Chinese Migrants Who Live in America

Essay, Pages 3 (716 words)

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Amy Tan, a Chinese American author, is describing how over many years, her Chinese immigrant experience was full of pain and she slowly lost herself. Her Chinese ancestors had told her their experiences that were also painful because they also wanted a life for their family. These experiences are not unique. They are shared by all Chinese immigrants.

Most people do not understand the amount of pain the Chinese Immigrants went through during this time. Chinese Immigrants came here to hopefully find gold and go back to their families so their children would be able to have a life.

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However, North American Governments used the Chinese Immigrants to make railroads and other types of labor. After their labor was completed the North American Government created legislation and acts to remove Chinese Immigrants.

They did this because the Chinese Immigrants had taken railroad jobs so they could make money. The Northern American Government did not like the fact that Chinese Immigrants were taking jobs from white male Californians.

In this paper, I argue that North American governments exploited Chinese Immigrants (during the gold rush) by using them for labor but then passing legislation and acts that banned them after they finished their labor.

In order to understand why Chinese Immigrants were flooding into California, we need to know why they were leaving. The Taiping Rebellion was the most important event in China in the nineteenth century. It lasted for fourteen years from 1850-1864. The rebellion began under the leadership of a man named Hong Xiuquan.

He was influenced by Christain teachings, he thought he was the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ sent to correct China.

A man named Feng Yunshan that was a friend of Hong organized a new religious group that they called “The God Worshippers’ Society” which they formed among the poor in Guangxi. Hong joined Feng and God Worshippers in 1847 and three years later lead them into a rebellion. On January 1 the year 1851, Hong proclaimed his new dynasty which he named Taiping Tianguo which meant “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” and he assumed the name of Tianwang or “Heavenly King”. They attracted many famine-stricken peasants, miners, and workers. Their propaganda against the Manchu rulers of China also attracted many.

Taiping ranks increased from several thousand to more than one million disciplined soldiers to separate men and women divisions. After capturing the city on March 10, 1853, they renamed it Tianjin which means “Heavenly Capital”. They dispatched a Northern Expedition but that failed so they tried another into the upper Yangtze and scored many victories. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening Yang Xiuqing the Taiping minister of state had tried to take away as much of Tianwangs power as he could and as a result, Yang and thousands of his followers were brutally killed. The general who had killed Yang was named Wei Changhui. He became to grow very disdainful and Hong had him brutally killed as well. Another general named Shi Dakai began to fear for his life so he ran from Hong along with many Taiping followers. The Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60) of the mid-nineteenth century between Great Britain and China left China in debt. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

The number of Chinese Immigrants spiked when the Gold Rush began. The Gold Rush started in San Francisco on January 24, 1848 - 1855. Kitty Calavita in her article, “Collisions at the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Class: Enforcing the Chinese Exclusion Laws” explains how many people arrived when she says, “Approximately 110,000 Chinese entered the United States between 1850 and 1882, most coming through the port of San Francisco.

By 1882, one-third of the workforce in San Francisco comprised Chinese immigrants or their children” (254). What this quote is saying is that when the Gold Rush started many Chinese Immigrants came to California through San Francisco in hopes to find gold. Chinese Immigrants had been coming into California but due to the Gold Rush, Chinese Immigrants flooded into California so it was very noticeable. Due to the number of Chinese Immigrants entering California during the Gold Rush, people who already lived in California were very upset with the number of Chinese Immigrants that the Chinese were hated and were not treated equally due to them being immigrants.