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A comprehensive account of the history, contributions, and struggles of Chinese Americans, providing a strong foundation for understanding Chinese American experiences.

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A tour-de-force by New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.

American Born Chinese is the winner of the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, a 2006 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature, the winner of the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, an Eisner Award nominee for Best Coloring, a 2007 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a New York Times bestseller. Gene Luen Yang was the fifth the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and is a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of what's popularly known as the MacArthur "Genius" Grant. https://www.amazon.com/American-Born-Chinese-Gene-Luen/dp/0312384483

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The Chinese-American Experience: An Introduction

By William Wei

Professor of History, University of Colorado at Boulder

From today’s perspective, it is difficult to believe that once upon a time in America, Chinese were considered heathens and subjected to widespread persecution and violence. The earlier hostile attitude toward Chinese is a far cry from the contemporary esteem for them as a "model minority" to be emulated by others. But as the pages of Harper’s Weekly document, in the 19th century, many people considered the Chinese to be unassimilable and therefore unacceptable—hence, their eventual exclusion from America in 1882.

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In the mid-19 th century, Chinese came to "Gold Mountain," as they called America, to join the "Gold Rush" that began at Sutter's Mill, Sacramento, California. As the lure of gold diminished, they came simply to work. Initially welcomed, they became a significant part of the labor force that laid the economic foundation of the American West. Chinese could be found throughout the region, laboring in agriculture, mining, industry, and wherever workers were needed. They are best known for their contribution to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the completion of which united the country economically and culturally.

In spite of their indispensable role in the development of the American West, the Chinese suffered severe exploitation. They were discriminated against in terms of pay and forced to work under abysmal conditions. White workers viewed them as economic competitors and racial inferiors, thereby stimulating the passage of discriminatory laws and the commission of widespread acts of violence against the Chinese. According to John Higham:

Under the racist slogan, "Chinese must go!" an anti-Chinese movement emerged that worked assiduously to deprive the Chinese of a means of making a living in the general economy. The movement's goal was to drive them out of the country. This hostility hindered efforts by the Chinese to become American. It forced them to flee to the Chinatowns on the coasts, where they found safety and support. In these ghettos, they managed to eke out a meager existence, but were isolated from the rest of the population, making it difficult if not impossible to assimilate into mainstream society. To add insult to injury, Chinese were criticized for their alleged unassimilability.

Finally, Chinese workers were prevented from immigrating to America by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Its passage was a watershed event in American history. Besides identifying for the first time a specific group of people by name as undesirable for immigration to the United States, the act also marked a fateful departure from the traditional American policy of unrestricted immigration.

After China became an ally during World War II, the exclusion laws proved to be an embarrassment and were finally repealed by the Magnuson Act in 1943. This bill made it possible for Chinese to become naturalized citizens and gave them an annual quota of 105 immigrants. While the bill ended an injustice that had been committed sixty-one years earlier, the damage to the Chinese community had already been done. Between the 1890s and 1920s, the Chinese population in America declined. But the worst effect was to undermine the one thing that was most precious to the Chinese, their families. Chinese men were forced to live lonely bachelor lives in the almost all-male society that was Chinatown. Meanwhile, wives and children were forced to remain in China, supported by remittances from the United States and rarely seeing their husbands and fathers. Such separations made it difficult to maintain strong family ties.

Harper's Weekly and the Chinese

As one would expect from a publication of such stature, Harper's Weekly reported on the Chinese in America. Besides carrying articles on Sino-American relations and some of the more exotic features of Chinese culture, Harper's Weekly provided lengthy essays on aspects of the Chinese that were of interest to the public, such as opium consumption and Chinese coolies. These writings and the detailed illustrations that accompanied them provide important information about the daily lives of the Chinese. As the "Chinese Question" evolved from a regional to a national issue, Harper's Weekly increased its coverage of the Chinese community. It looked at events such as the signing of the Burlingame Treaty in 1868, between China and the United States, in terms of its implications for the Chinese in America.

Even more significant than the articles were the editorials in which the editors of Harper's Weekly commented extensively on the Chinese. In keeping with the sentiment of the times, the editorials perceived the Chinese as the most alien of the immigrants to come to American shores. As such, some of the editors were ambivalent about the assimilability of the Chinese. However, the editors staunchly defended the right of Chinese to be here and to be treated with dignity, basing their arguments on American ideals and a shared humanity. They implicitly challenged the popular 19 th-century definition of "the American" as a White person and considered the Chinese to be citizen material. Furthermore, the editors roundly condemned the acts of violence that were perpetrated against the Chinese, including the massacre at Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1885 .

*From Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (New York: Antheneum, 1963), p. 25

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The Chinese-American Experience: An Introduction

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In the mid-19 th century, Chinese came to "Gold Mountain," as they called America, to join the "Gold Rush" that began at Sutter's Mill, Sacramento, California. As the lure of gold diminished, they came simply to work. Initially welcomed, they became a significant part of the labor force that laid the economic foundation of the American West.

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"The Chinamen were terribly taxed by the county authorities; but they always came up promptly, and without a word of complaint paid what was demanded of them....Let me here say that I never, during all my years of intercourse with this people, saw a single drunken Chinaman. I never saw a Chinese beggar. I never saw a lazy Chinaman." - Joaquin Miller

"The Chinamen. They are not strikers, rioters, and burners of cities....No; the Creator of us all opened the Golden Gate to the whole wide world. let no man attempt to shut it in the face of our fellow-man." - Joaquin Miller

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"The Chinamen were terribly taxed by the county authorities; but they always came up promptly, and without a word of complaint paid what was demanded of them....Let me here say that I never, during all my years of intercourse with this people, saw a single drunken Chinaman. I never saw a Chinese beggar. I never saw a lazy Chinaman." - Joaquin Miller "The Chinamen. They are not strikers, rioters, and burners of cities....No; the Creator of us all opened the Golden Gate to the whole wide world. let no man attempt to shut it in the face of our fellow-man." - Joaquin Miller

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"The Chinamen were terribly taxed by the county authorities; but they always came up promptly, and without a word of complaint paid what was demanded of them....Let me here say that I never, during all my years of intercourse with this people, saw a single drunken Chinaman. I never saw a Chinese beggar.

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Intelligent Workman. "You need not plead my cause and my children's. I am able, and always have been, to take care of myself and mine; and no large military force is necessary to keep peace, for real working-men are not rioters, strikers, and blowers."

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Intelligent Workman. “You need not plead my cause and my children’s. I am able, and always have been, to take care of myself and mine; and no large military force is necessary to keep peace, for real working-men are not rioters, strikers, and blowers.”

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The Anti-Chinese Hysteria of 1885-1886

Ever since the Chinese came to the United States, the prejudice against them sometimes culminated in violence. The physical hostility became particularly virulent in the 1880s. During this period, Chinese communities were harassed, attacked, or expelled in 34 towns in California, three in Oregon, and four in Nevada. Property of the Chinese in America, worth millions of dollars, was damaged or destroyed in mining regions in Alaska, Colorado, South Dakota, and other states or territories. The worst occurrences of violence were in Denver, Los Angeles, Rock Springs (Wyoming), and Tacoma and Seattle (Washington).

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This resources will give you exposure to key issues to consider when interpreting political cartoons from this time period.

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Angel Island: Chinese Immigration in America

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Angel Island: Chinese Immigration in America

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Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems

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The Living Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 20th Century

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The Living Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 20th Century

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Chinese Discrimination early 19th century

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The Living Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 20th Century

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The dark history of the Chinese Exclusion Act

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The dark history of the Chinese Exclusion Act

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In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first federal law that restricted immigration based explicitly on nationality. In practice, the Act banned entry to all ethnically Chinese immigrants besides diplomats, and prohibited existing immigrants from obtaining citizenship. Robert Chang details the lasting impact the Act had on immigrant rights and freedoms. [Directed by Mohammad Babakoohi & Yijia Cao, narrated by Jack Cutmore-Scott, music by Jian Nanyin].

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Robert Chang: The dark history of the Chinese Exclusion Act

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In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first federal law that restricted immigration based explicitly on nationality. In practice, the Act banned entry to all ethnically Chinese immigrants besides diplomats, and prohibited existing immigrants from obtaining citizenship.

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Academic Article: Reading Images in "American Born Chinese" through Critical Visual Literacy

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Academic Article: Reading Images in "American Born Chinese" through Critical Visual Literacy

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The author of this article

conveys how teaching Gene

Luen Yang's graphic novel

American Born Chinese

from a critical visual literacy

approach enables students to

gain a deeper understanding

of Yang's commentary on

historic and modern

stereotypes of Asians and

Asian American

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484245?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3A4fd669c03aa9bc10bef03565ed5ed594

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Vocabulary: Literary and Rhetorical Devices

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Vocabulary: Literary and Rhetorical Devices

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Practice vocabulary focused on communicating rhetoric and rhetorical analysis https://kahoot.it/solo/?quizId=5f0b2f9e-64cf-410a-92c3-5337f952fd0a

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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https://kahoot.it/solo/?quizId=0376fd53-0239-44f3-9245-812d7a5f3533

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https://kahoot.it/solo/?quizId=0376fd53-0239-44f3-9245-812d7a5f3533

https://create.kahoot.it/details/0376fd53-0239-44f3-9245-812d7a5f3533

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https://kahoot.it/solo/?quizId=c2fdf404-d60b-45d6-b868-68d375c7f2d8

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Join a solo game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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https://kahoot.it/solo/?quizId=e13d8365-7136-4217-80b6-31c1e4e86828

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MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction To Asian American Studies: Literature, Culture, And Historical Experience

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MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction To Asian American Studies: Literature, Culture, And Historical Experience

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Readings | Introduction to Asian American Studies: Literature, Culture, and Historical Experience | Global Studies and Languages | MIT OpenCourseWare

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This section provides information on required and recommended texts, and the schedule of readings by weekly topic.

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Zinn Education Project: Asian American History Books

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Zinn Education Project: Asian American History Books

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Library of Congress: Growth and Inclusion of Chinese Americans

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Library of Congress: Growth and Inclusion of Chinese Americans

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Posting Ceiling Prices in Foreign Languages...

In the first decades of the new century, Chinese immigrants continued to work toward greater inclusion in American life. Although the Exclusion Act was still in effect, the law did permit Chinese merchants, diplomats, and students to enter the country. For a time, these immigrants were even allowed to bring their wives and families. To take advantage of this loophole, young people often came into the U.S. by posing as family members of those with merchant status; these counterfeit family members became known as "paper sons" and "paper daughters".

In spite of all the legal and practical obstacles, between 1910 and 1940 some 175,000 Chinese immigrants passed through Angel Island Immigration Station, near San Francisco. At the same time, the growing number of children born to Chinese Americans helped add to the community's sense of permanence and stability. Since any child born in America automatically became a U.S. citizen, many parents bought property in their children's names, and were thus able to start businesses and make investments that would otherwise not have been available to them.

Chinese Americans get officer rank

As more immigrants found professional work and achieved financial success, they began to move out of urban Chinatowns, often to new suburbs or other outlying neighborhoods. Despite continuing restrictions in immigration, the Chinese population of the U.S., which had dropped from about 107,000 in 1890 to a low of 61,000 in 1920, began to rise again.

The outbreak of the Second World War brought Chinese immigrants and their descendants even further into the mainstream of U.S. society. Japan's brutal invasion of China led to greater public sympathy for the Chinese people, and prompted Chinese Americans to register for the draft, to join in war industries, and to enlist in record numbers. San Francisco's Chinatown even built and funded its own pilot-training school to prepare Chinese American pilots to fight the Japanese air force. Of the 13,000 Chinese American soldiers who served during the war, almost half were not U.S. citizens, still barred by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

A Chinese American merchant and his wife

In 1943, the Exclusion Act was finally swept away, brought down by the pressures of wartime labor shortages and popular sentiment. Under new legislation, Chinese immigrants were finally made eligible for citizenship, and new quotas were set for immigration. Even greater changes came two years later, when the War Bride Act and the G.I. Fiancées Act permitted Chinese Americans to bring their wives into the country. Family life, for centuries one of the most cherished aspects of Chinese culture, was finally possible for the Chinese community in the United States.

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Growth and Inclusion | Chinese | Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Posting Ceiling Prices in Foreign Languages... In the first decades of the new century, Chinese immigrants continued to work toward greater inclusion in American life. Although the Exclusion Act was still in effect, the law did permit Chinese merchants, diplomats, and students to enter the country.

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he Chinese American community in New York City is strong and dynam-Throughout history, Chinese immigrants in the United States have faced significant challenges, particularly regarding their ability to assimilate and gain acceptance as "real" Americans. This struggle was exacerbated by a series of legislative acts and court decisions that explicitly aimed to exclude them from American society. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a pivotal piece of legislation that prohibited Chinese immigrants from freely entering the United States. It marked the first instance of national legislation banning immigration based on race. Following this, additional laws and regulations further entrenched these restrictions.

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https://www.jstor.org/stable/42677817?searchText=chinese+american&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dchinese%2Bamerican%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2_SYC-7149%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aabb534236e3e2eaf1955375b82d031cb

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How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Easy Step-by-Step Guide

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How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Easy Step-by-Step Guide

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How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Easy Step-by-Step Guide

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-good-argumentative-essay#c829shZPjDXXAoWlpKhZ2

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How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Easy Step-by-Step Guide