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South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Book review: Chinese exclusion and mistreatment in 19th and 20th century America explored
The history of Chinese immigrants in America has always been about much more than one ethnic group. Advertisement As Michael Luo's Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America shows, understanding America's efforts to keep Chinese labourers out, and the violence enacted against those who got in, is essential to understanding the evolution of America's immigration system as we know it today. That is because restrictions against Chinese immigrants represented the first major flex in the modern era of the US federal government's power to control its borders. Chinese labourers were the first group to be barred from the entire country based on national origin, and lawsuits involving this group were often major tests of constitutional liberties – most notably the Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark in 1898, which established the right to birthright citizenship. Wong Kim Ark was born in California in 1873 to Chinese parents. After Wong was denied re-entry into the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that he was a US citizen by virtue of birth. Photo: SCMPost Time and time again, the treatment of this minority group served as a test of America's ability to live up to its own ideals of equality.
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Book Review: Michael Luo tells the harrowing story of Chinese exclusion in America
The history of Chinese immigrants in America has always been about much more than one particular ethnic group. As Michael Luo's 'Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America' demonstrates, understanding America's efforts to keep Chinese laborers out, and the violence enacted against those who stayed in, is essential to understanding the evolution of America's immigration system as we know it today. That's because restrictions against Chinese immigrants represented the first major flex in the modern era of the federal government's power to control its borders. Chinese laborers were the first group to be barred from the entire country based on national origin, and lawsuits involving this group were often major tests of constitutional liberties — most notably the Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark in 1898, which established the right to birthright citizenship. Time and time again, the treatment of this minority group served as a test of America's ability to live up to its own ideals of equality. As Massachusetts Sen. George Frisbie Hoar noted when he spoke out against the exclusionary legislation of the 1880s: 'We go boasting of our democracy, and our superiority, and our strength. The flag bears the stars of hope to all nations. A hundred thousand Chinese land in California and everything is changed.... The self-evident truth becomes a self-evident lie.' Luo's book covers over a century of history, from the 1840s to 1965. Immigration from China was largely unfettered at first, and Chinese laborers were essential to building the transcontinental railroad system — a truly epic part of the story, with thrilling descriptions of how men dangled in baskets off 2,000-foot precipices and set off charges that blasted open whole mountains. One witness wrote: 'When the debris had ceased to fall, the echoes were still reporting among the distant hills.' However, unemployment crises in the 1870s led white workers to jump on Chinese labor as the ultimate economic scapegoat. Chinese workers faced near-constant hate and harassment, ranging from the daily humiliation of stone-throwing children to outright massacres by angry mobs. Luo spends chapter after chapter meticulously documenting the disturbing details of 19th-century pogroms and race riots against Chinese communities in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle. Despite the ugly violence, Luo also takes care to document the actions of good men and women who stood up to the mob. Take Charles Andrew Huntington, a 73-year-old reverend in Eureka, California, who helped stop a massacre against Chinese residents in 1885. He lectured an enraged crowd: 'If Chinamen have no character, white men ought to have some.' Fanatics still ran every Chinese person out of town. A Chinese Christian, Charley Way Lum, had stopped by Huntington's house to pray before he left, when men burst in and put a rope around his neck. Another minister, C.E. Rich, intervened: 'If you hang him, you'll hang him over my dead body.' Lum escaped on a ship to San Francisco. Anti-Chinese sentiment enjoyed widespread popularity among both parties and played a major role in national politics, as it was considered key to winning the electoral votes of the West Coast. Starting with the Page Act of 1875, Congress started passing Chinese exclusion laws that grew more draconian every year. The Page Act targeted Chinese women, several years earlier than Chinese men, due to the widespread prejudice that most of them were sex workers. Anti-Chinese fervor culminated in the 1892 Geary Act, which required every Chinese person in the U.S. to register with the government or be deported. Immigration restrictions began to ease only when China became an ally in World War II – showing how much the vagaries of the shifting geopolitical winds can blow back on people at home. One shortcoming of the book is that Luo devotes so many pages to documenting what was done to Chinese immigrants that there's comparatively little time spent on what they did for themselves, on who they were as individuals beyond victimhood. A few compelling portraits do stand out: men like Yung Wing, an avid football player and Yale graduate who devoted his life to helping boys from China receive a Western education; Joseph Tape, who fought for his daughter's right to enter public school in San Francisco; and Mamie Louise Leung of Los Angeles, the first Asian-American reporter to work at a major newspaper. The fact that Chinese-Americans remained in the United States at all, despite widespread prejudice and the whole force of federal immigration law working to keep them out at every turn, speaks to the incredible tenacity of the community. One anecdote encapsulates this determined spirit: a Chinese coal miner, Lao Chung, was shot during an 1885 attack in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He survived and continued working for decades, the bullet still lodged in his back. — Luo was a national writer at The Associated Press from 2001-03 but has not met the reviewer, who joined in 2022. ___ AP book reviews:
South China Morning Post
23-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
His Chinese-American ancestor fought to enshrine birthright citizenship. Now he fights to preserve it
Few Americans knew of Norman Wong, a 75-year-old retired carpenter living quietly in Brentwood, California, until a presidential executive order transformed him into an unlikely symbol of a new national battle over a core constitutional issue: who is an American? His face has appeared across major American news organizations in recent days. When the South China Morning Post interviewed Wong via video, a television crew was en route to his home, and a calendar in the background overflowed with interview requests. With a sheepish grin, Wong admitted he sometimes confused journalists' names with their media outlets. Amid the whirlwind of attention, Wong has resolved to remain a counterpoint to US President Donald Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship, a controversial proclamation now before the Supreme Court. 'This is the battle for, in a sense, the soul of America,' he said. Though he is not part of any of the legal challenges to Trump's order, Wong has become the a vocal defender and a living testament of the legacy of his great-grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, whose 1898 Supreme Court victory – in the face of discriminatory laws targeting Chinese immigrants – confirmed a cornerstone of American citizenship law: anyone born on US soil is a citizen. Norman Wong, holding a plaque commemorating his great-grandfather Wong Kim Ark, whose landmark 1898 US Supreme Court case confirmed that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. Photo: Chinese for Affirmative Action As a result of the landmark case, Wong's family, and millions of other children from immigrant households over the decades since have become US citizens.
Washington Post
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
His great-grandfather enshrined birthright citizenship. Norman Wong is trying to save it.
SAN FRANCISCO — One hundred and twenty seven years after Wong Kim Ark's landmark Supreme Court victory enshrined birthright citizenship, Norman Wong arrived at the University of California at Berkeley in late April on a quest to protect his great-grandfather's legacy. Wong, 75, clutched a piece of paper before a campus forum on immigration — a short speech he had revised four times — but he carried no photos or family heirlooms. For most of his life, he had not heard of Wong Kim Ark, a poor cook born to Chinese immigrants in San Francisco in 1870.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Exploring the rich history of Chinese immigration in America at MOCA
NEW YORK (PIX11) – New York City has one of the largest Asian American communities in the United States, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles. But how well do you know the story of the Chinese in America? More Local News During AAPI Heritage Month, PIX11 News visited a fascinating museum in Chinatown to learn more. On the northern edge of Chinatown, in a renovated building at 215 Centre Street, lies the Museum of Chinese in America, otherwise known as MoCA. At 50,000 square feet, it is the largest institution dedicated to the Chinese American experience in this country. PIX11 News was given a private tour by MOCA President Michael Lee. For this third-generation Chinese American, the first room in the museum is personal as it chronicles the earliest waves of Chinese Immigrants. 'One grandfather who bought papers from a man named Lee, and that was already his name, so he got to keep his name,' Michael Lee, MOCA President, told PIX11 News. A wall features how the Chinese helped build the railroads across this country from West to East. Also, the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and racist posters from the last century. There's a wall of innovators, including the creator of Bing cherries, AhBing, and a room devoted to Chinese American influences in movies, such as Anna Mae Wong, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood. 'She was picked to be in a film in Canada, and she had a hard time getting back into the country,' Lee told PIX11 News. One of the newest exhibits here at the Museum Of Chinese In America is called Heaven and Earth, the blue map of China. 'The land was tied to the heavens,' Lee told PIX11 News. 'The Chinese felt strong national pride in their land's connection to the stars,' he added. The last room on the tour is called Magazine Fever, Gen X, Asian American periodicals in the 1980s and 90s, when Asian American identity was finally recognized as a demographic. So, who should visit this museum? 'Everybody interested in Asian culture, everybody interested in learning about the history of our people here should come to this museum,' Lee told PIX11 News. MOCA is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
