PRE-1965 ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND FILIPINO AMERICANS ETHN 100 Week 14 Session 1b

“Mother Tongue”  Discuss an aspect of the essay you found fascinating, relatable, or informative.

ETHN 100: The Last Two Weeks  Week 14 – Before 1965  Session 1 (Mon/Tue) – Early API immigration and Settlement  Session 2 (Wed/Thu) – Final Writing Workshop on Wed/Thu. Graded WA3 handed back  Week 15 – After 1965  Session 1 – No online work or readings due. WA4 due Mon/Tue (2 copies). Blind peer review guidelines handed out.  Session 2 – Return peer reviews  Finals Week  Submit revised WA4 via 5PM of final day

Last Session  Examined conditions surrounding Chinese immigration to and settlement in the United States beginning in the mid-1800s.

Today  Discuss the push-pull factors of Japanese and Filipino immigrants to the United States.

Immigrant Experiences: Early Chinese vs. European  Similarities: Intended to be sojourners (make money and go back to mother country); mainly men, primarily poor.  Differences: Regional settlement, race, and the first immigrant group to be shut out by the US government.  Chinese Diaspora existed when immigrants to the US began to show in large numbers. History of indentured servitude “Coolie trade” from Asian countries to the UK. Gold Rush attracted Chinese to “Gold Mountain”

Structure of Chinese American Community  San Francisco – dai fu (big city) – Cultural, economic and administrative hub of Chinese America.  Key cultural difference between European and Chinese immigrants: Churches (European) and Family (Chinese) as key institutions for organizing communities, transmitting values, customs and traditions.

Cultural Characteristics and Community  Family Associations – initially based on blood ties (clans) it was adapted by immigrants.  District Associations  Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association – AKA the Six Chinese Companies or Six Companies  Origins in Guangdong province (primary region of immigration)  Often served as the community’s voice to white America.  American-born Citizen’s groups  Native Sons of the Golden State/Chinese American Citizens Alliance

Forms of Labor  Gold Rush – Worked as miners  Agriculture – built the irrigation system in California central valleys  Railroads – Contributed to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, specifically the Central Pacific Railroad  Eventually low-capital forms of self-employment such as laundries and restaurants.  Women had few options for labor. Many worked as sex workers to pay off indentured servitude.

Systematic Discrimination  Direct Referential Racism – discriminatory changes in policy, law, or ordinance that target a group without explicitly naming them. Extreme residential discrimination  California Foreign Miners Tax  Municipal ordinances on living conditions, employment, bodies  Policies aimed at baring Chinese from land ownership and employment

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882  Barred immigration of Chinese laborers for 20 years (two, ten-year periods)  Outwitted immigration laws (resistance): undocumented and documented entry  Undocumented: Entered the country (CA) via Northwestern and southern points of entry.  Extralegal: Misrepresented their status to enter with papers.

Japanese Immigration  Modernization, industrialization, and militarization  Immigration mainly to Hawaii (sugar) and California (fruit and produce).  Chinese immigrants vs. Japanese immigrants  From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907  Picture Brides

Hawaii Sugar Plantations  Describe labor conditions among the immigrant ethnic groups on the Hawaiian sugar plantations were often stratified.  Groups were pitted one against the other.  Japanese laborers attempted “blood unionism”  Filipino and Japanese workers strike (1909)

Filipino Immigration  Filipinos were uniquely situated in immigration history because they were colonial subjects of the United States due to the Spanish American War (1898) and Philippine-American War ( )  President McKinley: “Little Brown Brothers.”  Three waves:  Pensionados  Manongs  Post-1965 Professionals and Families

First Wave: Pensionados or “Fountain Pen Boys” (early 1900s)  Filipino young men from elite families were brought to the United States to be educated in US colleges and universities.  These students returned to the Philippines.  These students were an integral strategy to US colonization of the Philippines.  The goal was to import US culture, education, and institutions via families of status.

Second Wave: Manongs ( )  Filipino laborers were brought to the United States when Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican laborers were in short supply due to exclusion and discrimination.  Worked mainly in agriculture, food production (canneries, packing houses), and as domestic help (“house boys”).  Hawaii, Pacific Coast (California), Alaska  Almost entirely men.  Anti-miscegenation Laws  The Great Depression  Watsonville Riot

Third Wave: Post-1965 Professionals and Family Reunification  Immigration Act of 1965 created a new system of preferences for immigrants to the United States.  Favored forms of labor and family ties.  Despite the assumption that it would mainly benefit European groups, Asian Americans were among the most affected.

Next Time  Writing Workshop  From Asian America from World War II to Civil Rights