الفهرس 
A Historical BackgroundOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Asian Americans are diverse; they had different roots and live in many
parts of the United States. The term “Asian American” applies to 26 subgroups
and “Pacific Islander” to six subgroups. They include those from China, Japan,
Korea, East India, Indonesia and others. In this thesis, focus will be on two main
groups: Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans. In his book, Strangers
from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki provides details of the start of early first
generation Asians. He does this through opinions and quotes of different Asian
Americans. He tells his readers about the different circumstances that made
those Asians travel to America leaving behind their families. In addition, he
sheds light on the Asians' multiple attempts to overcome all their difficulties like
getting false papers as depicted in Geny Lim's Paper Angels (1980). Moreover,
Takaki explains how many Asian Americans pioneers are excluded from history
due to stereotypes and myths of Asians as aliens and foreigners. Accordingly, he
stresses the need to rewrite history in an attempt to prove how effective was the
role of many Asian Americans: "we need to re-vision history to include Asians
in the history of America, and to do so in a broad and comparative way" (9).
Immigration occurs when people move from one place or region to settle
in another. The new arrivals are called immigrants. There are two basic reasons
that make people think of immigration. The first is the negative conditions in
their native land. These conditions are called "push factors," and it includes
poverty, religious persecution, and political oppression. The second reason that
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makes people immigrate is the fact that the positive or better conditions of the
new country pull people to it. These are called "pull factors" (Ingram 5). In this
dissertation, the United States of America represent the pull country to which
people from different races are pulled. America has always been a land of
immigrants, and many represent this in what is known as "the American
Dream."
In the early 1850s, thousands of Chinese travelled to the United States in
search for better life through what is known as the promise of gold in the
mountains of California. They were imported by William Hooper, a young man
from Boston who belonged to Euro-American efforts to colonize islands. Driven
from their homeland by political chaos and economic uncertainty, these
immigrants, mainly young men, were attracted by dreams of quick wealth in
America. However, reality was completely different from what those Chinese
expected. They were exploited; they had to work all the time. Their situation
was very painful that, in Takaki's own words, "slavery is nothing compared to
it" (21).
Angel Island or Island Station in San Francisco Bay was the major entry
point for Chinese who came to the U.S. between 1910-1940. The island has
come to symbolize the hardships endured by those early Chinese immigrants,
who often underwent intense interrogations before being allowed into the United
States. The increasing numbers of Chinese immigrant forced the American
Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Chinese Exclusion Act
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or Immigration Act of 1882, U.S. federal law was the first and only major
federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality.
The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labours from entering the country.
Subsequent amendments to the law prevented Chinese labourers who had left
the United States from returning. The immediate result of the Act was a gradual
rise in the number of Asian immigrants. Despite the harsh conditions and
treatment of the Chinese in the United States, many insisted on immigrating to
America defying the Exclusion Act. Many immigrants falsely claimed to be
the children of Chinese American citizens in order to enter the U.S. This
may be the reason why many historians and writers 1 call these immigrants
"Paper Angels", a name that Genny Lim, the famous Chinese American
playwright, used as a title for one of her most prominent plays in the late
twentieth century, denoting both the place to which Chinese immigrated (the
Angel Island) as well as the medium of immigration (false papers).
The excluded Chinese did not accept the unfair decision of the American
Congress. Instead, they used all possible ways to change this law. Some of them
used courts to get their rights and many of them won their cases. They also
protested against racial discrimination in other ways such as those writers who
used their pens as weapons. This is reflected by Yuning Wu when he declared
For more information, read: Protestant Missionaries. Asian Immigrants, and Ideologies of Race in
America, 1850-1924 by Jennifer C. Snow; The Chinese Exclusion Act by Ben Railton; Contemporary Asian
American communities: intersections and divergences. Edited by Linda Trinh Vo and Rick Bonus; Strangers
from a Different Shore by Arnold Takaki; and Trans-Pacific Interactions: The United States and China,
1880–1950 edited by Vanessa Kunnemann and Ruth Mayer.
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that "Chinese exclusion was not only on institution that produced and reinforced
a system of racial hierarchy in immigration law, but it was also a process that
both immigration officials and immigrants shaped a realm of power dominance,
struggle, and resistance" (1).
Being aware of the reality of their new life, Chinese immigrants tried their
best to cope with it in hope for better future. "The Chinese, along with the other
groups, developed highly sophisticated governance structures to meet the needs
of their communities as well as the legal and extra-legal challenges imposed by
the dominant society" (qtd. in Kim-Ju et al. 439). Like many new immigrant
groups, Chinese Americans have concentrated on getting ahead economically
and educating their children rather than considering what other people believe.
The majority worked in canneries, mines factories, and farms of the West Coast
states in Hawaii. The careers pursued by the brightest were in business and
science, rather than law or politic administration. This may be a logical result of
the Chinese distrust of government, the government that intended to deprive
them from their identities and transform them to a depressed discriminated
minority. Even if a Chinese immigrant dreams of a high political position, he
finds himself in a war with the other part that refuses to tolerate continued
discrimination in employment. Richard T. Schaefer notes: "Newly emerging
politicians from the Chinese American community face tough scrutiny. Will
they speak out on ethnic issues? If so, they may confront power interests within
the minority community" (364).