Immigration History of the Chinese and the Legacy of Angel Island

The history of immigration for Chinese Americans has been long and difficult. One of the first groups recruited to the United States to make a sorely needed labor force, the American public had resentment for them from the beginning. The formation of Angel Island makes them unique in that only Asians (mostly Chinese) came through this immigration port. Again, Angel Island for many was a long and difficult process of interrogation, internment, and sometimes deportation. The Chinese Americans have had some of the most difficult times entering this country and Angel Island is at the center of it all.

What many Americans don't know is that America actually recruited Chinese labor in order to help tame the frontier. After the 1848 Treaty of Hidalgo increased the size of this country greatly, additional people were needed to settle and do things like build railroads. The Central Pacific Railroad was largely built by the Chinese. Chinese immigrants also worked in the industries of fishing and agriculture doing other menial jobs like deveining shrimp. However, as numbers increased, anti-Chinese sentiment grew, especially after the recession following the Civil War. While workingmen fought for jobs, bosses made sure that racial divisions were separated. That means they could not unite and rise up, realizing that they were all fighting for the same things. "Furthermore, they developed a dual wage system to pay Asian laborers less than other workers, pitting the groups against each other to depress wages for both" (Takaki 13). This, of course, pitted Chinese immigrants even further with American workers who needed jobs as well.

What really changed the reality of Asian American immigration, particularly that of the Chinese was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. This earthquake laid Chinatown in ruins as well as destroying all records of the Asian Americans who lived in California. This meant that immigrants could no longer prove how long they had been in the United States. Earlier the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 provided the opportunity for relatives of those already here to come here and settle as well. However, without records and proof, government officials suspected Chinese immigrants were lying and were more than hesitant to let them enter. And in some cases, there were "paper sons" or "paper daughters." In other words, these would be people who bought papers to identify themselves as children of American citizens. These people were "coached" in all sorts of ways to pass their tests on Angel Island.

The plans for Angel Island had always been in the works as a kind of counterpart to Ellis Island in the east. "The initial decision had nothing to do with China. Rather, it was assumed that once the Panama Canal was opened, Europeans who had an eye on living in the western states would buy their sea passages to California rather than to New York, and would undergo the immigration process in San Francisco, conveniently close to their expected front doorstep, as it were. The idea was thus to create on the Pacific Coast as welcoming an environment for Europe's "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" as already existed on the Atlantic seaboard" (Winchester). Within the immigration service, this place was called "The Guardian of the Western Gate" as it, to some extent, was made to control the flux of Chinese into this country.

Then, because of the earthquake, Europeans were not welcome to use Angel Island. It actually had to be opened up before it was even done, and its purpose was somewhat to stop Chinese immigrants from getting in to the United States. Government officials believed that Chinese immigrants might try to outwit the officials and "lost records" in order to get in to this country. The atmosphere of Angel Island was not welcoming; it was our place to exclude them. In all, 175,000 Asians, mostly Chinese immigrants, came through Angel Island. The average stay was two to three weeks, but it was not uncommon to stay for months. A select few remained on the island for years. According to Judy Yung in Chinese American Voices, one of the first sentiments from a Chinese immigrant was a poem published in the Chinese World newspaper in 1910 said,

"Let me ask you, the barbarians:

Why are you treating us in such extreme?

I grieve for my fellow countrymen;

There is really nothing we can do!

(Yung 122).

The first tactic used to try to exclude them from this country was intense interrogation when immigrants reached Angel Island. Comparatively, when immigrants entered Ellis Island, they were asked somewhere around 30 questions. On the other hand, Chinese immigrants who entered Angel Island were asked somewhere between 200 questions and 1,000 questions. Officials would try to prove these answers were correct with Chinese people still on the mainland. Each day that immigrants were there, they were called in and questioned extensively by officials as well as interpreters and reporters. They were questioned extensively about the relative that was already living in the United States. These questions were not easy and include things such as:

Where, in China, did this relative come from?

How big was the house? How many square feet?

How many steps did it take to go from the front door to the rice bin?

What was the eldest brother's favorite breakfast?

Who sat where in the mah-jongg games?

(Winchester)

Some of us today would not know the answers to such questions, which was precisely the point. These questions were meant to exclude. These answers were recorded and sent back to the people who originally took the data. In other words, they were taken back to the people who questioned the relatives in the first place. Then, the officials would try to determine whether the answers were actually correct.

In the months or even years that it took to conclude these interviews, they could see no one. They were completely quarantined as officials wanted the questions to come as a surprise. However, it became kind of a game for Chinese people to become educated about the questions. There are all kinds of stories about people gathering data to make short songs that listed all kinds of useful information, kind of like Negro spirituals which were coded to cover stops on the Underground Railroad. Many misunderstandings arose. For example, according to Lester Tom Lee on angel-island.com, "The main reason I was detained so long was that my father and I gave the inspectors different dates about when I departed from China. The Chinese lunar calendar is about a month off from the American calendar! Ay! So my father hired a lawyer to get me out. Sometimes I cried because I missed my family and my friends" (angel-island.com). Something as simple as this misunderstanding could hold people up indefinitely.

Another tactic used to exclude Chinese was the quarantine in order to delouse them. Chinese were separated from other Asians and quarantined for long periods of time in large numbers. The idea was that coming from undesirable countries; they may have parasites or other problems that would prevent them from entering the country. They could not escape as on an island, there was no where to go. The water surrounding the island was very cold. In Unbound Feet, Judy Yung's mother gives an account of what this separation was like for her.

"All the women lived in the same large room. I think maybe there were twenty of us at the time...Many of us did not know how long we would be detained and if we would set foot in San Francisco or not. Some of the women burned incense to ward off evil spirits. Some were deported back to China"

(Yung 279).

Unbeknownst to everyone, the Chinese immigrants were committing their experiences to stone by carving poems into the walls of their detainment cells at Angel Island. These poems are all about their disenchantment with American society and how they felt about being held on the island. For example, many Chinese immigrants believed that America was Gold Mountain and that they would get rich here. Instead, one immigrant writes,

"Instead of remaining a citizen of China, I willingly became an ox.

I intended to come to America to earn a living."

(Polster)

Since these immigrants came predominantly to the West and played a large part in its economy, it seems only natural that they would idealize the American frontier. They did not expect to be imprisoned on an island. Another poet writes,

"I told myself that going by this way would be easy.

Who was to know that I would be imprisoned at Devil's Pass?

How was anyone to know that my dwelling place would be a prison?"

(Polster)

Angel Island was unaffectionately called Devil's Pass. This author's disillusionment is clear. He expected to come to America for a better life, to make some money, not to be detained indefinitely.

Some immigrants even went so far as to write poems of revenge on the walls at Angel Island.

"I will not speak of love when I level the immigration station!

An advantageous position for revenge will surely come one day.

I will certainly behead the barbarians and spare not a single blade of grass"

(Polster).

Of course, all these poems were unsigned for fear of retaliation by government officials who might discover them. The Chinese immigrants here were completely disillusioned when their thoughts and dreams about coming to America did not match their realities. Holding them apart and isolated on this island only proved to them that they would never be a part of mainstream culture. They had, in many ways, lost their identity.

Angel Island operated until 1940 when the decision was made to shut it down. Fire destroyed it, which sped along the closing, and even after China became an ally with America in World War II, America still only let 105 Chinese in the country each year. The prejudice that Americans felt toward the Chinese was still palpable.

However, the words of these unknown detainees were yet to be found. A national park warden named Alexander Weiss discovered something unique about Angel Island long after it was destroyed. On the walls of the detention center (that were not destroyed), the warden discovered all kinds of poems on the walls. "Through his efforts and those of Paul Chow and the Angel Island Immigration Station Historical Advisory Committee (AIISHAC), the dilapidated barracks was saved from demolition and special legislation was passed granting $250,000 to preserve and restore barracks" (angelisland.org). Since then, Proposition 12 passed, granting another $15 million to restore and turn Angel Island into a museum. Like the Japanese internment camps of World War II, another painful place has become a learning tool. Angel Island becomes testament to long-standing prejudice against Chinese people and a reminder of their suffering. Again, in the words of Lester Tom Lee from angel-island.com, "Sometimes I wondered why we all came over here for that kind of treatment. Sometimes I just wanted to go home because they treated us like criminals. We were only immigrants" (angel-island.com).

The Chinese faced prejudice from the first instance they came to America during the Gold Rush, with laws like the Foreign Miner's Tax. While they were unique to this country in that they were actually recruited for labor force, they were also unique in that almost immediately the United States began punishing them. With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, they became the first group singled out to be excluded from this country. And then, under the guise of a new passageway after the opening of the Panama Canal, Angel Island was formed. Angel Island proved not to be a new passageway, but a way to single out Asians, mostly Chinese, and in some cases, prevent them from entering this country. They were not hurt or anything to that extreme. However, they were forced to be isolated and interrogated with many questions so hard that the average citizen would not know the answer. Even when China became our ally in World War II, restrictions against immigrant Chinese were not lifted. Therefore, Chinese Americans have a unique place in the history of the United States. Angel Island has now become another place that teaches us about the errors of our past.

Works Cited

Yung, J. Chinese American Voices from Gold Rush to Present. University of California Press: 2006. This author attempts to present the voices of the Chinese immigrants who came here only to experience prejudice.

Fabre. G. History and Memory in African American Culture. Oxford University Press: 1994. This source compares some of the challenges African Americans faced to those of the Chinese.

Winchester, S. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. Harper Collins: 2005. This source contains very detailed information about Ellis Island and the immigration experiences of the Chinese.

Yung, J. Unbound Feet: a social history of Chinese women in San Francisco. University of California Press: 1995. This author writes about how the Chinese immigrant issues and Angel Island meant something different for women than they did for men.

Takaki, R. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little Brown, 1989. This author provides a history of Asian Americans in the United States.

Immigration Station. http://www.angelisland.org/immigr02.html This is the official source for the restoration and history of Angel Island.

Angel Island: Immigrant Journeys of Chinese Americans. http://www.angel-island.com/ This site consists of interviews with Chinese immigrants who were actually detained on Angel Island.

Polster, K. Modern American Poetry. Major Themes and Influences of the Poems at Angel Island. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/angel.htm This web site contains text and analysis of the poems found on the walls of Angel Island.