"The Bubonic Plague Events" In Scan Francisco’s Chinatown And Interests Of Overseas Chinese At The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century

Ever since the beginning of20th century, the exclusion Chinese had turned out to bean internal trend throughout America. Chinatown in San Francisco became a refugefor Chinese. On March6th of1900, under the examination carried out by SanFrancisco Board of Health, the disease that seemingly likes bubonic plague wasdetected in Chinatown of San Francisco. San Francisco Board of Health, therefore,took a series of discriminatory measurement towards Chinese in Chinatown bybottling up the Chinese so as to expel them from their country. Chinese there were influrry, grief and indignation caused by the disturbance. With the guidance of embassyWu Tingfang, Consulate Ho Yow, and The Six Chinese Companies, they took a seriesof countermeasures to protect the Chinese. The Chinese were armed with legalweapon and accused the Board of Health and succeeded. At the same time,“the eventof plague” also serves as a clue to show us the Chinese society in Americans’ eyes atthat time which reflected the relationships between American as well as western worldand the Chinese society. The whole “the event of plague” had been lasted for near4year which had great significance to Chinese society causing them to reform theirsanitary and medical services and making them to be conscious towardsnaturalization.The thesis takes the “Chung Sai Yat Po” as the firsthand and rawmaterial. Combining the western papers and the guidance of public opinion, thisdissertation is to reflect the influence of plague event and the authentic Chinesesociety in Chinatown of San Francisco at that time. There is not too much researchdomestically conducted about the plague event happened in early20th century inChinatown of San Francisco. This dissertation studies this event from the aspect ofrights and interests of overseas Chinese which comparatively reflected the authenticChinese society at that time.