Newspaper Reports of the 1943 Repeal of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barring entry of laboring class immigrants from China had a devastating impact of Chinese in America that lasted for decades as it was not repealed until 1943.
During these 61 years, many Chinese families remained separated, with some members in the U. S. and others in China, unable to be reunited. The bachelor societies that were the result of the law denied family formation and the benefits of families for communities. Gambling, opium smoking, and prostitution were some of the consequences for bachelor societies.

Although the repeal of the Act in 1943 was no more than a symbolic and political gesture, permitting the entry of only 105 Chinese each year, from the rest of the world, nonetheless it was an important improvement in the status of Chinese in America and cause for celebration in Chinese communities.

One would not expect as much positive impact for the rest of American society, as the changes to immigration would not have much effect on nonChinese.  Evidence that the repeal on Dec. 17, 1943 was of no special significance to most Americans can be seen in newspaper reports, three examples of which are shown below.

The report of the repeal was buried among the advertisements for movies in the Idaho Register on Dec. 19, among the comic strips in a Pennsylvania paper on Dec. 21, and on the front page at the very bottom of an El Paso, TX. paper on Dec. 18. Clearly, the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act was not considered newsworthy by the American press.

The Barber of Chinatown

Before the 1911 Chinese Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty, Chinese immigrant men wore "queues" or a long braided tail of hair at the back of the head as a sign of allegiance to the Manchu. 

It was often mocked by white Americans, and a source of torment for Chinese men.









How did Chinese men have their hair cut? Since they were not welcome in white barber shops, nor did the Chinese wish to patronize white or black barbers, they faced a problem.  An interpreter told the reporter that his countrymen were afraid that they might be decapitated or otherwise injured by colored tonsorial workers.

                               


In 1896, therefore, when Moy Lee opened a "tonsorial parlor" in Washington, D. C., there was occasion for rejoicing according to a local newspaper article that publicized his arrival.

Moy Lee was described as a "dapper little fellow, who struts about his shop proudly attired in a sky blue pea jacket and flowing nether garments of a rather loud pattern."

Guide to Survival English for Chinese Immigrants

New Chinese immigrants who knew little or no English were at a great disadvantage in everyday business and social interactions. One approach to helping them was to publish common phrases or expressions in Chinese along with the English equivalents.  One example is "An ANglo-Chinese General Conversation and Classified Phrases" book by Yee Shu-Nam published in San Francisco by the Service Supply Company.  It bears no date of publication but probably it was published in the early 20th century.  This well-intentioned phrasebook was of dubious value as any user of the guide would probably have difficulty searching through it for the appropriate expression quickly and it could only cover a very limited number of situations.

Take for example, the scenario below which presents a hypothetical dialogue between a non Chinese speaking customer in a Chinese restaurant and the Chinese manager when the patron received pork chops when he had ordered chop suey!

"Poster Boy" for Angel Island Chinese Detainees: The Complex File of Jeong Hop

Chinese immigrants entering the U. S. on the west coast between 1910 and 1940 were detained for quarantine at the Angel Island Immigration Station, where they also underwent intensive interrogations to determine if they were eligible for admission. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was in effect from 1882 to 1943, laborers were inadmissible whereas it allowed merchants and their family members to enter if they could provide documents and answer questions about their family and living conditions in their home villages in China.  Chinese devised the "paper son" (or paper daughter) method by which a laborer might purchase the identity papers of someone, most times a fictitious person eligible to enter.

The above photograph of a young Chinese, probably no more than 12 years old and wearing slippers and an ill-fitting suit is the only photograph I have ever seen of an actual interrogation. It is used in many articles about Angel Island Chinese immigration. 

The anxiety that this "poster boy" must have felt during this ordeal must have been overwhelming because one false answer and he might be denied entry and deported.  Since my parents both underwent these detailed and lengthy interrogations, I cringe seeing this photograph as I can imagine that they must have been in the same situation have to face the Immigration officer, a guard, and a transcriber. This young boy must have been able to speak English because there was no translator in the room.

But who was this boy and was he a "paper son" pretending to be someone else or was he the actual son of a merchant?  Did he gain admission or was he deported?  If admitted, where did he live, work, and die?

The December 2017 Angel Island Newsletter included an announcement of a forthcoming 2018 documentary, Chinese Exclusion Act, by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu that describes the paper son method in vivid detail.  My attention was drawn to the announcement that was illustrated with a  copy of the Identity Certificate of Jeong Hop, a 10-year-old who arrived at Angel Island claiming to be the "son of a  son of a native."

At first glance of the photo, due to his youthfulness, I wondered if he might possibly the same boy in the 1923 interrogation photo. That would be a very long shot if it were true. However, the certificate showed that Jeong Hop did not arrive at Angel Island  until September, 27, 1940 and he was detained for 2 months until Nov. 25, 1940 when he was admitted.  

As an interesting aside, he may have been one of the last Chinese to leave Angel Island because the facility was closed on November 5, 1940, they processed subsequent immigrants at a location in San Francisco.  So, we still do not know the name and fate of the 1923 "poster boy."

As a consolation, I decided to see what I could find out more about Jeong Hop's case and what happened in his application.  I struck gold when I found an interview in 2006 that focused on his memory of his experiences at Angel Island.

The following excerpt of his interview when Jeong Hop was 76 years old shows how complicated family relationships were for some Chinese immigrants who had to use fake names on their false documents.

How did knowing he was using a false name affect Jeong Hop in how they felt about the deception?




Jeong Hop remembers very little about his life in the Angel Island Immigration Station.  Being only 10 years old, he was adaptable and didn't realize that he was being mistreated.  He had no strong expectations aside from knowing that he had to memorize all the family members and their relationship to him and to destroy his 'cheat notes' before he arrived in San Francisco on the President SS Coolidge in 1940.

In the mid-1950s when the U. S. offered a Confession Program, aimed to stop the use of the paper son entry method, which allowed Chinese to reclaim their real family surnames without penalty.  Jeong Hop gave a detailed account of how this affected his relatives.



Jeong Hop pointed out to the interviewer that he actually was already a citizen before he came over because he was the son of a son of a citizen!

He did have strong feelings about the need for his children and grandchildren to know the history of Chinese in America, especially the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which forced Chinese men to live in a "bachelor society" for decades.

Yes, yes, but the relationship is true, so ah... the name is again as I said the same. My

grandfather--. Out of the nine children that he has, every member...of...one of them, and

one of the nine is my true uncle, he came over here to San Francisco. And another one is

my father, he tried coming over. And he did. He was on Angel Island and he passed oral

interrogation, but the paper says when he came over was that he’s supposed to be about

in his twenties, but he was actually in his THIRTIES. So the immigration look at him and

they think he’s much older than he looks, so they got doctors to examine his physical

body and said, “this person is in his THIRTIES.” And my father, through--my

grandfather, through his attorney, got another doctor, who said this guy is in his twenties.

But the immigration won out and so after a stay in Angel Island for about a year, he was

rejected. So again –again my real father, and since he was rejected, I could not come as a

son because he’s ah...he’s not a citizen. So I took them ah... as son of one of the other

nine children. And at that time in 1940, as we were coming, my grandfather went back to

China about in 1938 to bring my brother and I –my brother’s a year younger thac things you brought wit

Chinese American History Mural by James Leong

James Leong, (1929-2011) an internationally known Chinese American artist, was commissioned in 1952 to paint a mural depicting 100 years of the history of Chinese in America to be placed on a wall in the new federally-funded Ping Yuen housing project for low-income Chinese in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown. Starting on the left side of the 5 x 17.5 foot mural, he depicted Chinese immigrant farmers against the background of the Great Wall as they departed to California, leaving their wives and children, to mine for gold and work on building railroads,  followed by sections with iconic Chinese concepts,  such as a Lion dance during Chinese New Year, image of Chinese women who later came to the U.S.,  a WW II Chinese American soldier in front of a display of awarded combat  ribbons standing atop crumbled papers to symbolize the option to drop "paper names," an  image of a Chinese couple and child assimilated to American clothing and lifestyle, with the new Ping Yuen housing facility in Chinatown on the far right. Some traditional Chinese images such as a dragon, pagodas, and a woman wearing a cheongsam are mixed in American attire such as a business suit and tie for a man.

Unfortunately, his vibrant colored  mural was a controversial work, rejected because some Chinese felt it was "Uncle Tom-ish" or disliked the image of a Chinese wearing a pigtail or queue. Furthermore, the 1950s were a time of tense relations between Communist China and the U.S. and the American government thought the mural might have symbolism with political undertones.

Leong was disappointed, and went to Europe to continue as an artist for decades in Norway as well as in Italy, before returning to the U.S. and living in Seattle where he felt more accepted than in San Francisco where he was born. One Hundred Years of History remained at the Ping Yuen housing, not hanging on a wall in honor, but neglected and placed unceremoniously in a recreation room where children inadvertently spilled soda and food on it or hit it with misdirected ping pong balls.  Finally, in the late 1990s it was salvaged by the Chinese Historical Society of America and painstakingly restored by Leong in 2000, as he describes in the video below, and proudly hung on the wall in the Museum Learning Center since 2001.

The Ships That Brought Early Chinese to Gold Mountain

    By 1867, the Pacific Mail Company was given authority by the U. S. government to operate steamships that transported the early generations of Chinese immigrants from Guangdong from Hong Kong to Pacific ports like San Francisco. These were large vessels, some with luxurious accommodations and amenities for cabin passengers.

 Chinese could not occupy the upper cabin levels but traveled in the cheaper steerage class below the cabin levels next to the cargo hold, which was crowded, uncomfortable, and unsanitary, especially since the voyage could take several weeks for the earliest immigrants in the late 19th century.

 The Pacific Mail Company had financial difficulties by 1900 and the government transferred the route to the Dollar Steamship Lines.

From the early 1900s to the early 1930s, the Dollar Steamship Line, named for the owner, Robert Dollar, operated the President line of ships, President Harrison, President Cleveland, President Wilson, and eight other ships named after Presidents.  The success of the company ended with the Great Depression when the high costs of new ships, President Coolidge and President Hoover, proved its undoing, and the U. S. government transferred its ownership and operation to the American President Lines. 

    Unlike the austere quarters for steerage passengers like our Chinese ancestors, the upper deck cabins of these ships were refined, if not luxurious, as the following images show. 

    For other photos and descriptions of life on the ship for tourists, this link goes to an archive on the Dollar Steamship Line.

And while it is not stated what Chinese, and other passengers, in the crowded steerage section were provided by way of food, it was probably of poor quality, quantity, and taste.  

In contrast, the tourists in the cabin class had dining room service with elegant menu offerings as shown in the menu below on President Hoover in 1932 with the artistic cover. 

    Among the luncheon offerings were filet of rock cod, fricassee of lamb with dumplings, braised sirloin tips a la Jardiniere, and assorted pastries and cheeses for dessert.

    At the top of the menu page is a picture of two Chinese, one giving a fortune reading to the other man, an activity quite unrelated to the meal, but probably included to introduce the white diners to an unfamiliar exotic aspect of Orientals.

    It is interesting also to see some of the 1940s advertising used by the American President Lines. So, while the cabin class tourists are wining, dining, and having fun, down below them are the Chinese immigrants stuffed in the steerage class on their way to Angel Island Immigration Station or to other immigration detention centers, hoping to enter Gold Mountain.

         

Chinese Business Directory excerpts 1882

Well Fargo Bank published a directory of Chinese businesses in the west as early as 1882. Excerpts of some of the listings are shown here from San Francisco, Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, Marysville, Virginia City in northern California and Los Angeles in southern California.  Also included are businesses in Portland, Oregon and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Even from this small sample, it is clear that laundries were the primary business for the Chinese followed by restaurants.  Merchants, cigar makers, and shoe makers, were also common.

White Writer Finds 1909 NY Chinatown Not As Bad As Its Reputation

       An adventuresome white writer ventured into New York City Chinatown in 1909 to report on life in this enclave. He noted that, "Mention Chinatown and Chinaman and what picture comes before your mental vision? A laundry __ an opium joint __ a chop suey restaurant or a mission where Chinamen become Christians through the efforts of zealous American females and __occasionally some happening that stirs up all the newspapers and public to a passing interest.  Rather a gloomy picture if taken as a complete view of the Chinese."
        He braced himself before making his visit, writing in the third person,  "It was quite natural that one should feel some trepidation in visiting Chinatown for the first time so the writer went there equipped with a letter from the police department but there was no need of any precaution for he was met everywhere with courtesy and hospitality."

        He focused on what types of clothing the Chinese men wore and concluded that clothing and menswear in general is not as important to Chinese as it is to Americans. There are very few changes of style, with the most radical changes occurring with the change of dynasties.

          The writer concluded after his visit to Chinatown that: “If you go to Chinatown looking for bad things you will find them—so you will on Fifth avenue or any other locality. If you expect to find some things uniquely bad you will be disappointed but if you go there to learn something of interest of a strange people , of a great empire in the far East, you will do so.”

Podcasting Asian America

A wealth of information about important topics ranging from historical to psychological to cultural aspects of Chinese- and other Asian Americans is available through interviews and discussions on many podcasts, freely downloadable, from itunes.

One podcast New Books in Asian American Studies features interviews of academic authors of important recent books on Asian Americans.

Another podcast, They Call Us Bruce, by Jeff Yang and Phil Yu features discussions and interviews of the work of contemporary artists, politicians, writers, and performers.  

Another podcast resource is the Potluck Podcast Collective

The Chinese Are Coming, The Chinese Are Coming (1870)

    In 1870, there were few Chinese in the midsections of the United States, but with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869, the Chinese who helped build the Central Pacific Railroad portion were suddenly out of work.  However, their reputation as cheap, and diligent, workers led labor contractors to recruit them to work on building regional railroads such as the Houston Central Railroad in Texas. The newspaper account on January 5, 1870 reported that 230 "Chinamen" had arrived at St. Louis en route to Calvert,Texas.          The account noted that if they worked out well, more Chinese would be recruited. It was optimistic that they would hasten the railroad construction after which they would be sent to Kansas, presumably for other railroad work.

    After only a few months, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans reported on April 10, 1870, that the experiment with Chinese railroad workers was a "decided success,"  concluding "Steady at their work, industrious when the contract hours of labor have expired, sober, frugal, willing, and mindful of the stipulations of their agreement, but exacting in the fulfillment of those in their favor, is the sum of the evidence..."