Two Opposing Views About Chinese Exclusion

 The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which lasted until 1943, was passed to prevent cheap Chinese labor from depriving Americans of work. Additional justifications included racist xenophobic views that the Chinese were inferior, unassimilable, devious, unhygienic, and immoral, to name a few.

However, there were notable defenses of the Chinese such as Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll's argument in 1899 against the unjust exclusion that fell on deaf ears. Green was a free thinker, abolitionist, and considered the foremost orator and political speechmaker of late 19th century America.

    In contrast to Ingersoll's defense of the Chinese, an article published in the Birmingham newspaper on January 3, 1911, p.17 argued for continuing the exclusion of Chinese. Using the caricature of the Chinese as a cheater who outmaneuvers two white men trying to cheat him in a card game in a poem written in 1870 by Bret Harte, Plain Language From Truthful James that was more widely known as The Heathen Chinee. The 1911Birmingham article invoked the image of the devious untrustworthy "heathen Chinee" created way back in 1870 to depicts the many sneaky ways the Chinese devised to gain entry illegally into the country. 

  

  

Many of the arguments were specious. If the Chinese were 'unassimilable,' it was not an inherent trait of the Chinese but a condition imposed by the racist barriers that denied Chinese naturalization, opportunity to testify in court, and the denial of their bringing wives and children from China, among other impediments. The closing claim, without evidence, that the Chinese had 10,000 copies made of landmarks to aid immigrants in answering questions from immigration officials was a smear against the Chinese.

Chinese Sunday School in Birmingham, Alabama, 1903

 

   This 1903 newspaper account of the Chinese in Birmingham, Alabama, caught my attention for several reasons. It showed that despite the harsh and discriminatory treatment of Chinese across the country in 1903 that began decades earlier and continued for many subsequent decades, there were efforts by Christian churches, even in the Deep South, to convert these "heathens" to Christianity through Sunday School classes.

    The Second Presbyterian Church provided 15 teachers for  15 Chinese students of unspecified ages.  It was felt that the 1:1 ratio would expedite their acquisition of English.  That might be a valid point but, I was surprised that there were as many as 15 Chinese children in Birmingham at all!  The 1900 census showed only 5 Chinese, all adult males, and the 1910 census showed only 10 Chinese adult males. No women or children were listed in either census. This discrepancy probably is due to poor enumeration that failed to record any Chinese children, or women, if there were any.

   The pastor cited the importance of this outreach "because the Chinese are subject to many temptations peculiar to American cities." He did not cite specific temptations but implied that Sunday School experiences would protect them. As an aside, he did not seem to recognize how effectively Chinese parents discipline their children to behave.

    A final argument by the pastor for the value of Sunday School experiences for Chinese children was that when they retire and return to China, they may play a role in the evangelical goal of spreading the Gospel in China. 

     The evangelical mission in Birmingham was by no means an isolated one, but one that could be found increasingly in towns, large and small, across the country by 1900.

El Paso Chinese

    By the early 1870s, a great depression hit the United States and unemployed Americans blamed the cheap labor of the rapidly growing number of Chinese immigrants. Consequently, the  Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 barred Chinese laborers from entering, and for those already in the country from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. 

    The Chinese in El Paso found illegal means to bring in their countrymen. Chinese were thought to have built tunnels to smuggle Chinese across the Mexican border from Juarez into El Paso. 

       In 1881, the first 1200 Chinese arrived in El  Paso to work on the Southern Pacific Railroad connecting El Paso and California.  After construction was completed, some workers moved on to work in other places in the U.S., some returned home to China, but others remained in El Paso.  Evidence that a large Chinese community developed in El Paso is seen at the Concordia Cemetery, which has a sizable section for burials of Chinese.

      Sam Hing was a Chinese operating in El Paso as a labor contractor recruiting Chinese laborers looking for work on the  Southern Pacific work crews. Hing became one of the most prominent, influential, and successful Chinese.  By 1900, Hing, having moved to Mexico, was reputed to be worth as much as $15 million.  

     Hing attributed his financial success to his dedication to work and smart investments. However,  he is alleged to have treated the Chinese laborers he hired like slaves so his financial gains were at their expense.  Two laborers about to be deported testified about the horrible treatment they received working for Hing.

An El Paso newspaper article written in 1940 about the early days of Chinese in El Paso did not cite the year but noted that Sam Hing eventually moved from El Paso to Mexico with his fortune and married a Mexican woman.

                                         



Chop Suey...the Font, Is it Racist?

Upon his death in November 1901, the Sunday Call newspaper in San Francisco devoted an entire page in tribute to Li Hung Chang, a powerful statesman, and diplomat, who they dubbed the "Yellow Napoleon." Such recognition was deserving, but I wondered if the font chosen for headers was not in poor taste. Known variously as Chop Suey font or later in the 1950s as Mandarin font, it was created in 1883 by the Cleveland Foundry and has become the go-to graphic whenever one wants to emphasize the foreign or exotic aspect of Chinese, and other Asians.

    Critics, such as Crystal Wang, of the font have argued it perpetuates a harmful, if not outright racist, stereotype.

Wang cites two egregious uses of the Chop Suey font in advertising Chinese food and promoting 'humor' on clothing items.

Political campaign ads have used the font to invoke imagery of Chinese, and other Asian, candidates for political offices as foreigners.

On the other hand, it must be recognized that Chinese restaurants have employed Chop Suey font in ads and menus for decades and might be accused of promoting its use.  However, Chinese restaurants promoting Chinese food would seem more justified than a clothing brand in using Chop Suey font.

 The comedienne, Margaret Cho, who is Korean lamented how the Chop Suey font boxed her in the way she was promoted.

Oh if I had a dollar for every time I have seen ads promoting me with racist caricatures, fonts or descriptions – I would have many, many, many dollars, flying off me like lettuce leaves that you could roll up some rice and dried shrimp and chili paste in. The first time was when I was about 16 or 17, on a wall of hastily pinned up notices for upcoming shows. My name blazed in big bright letters in the Chop Suey font, pointy, sword shaped lines to create words, familiar from Chinese restaurants and pretty much anything of Asian origin repackaged and sold everywhere that is not Asia.

Under my name, which was tremendously exciting to see in print, way back then, no matter what font it was in, was a small caricature of a coolie, in a rice paddy hat, with bucked teeth and holding chopsticks, rice spilling out everywhere. The futility of rice eaten with chopsticks – this has never made sense to me. It’s very hard to pick up these tiny pieces of food with sticks. I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. I am not sure I will ever, if I haven’t by now.

   

Finally, perhaps it is fitting that the 1901 newspaper articles on Li Hung Chang used Chop Suey font. After all, it is believed that "chop suey" __the dish was literally invented for him on a visit to New York and Philadelphia in 1893!

Two Chinese Fought Racial Discrimination, One Win and One Loss At the U.S. Supreme Court

Yick Wo was a laundryman in San Francisco for 22 years in the late 19th century.  A law passed in 1880 banned Chinese laundries in wood buildings, unless they had a permit. The law was proposed as a public safety measure as laundries in wood buildings had high risks of starting fires. Yick Wo defied this law and continued operating his laundry. He was fined and jailed for his failure to comply with the ban. His case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins 1886, went to the US Supreme Court. 

Of about 200 Chinese laundrymen, only one was granted a permit, yet almost all white-owned laundries, which were also in wood structures, received a permit. The Supreme Court ruled in Yick Wo's favor, not because there was no fire risk, but because its discriminatory enforcement would close all Chinese laundries, and thus violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Gong Lum operated a grocery store in Rosedale, Mississippi. The School Board ruled in 1924 that his two daughters, Martha and Berda (3rd and 4th from the left bottom row in the class photograph) could not attend a white school in Mississippi on the grounds that they were not Caucasians and should attend a school for colored children. Gong Lum obtained legal assistance to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him, Gong Lum v. Rice, 1927, upholding school segregation. Gong Lum lost the fight and responded by moving his family across the Mississippi River to Arkansas.

These cases illustrate some of the discriminatory barriers the Chinese faced, and how they fought back with legal action.  Even though they did not always get favorable rulings, their cases became significant historic legal decisions in American history.

Chinese Exclusion (1882) Is Followed by Expulsion (1892)

     The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act failed to stem the tide of Chinese immigration that posed a  great threat of cheap labor taking jobs from white labor. Ironically, in the 1860s, American tycoons recruited thousands of Chinese laborers to help build the Transcontinental Railroad. Upon its completion in 1869, Chinese railroad workers moved to build peripheral railroads as well as entered other occupations including mining, fishing, farming, lumbering, and manufacturing, fields which they were eventually barred from forcing hundreds to run hand laundries and later, Chinese restaurants.  In 1892 when the original Chinese Exclusion Act was due to expire, Thomas Geary proposed a 10-year extension known as the Geary Act which required all Chinese in the United States:

1. to have 2 white witnesses attest that he was not illegal and apply for a Certificate of Residence bearing his photograph

2. and, if stopped by the collector of revenue (later replaced by the Customs Office) without their Certificate of Residence, face a fine up to $1,000,

 3. and be jailed for up to a year of hard labor,

 4. and finally be deported.   

    Chinese strenuously objected to this draconian law. The Chinese Six Companies advised the Chinese to resist this demeaning law, which essentially required them to wear what amounted to a “dog tag.” Furthermore, it was proposed, but not approved, that Chinese detained when attempting to enter the country could no longer file a writ of habeas corpus, which previously enabled many to circumvent immigration requirements.

    The Geary Act raised fears of the threat of work stoppages, reduced cotton trade, and possible violence toward American missionaries in China. The China Equal Rights League vigorously protested the Geary Act, and one of its leaders, a laundryman named Fong Yue Ting along with Wong Quan, and Lee Joe went to the U.S. Marshal's office in Manhattan in 1893 to turn themselves in as illegal residents.  The judge ordered them deported and their lawyers immediately appealed the decision on the grounds that the deportation order was done without due process.  Fong Yue Ting v. United States went to the U.S. Supreme Court where Joseph Choate, the lawyer for the Chinese challenged the constitutionality of the ruling.

    Justice Horace Gray held that Congress had the power to deport, and that power is absolute and unqualified, following an earlier ruling in Chae Chan Ping v. United States (1889) of plenary power which does not allow appeals of government decisions. Ping had made a trip to visit China and held a Certificate of Residence that entitled him to reentry, but he was denied on the argument that prohibiting immigrants from re-entering the country was an exercise of sovereignty. In the case of Fong Yue Ting, the U.S. Supreme Court held that immigration expulsion was so closely aligned with immigration exclusion that it fell within the realm of Congress's plenary power over matters related to foreign relations. The court did not view deportation as a punishment arguing that it was but a method of "enforcing the return to his own country of an alien who has not complied with the conditions upon the performance of which the government of the nation acting within the Constitutional Authority as determined is continuing to reside there."

    In other words deportation merely an administrative process, and not a criminal ruling, which would trigger 5th Amendment protections. However, returning unauthorized immigrants to their country of origin is not subject to due process protections. Dissenting Justice Stephan Field, who in many past cases defended Chinese exclusion, maintained that deportation went too far. He challenged the view that deportation was merely an administrative process because it involved deprivation of liberty, and removal from home, family, business, and property.

    Ultimately, what saved the Chinese from the full application of the Geary Act was the enormous financial cost of identifying, arresting, detaining, imprisoning, and deporting all unlawful Chinese immigrants. The estimated cost was more than six million dollars, far exceeding the $50,000 Congress had allocated for enforcement of the Geary Act.  There was no option but to order U.S. Marshals and Customs officers to refrain from enforcing the Geary Act. 

    The Fong Yue Ting ruling dealt with the deportation provision of the Geary Act but did not address the legality of the imprisonment component. The Chinese Six Companies challenged Section 4 of the Geary Act which allowed judges to send deportees to prison while awaiting deportation. In1892 Wong Wing, Lee Poy, Lee You Tong, and Chan Wah Dong walked into the offices of the US Marshal in Detroit and admitted to an unlawful residence in the United States and did not have Certificates of Residence. They were sentenced to serve 60 days in jail and then deported, a ruling which was immediately appealed.

    Wong Wing v. United States took four years to reach the Supreme Court where lawyer Frank Canfield challenged a deportation hearing as not meeting the Constitutional requirements for depriving persons of their liberty and that the Constitution guarantees due process to every person subject to imprisonment. No person, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, can be summarily be imprisoned without a jury trial and protection from cruel and unusual punishment. 

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Wong Wing v. United States that unlawful residence was not a crime. Unlawful residents who had committed no crime should not be subject to criminal punishment. The Court, therefore, prohibited federal judges from sentencing deportees to prison prior to deportation. If arrested Chinese cases were summarily adjudicated, they could still be forcibly removed from the country, but could not be imprisoned awaiting deportation.

    Wong Wing v. United States decriminalized unlawful residence within the United States and prohibited imprisonment as a practice of US immigration control, a view that remains valid to this day.

     The Wong Wing ruling on May 18,1896 attracted little public attention perhaps because it was overshadowed by the ruling on the same date of the Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, decision that established the “separate but equal” doctrine regarding public facilities for whites and blacks. It reasserted white supremacy in the face of black emancipation and defined the basic architecture of race relations in the United States for many decades.

    Since 1896 there have been nearly 50 million deportations and forced removals from the United States. Despite the Wong Wing v. United States decision, most of today's deportees, largely Hispanic rather than Chinese, were forcibly confined within one of the nation's carceral facility between capture and deportation. In Los Angeles alone, the jails are so clogged with persons awaiting deportation that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has contracts with private companies to cage the overflow of detainees. Defenders of this practice hold that it is "not imprisonment in a legal sense."

For more information:

Kelly Lytle Hernandez. City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965. University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill, N.C.: 2017.

Chinese on a Californian Peach Farm: Set of 6 Oilette Postcards by Graham Hyde

 Perhaps the first, or one of the first picture postcards, were those created in England by RaphaelTuck in the early 1900s by different artists including Graham Hyde who made these lovely six scenes of Chinese on a Californias peach farm in 1908.

All Tuck collectors recognize the trademark "Oilette". This was a type of card used by Tuck, starting in 1903, with a surface designed to appear as a miniature oil painting. Early "Oilettes" had a brush stroke simulation, but the vast majority of Tuck "Oilettes" have a smooth surface. Many collectors refer to any facsimile of an artist's work as an "Oilette". The cities of New York, Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Santa Fe and Ottawa were all well covered by Tuck "Oilettes". State views of Maine, the Adirondacks in New York, Jamestown Virginia, and others are well represented among the "Oilettes". Many "Oilettes" also exist for many of the other countries in the "Americas". Raphael Tuck in their catalogs described "Oilettes" as "veritable miniature oil paintings". Prominent artists for American and Canadian "Oilettes" included Charles Flower and Albert Operti. 

Graham Hyde also created a set of six caricatures of Chinese expressions. An open-ended phrase in cursive (in blue)was part of the postcard and the sender completed the phrase with his or her own sentiment (in black) to send to the recipient of the card.

Qiaopi: Remittances from Gold Mountain to Guangdong

Starting around the middle of the 19th century, a Chinese diaspora grew as tens of thousands emigrated from Guangdong villages to many places around the world. They saved some of their earnings to send back to their parents and if married, to their wives and any children back in China.

Qiaopi is one of several names given to the “silver letters” Chinese emigrants sent home. These remittances of money were typically accompanied by brief letters that described how the funds were to be distributed as well as personal expressions to family. Letters sent back to the emigrants were called huipi.

Access to these correspondences accompanying the remittances could provide valuable insights about relationships between the emigrants and their families. A detailed examination of a collection of these letters, which have not been studied in depth previously, estimated to number over 160,000 in private collections, has been analyzed in a 2018 book by Gregor Benton and Haiming Liu in Dear China: Emigrant Letters and Remittances, 1820 -1980. 

Using archival data collated from different parts of the world, the authors analyze the institutions for receiving and delivering the remittances and letters as well as delivering the huipi to the emigrant emitters. Since many families of emigrants were illiterate, they had to rely on the couriers (pijiao) to prepare the huipi or letters to send to the remitter to not only acknowledge receipt of funds but ask for more money, beg the emigrant to return, or seek guidance to help them emigrate to join them in America, among many other topics of family matters.

Unlike in today's world of instantaneously delivered communications with secured access, it must be recognized that in the not too distant past, the process was much slower and possibly subject to fraud. (As a child, I wondered how swiftly and safely were my father's remittances to a small village in Hoiping.)

The qiaopi trade involved several major components ranging from the couriers (shuike),  remittance shops or "clearing houses (piju), and the Chinese banking system. There were differences in the details of the operation in different regions as well as in other Asian countries but to succeed they all involved a deeply embedded trust between the piju, the remitter, and the recipient.  Modifications to the process occurred over time in response to factors as varied as political and social class changes in Chinese society, changing literacy rates, and resistance to nationalization.

The benefits of the remittances went far beyond the individual recipients, according to Benton and Lui, who argue that qiaopi not only connected Chinese emigrants with their families back home but significantly contributed to China’s substantial economic and transnational development.

Due to the rapid growth of Chinese immigration and their remittances, the qiaopi trade quickly grew from one-man operations to the formation of larger piju, a sustainable industry that connected China's modern banks and post office with national, transnational, and international trade networks.

For many years the qiaopi trade was obscure but in the 1990s with the finding of archives of thousands of qiaopi a new research area has been created that looks at emigrants, their descendants, and dependents to describe routines of their daily lives.

Qiaopi had a profound impact on developing China's national economy especially in the coastal regions of Guangdong and Fujian. Chinese migrants throughout the world utilized networks that were uninterrupted for long periods of time linking Chinese throughout the world with their hometown villages.

Some examples of the correspondences in qiaopi and huipi.

Chinese Attempts to Weaken Exclusion Law Opposed by Workingmen's Union

When the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, Chinese leaders in 1900 countered by easing their restrictions affecting immigration of merchants. However, the Workingman labor unions voiced strong opposition to any relaxation of restrictions fearing that opening the door a little would lead to a large influx of Chinese merchants or Chinese claiming to be merchants.

“The workingman remembers the days when all a Chinaman had to do as to swear that he owned an interest, no matter how small, in a Chinatown store and his right land was established.  They call attention to the fact that under those circumstances the carrying capacity of the steerages of the Pacific Mail steamers was taxed to the utmost to provide accommodations for the “merchants” who were flocking into California. Business houses were established in Chinatown for the express purpose of standing sponsor for the “merchants,” and it is a matter of record that some firms had as many as 200 members. Attention is called to the fact that agencies were established in China where “merchants” were schooled in the answers they must give touching their qualifications to enter the United States. The federal courts were clogged with habeas corpus cases of alleged Chinese merchants and the two court commissioners were kept busy taking evidence.”

Rock Island Line And The Heathen Chinee

The beginning of the most popular version of "The Rock Island Line" tells the story of a train operator who smuggles pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock. The song's chorus includes:

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road

The Rock Island Line is the road to ride

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road

If you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it

Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line

Interestingly, in a promotional brochure to attract riders, the Rock Island Railroad featured the 1870 Bret Harte poem, Plain Language from Truthful James, published in the Overland Monthly, a San Francisco–based literary magazine with humor, pathos, and romantic nostalgia for a lost frontier in the West that helped attract settlers from the East.  

This most widely known poem of Harte depicted a card game of euchre in which two white miners plan to cheat a Chinaman, Ah Sin, who they regard as "child-like" and easily taken advantage of. However, Ah Sin outsmarts them and wins with cards he had hidden up his sleeves.  When the miners discover the trickery of the "heathen Chinee" one exclaims, "we are ruined by cheap Chinese labor," an allusion to the nationwide fear that Chinese immigrant laborers were taking jobs from white workers, they proceed to give the hapless Chinaman a pummeling. Actually"heathen" means non-Christian and was not accurate but "heathen Chinee" caught on as a popular term of derision. A more appropriate epithet for the Chinese might have been "savage" to contrast it with whites as "civilized." Ironically, Harte had composed the poem to point out the hypocrisy of white racists, but it backfired and created greater rather than less animosity toward "heathen Chinee."

In 1872 the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad wanted to entice more travel by whites (civilized) through the wild West (savage) on its route from Chicago to California. In a promotional brochure, the imagery evoked by Harte's poem was featured with illustrations to convey a picture of the civilized conquering the uncivilized. 

Mexal, Stephan J.  Reading for Liberalism: The Overland Monthly and the Writing of the Modern American West Opens in new window.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013.

See also: https://chineseamericanhistorian.blogspot.com/2019/03/chinese-as-butts-of-put-down-humor.html

China Peak, A Sierra Mountain Named in Honor of A Chinese Cowboy

Arriving in central California from Alabama around 1859, J. A. Blasingame quickly became one of the area’s largest landowners by purchasing land in Fresno County. He entered the stock-raising business, which was very profitable.

His wife, Mary Jane, wanted a domestic servant and asked him to ‘‘try a China boy, as they were said to be excellent domestic workers with no marrying tendencies." Male Chinese servants were popular among well-to-do white families in California.  One writer noted that the Chinese male domestic was ‘‘ingenious about the kitchens and it mends,’’ ‘‘usually teachable,’’ ‘‘generally amiable and pleasant,’’ and ‘‘the friend of the children and seems oftentimes himself but a child of larger growth."

As luck would have it, one day while in San Francisco they saw a Chinese boy of about 13 years old crying inconsolably in front of a store because the owner was angry with him for poor work.  After obtaining permission from the boy's employer, Blasingame offered the boy, Charley Lee, an opportunity to live and work in his home near Fresno which he quickly accepted.

But young Lee preferred outdoor life and soon joined the shepherds Blasingame hired to manage his livestock. The Blasingames were sheep ranchers, but by the early 1890s this industry was under fire both locally and nationally.  The large herds living in the mountain range were seen as a significant environmental threat because sheep consume natural flora at a high rate. In 1893, President Benjamin Harrison signed an executive order creating a Sierra Forest Reserve, regulated by the federal government.

As the head cowboy, Charley Lee, who was regarded more as a family member than an employee, added "Blasingame" to his name. He was both the face and the power of their operation in the Sierra at a place that came to be called China Camp. As a Chinese during a period of growing racism, Lee was often a target for verbal abuse from Basque and Portuguese herders under his authority and who also threatened to disobey instructions of their Chinese American boss. 

In the late 1860s, John Muir, the famous naturalist, and Sierra Club founder in 1891, had begun exploring Yosemite and soon advocated conserving the natural beauty of the Sierra. In 1870, Muir was joined by University of California professor Joseph LeConte, Sr. on student expeditions to Yosemite. One of the Club’s first causes was successfully arguing for the outright ban on sheep raising. During these expeditions, both Muir and LeConte, and his son, met Charley Lee.  LeConte and Lee established a strong friendship and they met often on LeConte's expeditions. They spent long hours talking around a campfire, swapping stories about their adventures in the mountains, and LeConte made a point of bringing him a quart of whiskey during each of his visits.

Charley Lee Blasingame smoking outside his house at China Camp.

Lee’s ability to maintain the flocks of sheep he tended required skill navigating the delicate politics to ensure continued access to the reserve. This task entailed constant contact with not only other herders but also the Sierra rangers patrolling the forest.  Establishing good relationships was essential if the Blasingames were to continue receiving grazing permits and avoid harassment by the rangers. This was a world inhabited entirely by whites, and yet Lee was able to be successful in negotiating his way. The fact that LeConte named Chinese Peak in Lee’s honor, and that the name was allowed to remain despite controversies over Sierra naming conventions, reflected the reputation Lee enjoyed. 

 

On his deathbed in 1926, Lee insisted that his remains be returned to China although the Blasingame family had offered to bury him in their family plot. ‘‘Alive I’m Blasingame. Dead, I’m Chinaman. Put me in the China graveyard—already paid for when I come to Ame[r]ica,’’ he was reported as saying. Despite how the Blasingame family viewed him, Lee’s self-identification remained firmly Chinese.  Ignoring his wishes, Lee was buried in the Blasingame family plot instead. Although done without malice, this action, unfortunately, displayed a lack of cultural understanding.

"The Cowboy and the Mountain: Charley Lee Blasingame and Chinese American Interactions in the Sierra Nevada" 

Jeffery M. Der Torosian; Bradley W. Hart

Pacific Historical Review (2016) 85 (4): 506–531.

China Peak should not be confused with Sing Peak, which is also in Yosemite, and also named after a Chinese, Tie Sing, who was a revered cook for cartographers mapping the regions of Yosemite.

https://chineseamericanhistorian.blogspot.com/2012/07/yosemite-mountain-named-in-honor-of.html

Coming from China And Becoming Americanized, Texas Style

 Many, if not the majority, of newly arrived immigrants from China take a few years, if ever,  to become assimilated and adopt American culture fully. Meet two exceptions of Chinese men who came to Texas and embraced aspects of its culture wholeheartedly.

 Bruce Wang, an international student in Texas who decided to transform to fit in. He learned a Southern accent by watching Duck Dynasty and got a job on a ranch. AJ+ host Dolly Li traveled to Lubbock to understand how – and why – a Chinese city boy became a Texan. 

Donald Chen came from China to a Texas ranch where Chinese gun lovers live out firearm fantasies that are largely forbidden in China. For Chen, this is the "American Dream."

These two Chinese Texans certainly do not match the expectations people have about Chinese immigrants.

Chinese fishing in the Channel Islands in mid 19th century.

    Chinese began to develop the abalone industry in Monterey, California in 1853. As the industry developed, Chinese merchant/labor contractors using junks working out of Santa Barbara, controlled the Chinese fishery.

    As squatters on the Channel Islands, they built camps on the offshore islands where they would fish from skiffs, prying the mollusks from the rocks of shallow waters. Using a long pole with a wedge on one end, they would knock an abalone off a rock and then draw it up with a boat hook. Onshore, after removing the meat from the shell, the abalone was pounded and then boiled in a large kettle and then placed on racks in the sun to dry. When the meat was thoroughly dry, it was packed in sacks for shipment to San Francisco where it was sold both to China as well as to the large Chinese community in San Francisco. The meat was considered a great luxury and was consumed primarily by the more affluent Chinese.

 The Chinese abalone industry peaked on Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and San Clemente islands from 1892 to 1895. In 1900, however, county ordinances were passed that made it illegal to gather abalones from less than twenty feet of water. The regulations completely halted their commercial abalone operations.  As the shallow water abalone populations were depleted, Japanese divers moved in and took over the industry. 

Seven of the eight California Channel Islands have “Chinese” places names, including Chinese Harbor, China Camp, Chinese Point, and China Canyon, names that may have originated from days when Yankee clippers landed Chinese on the islands awaiting a chance to smuggle them over to the mainland.

There was ongoing suspicion that the islands were used as stations for smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants. An immigration inspector would travel to the Channel Islands to conduct interviews with Chinese working at abalone camps. 

Below are selected notes about the Chinese fishermen

from official records.

February 1857 [Hutchings Illustrated California Magazine]: “Captain C. J. W Russell notes “At the present time there are no less than twelve schooners and sloops chartered by Chinamen; besides several hundred of Chinese laborers engaged in this business, as they are an important article of consumption to Chinamen in California, in addition to the vast quantities exported by them to their native land. In flavor, these are said to be fully equal to the oyster, especially in soup, and could be introduced advantageously for our own use, and we would suggest to epicures here, to give this dish of ‘John’s’ a trial, for it may be possible that although we might not relish cooked rats, the abalone may be one of the greatest of delicacies to our own people…

June 5, 1885 [SBDI]: “The Chinese merchants are experiencing quiet times in their branches of trade. The merchants during the past year, however, have shipped hundreds of dollars worth of abalone shells, to say nothing of the dried fish that has been shipped to San Francisco and thence forwarded to the ‘flowery kingdom.’ Sing Chung and Co. have a number of men constantly employed in hunting, fishing, and gathering shells in and around the several islands that are within a few hours sail of Santa Barbara. They own their own boats, and in fact everything that pertains to the business in which they pursue. Their Chinese junks are commanded by Mongolians, who have been brought up on their own water, and can reef and furl with true American style…”

June 22, 1885 [SBDI]: “Misconceptions as to the sailing qualities of a Chinese junk. Yesterday the reporter of this paper, in company with contractor Mix and others, visited the Chinese junk, a frail-looking vessel that is moored in our harbor, having not long since arrived from the lower coast, where she has been engaged in the hunting trade. A sunburned Chinaman, wearing loose pants made out of canvas duck, hatless, unbleached cotton shirt unbuttoned down the front, greeted us upon the arrival of our boat, and in pigeon English extended our crowd a hearty welcome, and assisted us over the bulwarks of the vessel. He afterwards proved to be the captain… The boat is a veritable Chinese junk, built and manned by Chinamen, and from her mast floats the emblem of their country, which affords a striking contrast with the hull of the boat which is painted black… she smells very strong of fish. Her capacity is not great, owing to her peculiar shape, as she appears narrow and her stern runs forward in such angle that it leaves but little of the boat to rest upon the water. Her cabin is dark, dingy, and uninviting. No windows nor means of ventilation of any kind except a small aperture, just large enough to permit a man’s body to pass through, and through this hole, you have to pass in order to reach the cabin. Here we found a man at work netting seines and nets which they use in their business. The meshes were not quite an inch square and the work was systematically performed. The crew seemed pleased at our coming aboard, and in order to show their appreciation, they treated us to brandy, cigars, and fresh-made tea. They carry no nautical instruments, not even a compass, and their navigation is entirely done by landmarks, as they seldom go out of sight of land…”

August 29, 1885 [SBDP]: “A new Santa Barbara industry is the drying of abalone meat for shipment to San Francisco and export to China where it is regarded as a delicacy by the natives. Sing Chung and Sing Hop, Chinese merchants engaged in the trade, have sent for exhibition several specimens of the dried meat, as well as a number of handsomely polished abalone shells.”

August 28, 1887 [SBDI]: “Protect the fish. Considerable interest is manifested in the efforts of the State Board of Fish Commissioners to suppress the destruction of immature fish in the bays of the Northern Coast. Chinese fishermen are said to use nets of illegal size with very small meshes…

September 18, 1891 [VSFP]: “Recent developments indicate that the gang of opium smugglers, known to be strung on the Pacific Coast, has found a new field of operations along the shores of the Santa Barbara Channel, and, all things considered, the wonder is that the field was not found long ago. Possibly, indeed it was… those islands themselves, several of them deserted rocks inhabited only during a part of the year by Chinese fishermen, and honey-combed with wave-worn caves, afford a thousand hiding places for the drug. 

July 7, 1892 [CDT]: “Attempt to smuggle Chinamen. British Columbian schooner, the Eliza Edwards, is hovering off the California coast with a cargo of Chinese immigrants which it is trying to land on United States soil… The attempt to land coolies is likely to be made, it is thought, near Santa Barbara…”

December 2, 1892 [SBMP]: “The government agent for registering Chinese of this place has not been able to secure any names up to date. This registration is a formality that John Chinamen can’t exactly ‘savey.’”

May 22, 1894 [SBDI]: “The Abalone Trade. Anyone who has ever tasted abalone soup when it was fixed ‘just right,’ has never forgotten how good it was, and often longs for another chance. But the abalone consumed by the local trade is insignificant compared to the vast quantity shipped annually to San Francisco and the Chinese, and they prepare it in various ways, making it almost as edible as the rat when properly cooked. Unlike the rat, however, abalone can be eaten raw, and anyone stranded on an isle of the Santa Barbara group need not suffer for lack of food. There the abalone abounds, and its favorite lurking place is around the edges where the water comes up and cools them off. There is no time that parties of Chinamen are not on some places on the islands, gathering these shellfish from the rocks, and schooner load after sloop load are landed at the wharf every year. The shell forms a valuable commodity, also, being used extensively for mother-of-pearl inlaid work, and also for buttons. The price of shells is low at present, owing to dull times and the decreasing demand for buttons. But abalone itself is always in demand, so much so that there is a fear of the race becoming extinct. The legislature should include the abalone in the fish and game laws, and pass an amendment that only the old tough ones should be picked for a few years, until a generation or two can gain a foothold.”

1892-1895 U.S. Commission of Fish & Fisheries Report: “The Chinese have a monopoly in the abalone fishery, and in preparing, eating, and marketing of the dried abalones. The meat and shells are handled by a Chinese merchant at Santa Barbara and by him forwarded to other Chinese at San Francisco, where, having supplied any local demand for dried abalone from the islands of Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel and San Clemente.”

May 31, 1898 [LAT/SD]: “Will Gerrull, well-known as a skipper of vessels of the guano fleet, was arrested this evening on a charge of smuggling Chinese into the United States. Francisco Reyes, who is accused of a like offense, was also taken into custody at the same time. Chinese Inspector Putnam of Los Angeles has been anxious to obtain the arrests of these men for the past two months.”

May 31, 1898 [LAT/SD]: “Will Gerrull, well-known as a skipper of vessels of the guano fleet, was arrested this evening on a charge of smuggling Chinese into the United States. Francisco Reyes, who is accused of a like offense, was also taken into custody at the same time. Chinese Inspector Putnam of Los Angeles has been anxious to obtain the arrests of these men for the past two months.”

February 26, 1899 [LAT]: “Abalones. The big shellfish known as the abalone is valuable not only for the shell, but also for the meat, which is highly prized by the Chinese, although Americans are apt to find it rather tough and indigestible. A good many people make their living on this coast by gathering abalones…The Chinese are the purchasers of the abalone meat, and the shells are shipped to Europe where they are fashioned into buttons and various novelties. The raw shells are said to be worth about $40 per ton delivered at European ports, while the Mongolians pay 3 or 4 cents per pound for the meat.”

April 15, 1899 [SBMP]: “The Chinamen who own the abalone shells which have been stored on the wharf for several weeks, are shipping them out of the country before the ordinance prohibiting the shipment of abalones out of the country goes into effect.”

December 8, 1901 [LAT/SB]: “Judge Day of the Superior Court rendered a decision in the habeas corpus proceedings of Ah Jim, convicted of taking abalones under size prescribed by law. The decision sustained the lower court. The question involved was the validity of the Penal Code referring to the protection of fish. The petitioners held that abalones are not fish, and cited Section 26 of Article IV as the basis of their contention. Judge Day denied the writ and remanded the prisoner to custody. The ruling on abalones affects crawfish as well.”

 

April 26, 1902 [LAT]: “…Chinese are systematically smuggled in over the Canadian and Mexican borders, and from the Santa Barbara islands in the guise of fishermen, through the collusion of bribed officials…”

 

April 5, 1903 [LAT]: “A big howl is going up because of the order just issued by the Treasury Department at Washington, declaring Santa Barbara no longer a subport of entry, which it has been for several years. The order, which just went into effect, includes the retirement of Arthur C. Greenwell, who has held the position of collector for the past four years… it would be no difficult task for vessels from British Columbia or Mexican ports to land upon one of the Channel Islands Chinese, who could easily make their way to the mainland unobserved, unless official vigilance were exercised.”

 

October 7, 1902 [LAT/SB]: “The Board of Supervisors this afternoon passed an ordinance imposing a license tax of $400 a year on all abalone fishermen engaged on the islands in the Santa Barbara Channel. The tax will practically prohibit further operations. Within the past few months, hordes of Chinese and Japanese have been gathering abalones, drying the meat for export to Oriental countries, where it is a popular article of food, and disposing of the shells to button and curio factories. The business has been carried on so extensively that it is now necessary for the fishermen to work among the rocks beneath the surface of the water, clothed in diving suits, and abalones, which formerly were very plentiful, have been nearly exterminated.”

 

February 15, 1904 [LAT/SA]: “Chinese fishermen from San Pedro have been taking more than a ton a day of abalones from the rocks on the Laguna Beach. They are all shipped to San Pedro for export.”

 

February 19, 1904 [LAT/SA]: “The Supervisors have passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for any person to catch in one day more than twenty-five pounds of abalones or to have more in his possession—either abalones or shells. The ordinance is to go into effect March 3. The passage of the measure is rendered necessary by the depredations of Chinese fishermen at Laguna, where they have caught and carried off abalones by the ton, taking them both for the meat and shells, and threatening to exterminate than in that locality.”

 

July 29, 1904 [VFP]: “During the past week government officers have been in Ventura secretly at work in an attempt to capture parties who are suspected of smuggling Chinese into the country. Reports are persistent that Chinese are being landed on the Channel Islands, and then landed from small boats on the mainland between Ventura and Santa Barbara. The reports were the cause of the cruise of the Revenue Cutter Manning in the Channel Islands recently.”

November 11, 1911 [LAT]: “San Pedro, Nov. 10—Conclusive proof that contraband Chinese are being smuggled into Los Angeles county, along the sheer and rocky coast between San Pedro and Redondo Beach was unearthed today by George H. Sweet, United States Immigration Inspector. Several days ago, Ed Lindskow, a lobster fisherman, found a discarded Chinese suit of clothing on the beach near Point Vicente, about twelve miles up the coast from Point Firmin, and turned it over to the inspector. Inspector Sweet drove to Point Vicente, but made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the beach, the bluff being too precipitous. Today he chartered a launch and made the trip up the coast to the rendezvous of the Chinese smugglers. In a cave near Point Vicente, which he was able to reach only by a skiff or row boat, under a towering cliff, the inspector located a cave in a wild tangle of underbrush and wild holly, which had been apparently used for a considerable time as a cache for concealing the wily orientals. The cave was not visible either from the land side or by passing steamers. In the cave, four complete Chinese suits were found, which had apparently been changed for American clothing. Scattered around were wrappings from packages bearing Chinese writing, covers from packages of Mexican cigarettes, a blanket and various articles which had been used for cooking. The retreat had been used for a considerable time as a regular camp, as numerous fires had been built, the charred embers still being in evidence. Inspector Sweet's theory is that the contraband Chinese are brought up from Mexico and taken to some cave on one of the Channel Islands until a favorable opportunity arrives to transport them to the mainland in small launches. The cave at Point Vicente afforded the smugglers a safe retreat until such time as the Chinese could be conducted inland. Early last July a strange launch, having high speed appeared on a foggy night off Point Vicente and gave mysterious signals to another launch bound from Redondo Beach to San Pedro. Evidently the wrong launch was signaled, for the occurrence was reported to the immigration authorities. An investigation was made at the time but the Coast rendezvous of the smugglers remained a mystery until unearthed by Inspector Sweet this morning.”