|
|
The History of Chinese Americans
Chinese have been in the United States for almost two hundred years. In
fact. the Chinese had business relations with Hawaii prior to relations with the
mainland when Hawaii was not yet part of the United States. But United States
investments controlled the capital of Hawaii at that time. In 1788, a ship
sailed from Guangzhou to Hawaii. Most of the crewmen were Chinese. They were
considered the pioneers of Hawaii. The Immigration Commission reported that the
first Chinese arrived in the United States in 1820, eight in 1830 and seven
hundred and eighty in 1850. The Chinese population gradually increased and
reached 64,199 in 1870.
For many years it was common in the United States to associate Chinese
Americans with restaurants and laundries. People did not realize that the
Chinese had been driven into these occupations by the prejudice and
discrimination that faced them in this country.
The First Chinese to reach the mainland United States came during the
California Gold Rush of 1849. Like most of the other people there, they had come
to search for gold. In that largely unoccupied land, the men staked a claim for
themselves by placing markers in the ground. However. either because the Chinese
were so different from the others or because they worked so patiently that they
sometimes succeeded in turning a seemingly worthless mining claim into a
profitable one, they became the scapegoats of their envious competitors. They
were harassed in many ways. Often they were prevented from working their claims;
some localities even passed regulations forbidding them to own claims. The
Chinese therefore started to seek out other ways of earning a living. Some of
them began to do the laundry for the white miners; others set up small
restaurants. (There were almost no women in California in those days,and the
Chinese filled a real need by doing this "woman's work") Some went to work as
farmhands or as fishermen.
In the early 1860's many more Chinese arrived in California.This time the
men were imported as work crews to construct the first transcontinental
railroad.They were sorely needed because the work was so strenuous and
dangerous, and it was carried on in such a remote part of the country that the
railroad company could not find other laborers for the job. As in the case of
their predecessors,these Chinese were almost all males; and like them, too, they
encountered a great deal of prejudice. The hostility grew especially strong
after the railroad project was complete, and the imported laborers returned to
California-thousands of them, all out of work. Because there were so many more
of them this time, these Chinese drew even more attention than the earlier group
did. They were so very different in every respect: in their physical appearance,
including a long "pigtail" at the back of their otherwise shaved heads; in the
strange, non-Western clothes they wore; in their speech (few had learned English
since they planned to go back to China); and in their religion. They were
contemptuously called "heathen Chinese" because there were many sacred images in
their houses of worship.
When times were hard, they were blamed for working for lower wages and
taking jobs away from white men, who were in many cases recent immigrants
themselves. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in several cities, culminating in arson
and bloodshed. Chinese were barred from using the courts and also from becoming
American citizens. Californians began to demand that no more Chinese be
permitted to enter their state. Finally, in 1882, they persuaded Congress to
pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the immigration of Chinese
laborers. Many Chinese returned to their homeland, and their numbers declined
sharply in the early part of this century. However, during the World War II,
when China was an ally of the United States, the Exclusion laws were ended; a
small number of Chinese were allowed to immigrate each year, and Chinese could
become American citizens. In 1965, in a general revision of our immigration
laws, many more Chinese were permitted to settle here, as discrimination against
Asian immigration was abolished.
From the start, the Chinese had lived apart in their own separate
neighborhoods, which came to be known as “Chinatowns”. In each of them the
residents organized an unofficial government to make rules for the community and
to settle disputes. Unable to find jobs on the outside, many went into business
for themselves - primarily to serve their own neighborhood. As for laundries and
restaurants, some of them soon spread to other parts of the city, since such
services continued to be in demand among non-Chinese, too. To this day, certain
Chinatowns, especially those of San Francisco and New York, are busy, thriving
communities, which have become great attractions for tourists and for those who
enjoy Chinese food.
Most of today's Chinese Americans are the descendants of some of the early
miners and railroad workers. Those immigrants had come from the vicinity of
Canton in Southeast China, where they had been uneducated farm laborers.The same
kind of young men, from the same area and from similar humble origins, migrated
to Hawaii in those days. There they fared far better, mainly because they did
not encounter hostility. Some married native Hawaiians, and other brought their
wives and children over. They were not restricted to Chinatown and many of them
soon became successful merchants and active participants in general community
affairs.
Chinese Americans retain many aspects of their ancient culture. even after
having lived here for several generations. For example, their family ties
continue to be remarkably strong (encompassing grandparents,. uncles, aunts,
cousins, and others). Members of the family lend each other moral support and
also practical help when necessary. From a very young age children are imbued
with the old values and attitudes, including respect for their elders and a
feeling of responsibility to the family. This helps to explain why there is so
little juvenile delinquency (少年犯罪 ) among them.
The high regard for education which is deeply imbedded in Chinese culture,
and the willingness to work very hard to gain advancement, are other noteworthy
characteristics of theirs. This explains why so many descendants of uneducated
laborers have succeeded in becoming doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.
(Many of the most outstanding Chinese-American scholars, scientists, and artists
are more recent arrivals, who come from China's former upper class and who
represent its high cultural traditions)
Chinese-Americans make up only a tiny fraction of our population; there are
fewer than half a million, living chiefly in California, New York, and Hawaii.
As American attitudes toward minorities and toward ethnic differences have
changed in recent years, the long-reviled Chinese have gained wide acceptance.
Today, they are generally admired for their many remarkable characteristics, and
are often held up as an example worth following. And their numerous
contributions to their adopted land are much appreciated.
【试题】
1.Most Chinese Americans worked in restaurants and laundries because
of______________.
A)the skills they acquired at the motherland
B)local people's discrimination against them
C)their high employment rates
D)their comparatively high pay
2. During the California Gold Rush.restaurant and laundry were regarded
as________________.
A)unprofitable work B)comfortable work
C)woman's work D)Chinese work
3. In the early l860's, more Chinese were shipped to California to work
as________________.
A)gold miners B)railroad builders C)steelworkers D)farmhands
4.Few Chinese learned English at that time because_________________.
A)they seldom used English in Chinatown
B)they were too old to learn a new tongue
C)they couldn't find good English teachers
D)they wouldn't stay in America for long
5.The Chinese Exclusion Act came to an end_________________.
A)by the California governor then B)after a massive bloodshed
C)during WWII D)in 1965
6.One of the Chinatowns as a busy and thriving community now is located
in________________.
A)Florida B)Hawaii C)New Jersey D)New York
7. Chinese immigrants to Hawaii found that they________________.
A)were treated without discrimination
B)were provided with fewer job choices
C)couldn't travel to mainland America
D)could only live or work in Chinatown
8.The old values and attitudes imparted into the young Chinese Americans
effectively help prevent_______________.
9.China's high cultural traditions are represented by the Chinese
American_____________.
10.The contributions made by Chinese to America had gained
much_____________.
|
|
发表于 2018-8-4 09:07:01