Chinese Americans

Early Immigration

The first immigration wave from China began as an escape from Western colonialization, natural disasters, famine, and work shortages. For example, thousands of Chinese fled China as a result of the Opium Wars, waged primarily by British colonizers; and Chinese men were initially drawn to Hawaii’s sugar plantations (1787) and California’s gold fields (1848).

The Chinese were the first Asians to migrate in significant numbers to Washington State where labor contractors aggressively recruited them for mining in the 1860s and salmon canneries, logging camps, and railroad construction in the 1870s. Chinese laborers made up two-thirds of the mining workforce; one-fourth of the cannery workers; and two-thirds of the railroad crew, building almost every major rail connection in Washington before 1900. The number of Chinese laborers declined in the early twentieth century due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was the first law that prohibited immigration on the basis of nationality.

Exclusion Era

As a result of prejudice and competition for jobs, the Chinese were increasingly restricted by exclusionary laws. For example, in 1854, the Chinese were denied the right to testify in court against Whites, resulting in Whites robbing, killing and assaulting the Chinese with impunity. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited immigration from China and set the stage for many other nationality-based exclusion laws. Chinese women were especially targeted for exclusion in order to control the Chinese population in the U.S. and keep the laborers single and mobile. By 1890, the ratio of men to women was 27 to one, truncating the natural development of the Chinese community.

With the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the anti-Chinese movement intensified in Washington and the Chinese were driven out of labor camps and eventually from the chinatowns. This attacked the heart of the community since the chinatowns served as cultural enclaves for the Chinese. For example, Seattle’s Chinatown, which began in the 1860s, employed many Chinese men forced out of the labor market. Also, Chinese merchants established some of Seattle’s largest businesses there; and Seattle’s Chinatown became the home of benevolent family associations that provided business loans, language instruction, and social outlets.

In 1906, a “loophole” to the Exclusion Act surfaced after the great fire and earthquake in San Francisco destroyed all of the U.S. immigration records. Since the government had no records to prove otherwise, countless Chinese bought false papers identifying themselves as children of Chinese Americans. However, after gaining citizenship, these so-called “paper sons” often lived out their lives in fear of discovery.

To curtail illegal immigrants and close the “loophole,” a detention center opened on Angel Island located in San Francisco Bay. Suspect immigrants were separated from family members and placed in a crowded and demoralizing environment for weeks. Between 1910 and 1940, as many as 175,000 Chinese immigrants were detained and processed. It was not until an alliance between the U.S. and China during World War II that the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, resulting in the natural development of Chinese American communities and the drafting of Chinese men to join U.S. World War II armed forces.

Community Growth

Two decades later, immigration laws designed to bar the entry of Asian immigrants were lifted. Consistent with the intent to eliminate discrimination in the U.S. through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1965 as an act to phase out race-based immigration laws.

In A Different Mirror, scholar and author, Ronald Takaki, writes that the passage of the 1965 Act marked an ideological departure from a perspective that the U.S. was a homogenous White society to one that redefined who would become an American. Asian American communities soon began to grow. Noteworthy is that the second wave of Chinese immigration was very different from the first, with increasing numbers of students, professionals, and people from cities.

Today the Chinese community is the third largest ethnic group after Mexicans and Filipino Americans. Since 1965, the Chinese American population has increased more than ten times to 2.4 million.

Fight Against Oppression

Chinese Americans have a proactive history of resisting racist oppression. Examples of such resistance are the 1867 strike by 7,000 Chinese laborers against the Central Pacific Railroad; the 1933 Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance to fight discrimination in New York; the 1936 union fight in Alaska won by a combination of Asian American, Chicano and white cannery workers; and the 1938 successful 14-week garment strike by Chinese American women.

Nevertheless, stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes persist today. Recent events continue to create fear, misdirected anger, and prejudice against Chinese Americans. One such high profile case is that of Wen Ho Lee, which raised concerns around racially-biased law enforcement or racial profiling.

Today, Chinese Americans focus their attention on changing negative American attitudes towards them by being politically active. Among the most notable Chinese American political leaders in Washington State are Wing Luke, who in 1963 became the first person of Asian descent to be elected into office in the Pacific Northwest; Ruby Chow, who in 1973 became the first Chinese American woman elected to Seattle City Council; and Gary Locke, who in 1996 became the first Asian American governor on the U.S. mainland.

Sources: Takaki, Ronald. “Strangers from a Different Shore,” 1989; Takaki, Ronald. “A Different Mirror,” 1993; Dubrow, Nomura, et al. “The Historic Context for the Protection of Asian/Pacific American Resources in Washington State,” 1993; Natale, Valerie. “Guardian of the Western Gate,” 1998; Committee of 100. “American Attitudes Toward Chinese Americans & Asian Americans,” 2001.