Anti-Chinese Sentiment Lingers, Even After U.S. Senate Apologizes

By Gil Asakawa
November 4, 2011

It took four decades before Japanese Americans received a formal apology for the WWII internment. The apology was part of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The Chinese in America are still waiting for an apology from the top, 129 years after the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed by President Chester A. Arthur.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was one of a series of laws enacted against Chinese immigrants starting in 1879 through 1904. The 1882 Exclusion Act squeezed Chinese immigration to the U.S. to barely a trickle — and cut down rights for Chinese already in the U.S., for example by excluding Chinese from citizenship and therefore denying them the right to own any property.

Amazingly, the act remained on the books until 1943, when it was repealed in large part because China became an ally during WWII. It remains to this day the only U.S. legislation that singles out people by ethnicity or national origin.

On Oct. 11, with the help of organizations including the 1882 Project, JACL and OCA, the Senate passed a resolution apologizing for the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now these groups are pushing for a similar bill, House Resolution 282, to pass in the House.

Mainstream American culture goes in cycles when it comes to anti-Chinese sentiment, and we’re in one of those periods, mostly because China is ascending to its new position as one of the top world economies and that stirs up race-based xenophobia.

In the 1880s, the Chinese were accused of driving down wages by providing cheap labor and the solution was to clamp down on immigration (sound familiar?). Today, the exploding Chinese economy is combined with their undervalued currency and blamed for American job losses.

The Chinese were the first Asians to immigrate to the U.S. in large numbers. Only a few Filipinos and a stray Japanese sailor or two preceded them, although there are historians who think Chinese settled in North America before the Europeans. But their experience is mirrored in the waves of Asian immigrants that followed: the Japanese, East Indian and Filipino. The immigrants are welcomed as manual laborers, but when they attain business success white Americans felt threatened and their rights were curtailed.

These cycles will continue to repeat unless we educate ourselves. There are some great sources to become more familiar with the history of Chinese immigration to the U.S.

The late Asian studies professor Ronald Takaki’s “Strangers from a Different Shore, A History of Asian Americans” is the definitive source. But I also found engrossing the history “Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans” by Jean Pfaelzer, which comprehensively covers the many attempts by towns and cities as well as states (especially California) and the U.S. government to ban Chinese, chase out Chinese and otherwise eliminate Chinese from mainstream America.

Another great source for insight into the history of Chinese in America is the boxed set of films on DVDs (also available individually) by filmmaker Arthur Dong, who explores his Chinese American identity in sharply observed, evocative documentaries and short features. (http://deepfocusproductions.com/)