An Episode In Chinese Immigration To The U.S.A San Francisco Angel Island Immigration Station

In the wake of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, America saw the emergence of a new identity: the hyphenated-American. While in the past four decades, America have embraced and celebrated its racial heritage and diversity, including the Chinese-Americans, who have contributed to making America what it is today; the Chinese in China still fail to recognize that Chinese immigrants, too, can become Americans. Furthermore, there are only a selected few academics and historians who comprehend the role and identity of the Chinese-American, while the rest of China view them as either wonders, hybrids, moneybags, traitors, second-hand foreigners, leverage on which one's friends and or relatives can immigrate to the United States, or a less favorable combination of these.In a time of peace, the Chinese-American enjoys praises from both sides of the globe, as a bridge of the peaceful co-existence between the two leading international superpowers, China and the United States. However, in times of dispute between these two nations, the Chinese-American is the most common target of prejudice from both sides. The Chinese-American is often scapegoated for being someone not trusted by either side, as he or she embodies both, currently contradicting, identities.Of course, the Chinese-American has his or her own untold sorrow. Every immigrant, including the Chinese, has their struggles, often hidden from the eyes and ears of the outside by either the immigrants themselves or their families in fear of 'loosing face'. This is especially so for the Chinese, who still believe in 'saving face' or showing off one's own prowess, in front of others. In doing so, generations past of Chinese immigrants have only encouraged future would-be immigrants with unrealistic expectations of their own abilities in foreign countries. The 'dream of the Gold Mountain' or to become a 'Gam Saak Haak' or 'Gold Mountain Guest', once used to describe the immigrants who flocked to California during the Gold Rush which began in 1848, exists even today. Unlike the immigrant workers of the past century, however, most of the Chinese going abroad today have some social position, and are usually from China's upper-middle class. But, like their predecessors, they also seek unrealistic goals of instant success and wealth just by going abroad. Going to a foreign country is still considered a sign of prosperity for the Chinese general public, as it has been for the past one hundred and fifty years. After my return to China in September of 2000,1 quickly realized how little information there was in China of the Chinese-American. In order to allow the Chinese public to accept the Chinese-American identity we must first establish some backgrounds to Chinese immigration. In the following thesis, by way of a remote and sullen chapter of Chinese-American history, San Francisco's Angel Island Immigration Station, I would like to share with the Chinese public some of the untold hardships of early Chinese immigrants, bring to light some of the struggles each immigrant must inevitably face, explore current immigration problems and hopefully disprove some of the myths regarding the immigrant high-life in America.