chinese were allowed the full rightsof citizenship


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Recruiting Cheap Labor

South needed workers to work on plantations sothey recruited Chinese.

Many false promises were made, which led to

striking and lynching by the Chinese. North needed workers because of strikes from the

white workers.

When white workers striked due to wages and etc.,the factories just recruited Chinese to replacethem.


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Chinese and Intellect

Christian missionaries opened schools for Chinese to have Sunday school and teach

them English

Tried to encourage Chinese youth to attend high school and

college.


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Chinese Men and Relationships

Many Chinese men fell in love with non-Chinesewomen.

Some of these men were still married to women in

China. After interracial relationships, there were many

mixed children that may have dealt with identityissues.


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A L I C E L I N

Unbound FeetJudy Yung


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Womens Role as Passive Victims

Three Obedience

Four Virtues:1) behavior

2) speech3) demeanor4) household duties


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Immigration

First wave of immigration-few Chinese women (In 1850, there were only 7Chinese women in SF)Reasons : 1) patriarchal consideration

2) financial considerations3) anti-Chinese legislation


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Prostitution

Chinese prostitutes were lured, kidnapped orpurchased as indentured servants from parents foras little as $50

and sold to slave dealers or highest bidder 85% to 97% of female Chinese population in SF

worked as prostitutes in 1860

71%-72% were prostitutes in 1870

21%-50% were prostitutes in 1880


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Prostitution Cont

Because of their race and indentured status

in America, Chinese prostitutes

lacked support of family ties and had added burden

of racism earned less than white counterparts

could not leave profession at will or relocate toescape stringent law enforcement, find otheremployment


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Discrimination against Chinese prostituteswere most apparent at institutional level.

For moral condemnation and legal suppression

Spreading venereal diseases

Protestant mission homes was the most viable

option, places of refuge


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Mui-Tsai

Domestic servant girls, "little sister

Freed at the age of 18

No wages

Provided household and children care


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Mary Tape (Tape v. Hurley)

Children regardless of race had right to public schooleducation

upheld by state and federal court


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Social Changes for Gender Roles

Chinese nationalism

Feminist ideology

Increased economic opportunities

Increased support of Protestant women


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T I M O T H Y L E E

Supplementary Reading

h h b l f


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Ping Chiu, Chinese Labor in California, 1850-1880: An Economic Study

An in-depth study of Chinese economic life innineteenth-century California.

Analyzed the role of the Chinese in mining, railroad

building, agriculture, and manufacturing within thecontext of the changing economy of California

Manufacturing included the woolen textile, clothing,shoe, cigar, and other fringe industries


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Opinions of Chinese Immigrants

Employers argued in terms of laissez-faire economics

Employees were primarily concerned about thehuman rights of workers and blamed the

depression of the 1870s on Chinese competition.

A if Di lik (Ed ) Chi th A i


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Arif Dirlik (Ed.), Chinese on the AmericanFrontier

Told from the perspective of Chinese in the westernfrontier during the nineteenth century.

Mainstream Chinese American scholarship remained

focused almost exclusively on the coastal population


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Chinatowns

Many Chinese laborers would wait for their contractsto end and settle in the Chinatowns in Idaho, Utah,and Colorado

Others would run away before their contracts endedbecause there arent many things the employers cando to stop them.


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Stuart C. Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant

A systematic trace of the evolution of the unfavorableimage of the Chinese in 19thcentury America.

Original Belief Americans esteemed the Chinese

up to the Opium War, if not later, and that easterner[Americans] looked favorably upon ChineseImmigration before 1882

This wasnt entirely true.


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Harold Isaac

The Age of Respect (18thCentury)

The Age of Contempt (1840 1905)

The Age of Benevolence (1905 1937)

The Age of Admiration (1937 1944) The Age of Disenchantment (1944 1949)

The Age of Hostility (1949 present)


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Mass Media

Portrayed Chinese Americans negatively. Dirty, diseased, Chinese Germs

Claimed that more than half of all infants born in China weremurdered by their mothers


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Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

The first departure from Americas official policy ofopen, laissez-faire immigration to be made onethnocultural grounds.

S h Ch Thi Bitt t S il Th


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Sucheng Chan, This Bittersweet Soil: TheChinese in California Agriculture

Tells the story of Chinese-Americans in Californiathrough an agricultural perspective.

Areas include the

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Locke

Southeastern shores of San Francisco


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Professions

Truck gardeners

Farmers

Commission merchants

Fruit and vegetable vendors and peddlers Fruit pickers and harvest laborers

80 90%* of the population earned a living bygrowing and harvesting crops


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E M I L Y W U

Current Events


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Current Events

Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese Americans celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival on

Monday

Ban on Shark-Fin Soup

Along with immigration, Chinese also brought over culturalpractices that create economic impacts

Wells Fargo Expansion Wells Fargo named a new division to focus on service to San

Francisco Asian community

CACS to Host Gold Mountain Celebration Chinese American Council of Sacramento to honor two

Chinese American women on Oct. 21


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P E T E R L I N

Summation


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Summation

The Chinese in America Racism/Discrimination

Better workers

Substitute labor

No rights Unbound Feet Four Virtues (behavior, speech, demeanor, household duties)

Prostitution

Supplementary Readings Chinatowns

Employment


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E L L E N W A N G

Group Discussion


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Question 1

How did Chinese become a part of theTranscontinental Railroad?


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Question 2

Chinese workers famously dealt with abuse fromtheir fellow white workers, what were some forms?


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Question 4

What were some other abuses Chinese had to endurein their new work after the Gold Rush?


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Question 5

What were some basic civil rights that were barredfrom Chinese?


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Question 6

Three Obediences prescribed that a Chinesewoman obey her father at home, her husband aftermarriage, and her eldest son when widowed.


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Question 7

How did Chinese prostitution rings arise during thelate 1800s?


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Question 8

Chinese merchant wives in America weresequestered at home, to never really see orexperience the outside world. How would you feeland act if you were forced to live a lifestyle such as

that?

Documents

AAS 121 Week 3 PowerPoint