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The Chinese in America
| Article
# : |
12325 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1987 |
6,471 Words |
| Author
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Eloise Paananen and George Tsui
Eloise Paananen is a widely published author particularly
interested in ethnic groups in America. George Tsui is a
historian and philosopher. His political analyses appear in
Chinese language newspaper and magazines in Hong Kong and New
York. |
Today, although they only number slightly more than one million in a nation of 233 million people, Chinese-Americans enrich the United States with their intellectual and artistic achievements, business acuity, influence, and patriotism. Yet of all the peoples who migrated to America's shores, the Chinese possibly had the toughest time of all. Poor, unskilled by western standards, clinging to "mysterious" ways, the early immigrants were abused and exploited by brawny whites. Nonetheless, they pulled themselves out of the hopeless mire of ignorance and prejudice and today are among America's most valued citizens.
Chinese were first recorded in America in 1785, when three seamen were left stranded in Baltimore after their ship's captain decided to get married and remain on shore. They were oddities, but apparently nothing untoward happened to them. The first serious exodus from China came in 1851, the Year of the Pig, and the first year of the reign of Emperor Hien Feng.
It was a time of terrible drought in China; there had been no rain for months to water crops or grow rice. The Chinese could not feed their chickens, let alone their families. Thousands died of starvation, particularly in Canton in southern China. There was rebellion too, and oddly, this affected the lives of the Chinese who came to America. The rebellion was against the Manchus from Manchuria in northern China who invaded mainland China in 1644, thus overthrowing the Ming dynasty, which had lasted for 277 years. For 267 years (1644-1911), the Manchu rulers changed the styles of the people, requiring men to shave the outer edge of their hair and braid the center in a long tail called a queue. Chinese working in America kept their distinctive queues because without
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