Download CHINESE ExCLUSION ACT OF 1882

Chinese
exclusion Act
of 1882
The 1882 Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering
the country and becoming citizens. It also ushered in the most violent
decade in Chinese-American history, with assault, arson and murder
becoming ever-present dangers for a people marginalized in the eyes
of the law. Chinese Immigrants found refuge in Chinatowns, insular
worlds that provided a sense of security and the companionship of
kinsmen. But as few Chinese women were able to immigrate due to
both Chinese custom and U.S. law, the majority of Chinese men
could not establish families here. As age, disease and death claimed
the earlier immigrants, the number of Chinese declined dramatically
almost to the point of vanishing from American life.
But those here clung to American life and values, and fought for their rights using the only tools of democracy
available to them: the courts. Recognizing that the Constitution offered protection to all people in America, not
merely its citizens, the Chinese boldly filed over 10,000 lawsuits challenging laws and practices designed to
harass and oppress them. When Wong Kim Ark, a 22-year-old cook born in San Francisco, sued to be considered a citizen, it was a decisive victory against discriminatory legislation. Moyers says, "It took the Supreme
Court to remind the government that the words of the 14th Amendment meant just what they said. A person
born in America was American."
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent conflagration burned most of the immigration records and
provided a crack in the wall of exclusion that the Chinese could use to bring others from China into America.
With no records available, the Chinese already living in the U.S. could claim to have been born here, making
themselves citizens. As such, they were entitled to bring their children from China. Many Chinese Americans
engaged in an elaborate deceit through a widespread practice of claiming "paper sons." The Chinese immigrant
would claim to be the father of a young person still in China and provide the paperwork for their "child" to immigrate. But to be permitted entry to the United States, Chinese immigrants crossing the Pacific to San Francisco had to pass through the gauntlet of Angel Island. Unlike Ellis Island in New York, which rapidly processed primarily European immigrants, the U.S. Immigration Station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay frequently detained Chinese immigrants for long stretches of time. They were subjected to aggressive questioning
about the details of their village in China, the daily habits of their family life, important occasions in their family history and other personal information to determine if they were, in fact, the relative they claimed to be or
just a "paper son." Ark Chin recalls, "I was ten years old, and so to be brought into a room for interrogation
and you see this big Lo Fan — you know, the devil so to speak — it was kind of overpowering." Thousands
were detained for months in a purgatory of isolation and suspense, and for some the fruitless wait ended with a
return journey to China.
Despite the odds against them, Chinese still struggled to get to America, attracted by the same hopes of economic opportunity that drew all of America's immigrants. Here they found a culture often at odds with the traditional values of China. New tensions developed within Chinese immigrant families as exposure to American
freedoms and attitudes inspired the women and young people to defy the patriarchal culture of their homeland.
For many, the struggle to become American played out within their homes. Jade Snow Wong remembers telling her father that she had decided to go out on her first date despite his pronouncement that it was forbidden.
"He was really angry because it was the first time I had talked back to him," she says. "Nevertheless, I went
out, and it was my sort of declaration of independence."
I
Chinese Exclusion Act
An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese.
WHEREAS, in the opinion of the Government of the United States
the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good
order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,
Be it enacted, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next
after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years
next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to
the Untied States be, . . . suspended; and during such suspension it
shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come, or, having so
come after the expiration of said ninety days, to remain within the
United States.
SEC. 2. That the master of any vessel who shall knowingly bring
within the United States on such vessel, and land or permit to be
landed, any Chinese laborer, from any foreign port or place, shall
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall
be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each
and every such Chinese laborer so brought, and may be also imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year.
SEC. 3. That the two foregoing sections shall not apply to Chinese
laborers who were in the United States on the seventeenth day of
November, eighteen hundred and eighty, or who shall have come
into the same before the expiration of ninety days next after the
passage of this act, . . .
SEC. 6. That in order to the faithful execution of articles one and
two of the treaty in this act before mentioned, every Chinese person
other than a laborer who may be entitled by said treaty and this act
to come within the United States, and who shall be about to come to
the United States, shall be identified as so entitled by the Chinese
Government in each case, such identity to be evidenced by a certificate issued under the authority of said government, which certificate shall be in the English language or (if not in the English language) accompanied by a translation into English, stating such right
to come, and which certificate shall state the name, title, or official
rank, if any, the age, height, and all physical peculiarities former
and present occupation or profession and place of residence in
China of the person to whom the certificate is issued and that such
person is entitled conformably to the treaty in this act mentioned to
come within the Untied States. . . .
SEC. 12. That no Chinese person shall be permitted to enter the
United States by land without producing to the proper office of customs the certificate in this act required of Chinese persons seeking
to land from a vessel. Any any Chinese person found unlawfully
within the United States shall be caused to be removed therefrom to
the country from whence he came, by direction of the President of
the United States, and at the cost of the United States, after being
brought before some justice, judge, or commissioner of a court of
the United States and found to be one not lawfully entitled to be or
remain in the United States.
14th amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States
and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Questions:
1. What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
2. List three possible causes of the declining
Chinese population in the U.S. during this
time.
3. In what way was the 14th Amendment
possibly violated by the Chinese Exclusion
Act?
4. How did Chinese Americans fight against
these violations?
5. How did the 1906 San Francisco earthquake impact Chinese population in the
U.S.?
6. Define “Paper Son”.
7. Contrast Ellis Island and Angel Island.
8. How did Chinese women and young people
assimilate into American Culture?
9. For what reason do you think western settlers supported the Chinese Exclusion Act?