The Making of Asian America: A History

The California Gold Rush began in 1848 with the discovery of gold along the American River. In the next few years, more and more Chinese men traveled to California. Most found no gold but pursued other economic opportunities. Political instability at home, from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Chinese Revolution, also led to immigration. By 1870, 63,000 Chinese resided in the US, including the author’s maternal great-great-great-grandfather Moy Dong Kee. With the men in the family traveling back and forth between China and the US, the author’s grandmother eventually came to the US to settle, “finally becoming Chinese American” (62).

As the US Empire expanded westward, “[i]ndustrialization and the growth of American capitalism created an insatiable desire for labor,” including using Chinese workers where they were indispensable in factories, railroads, and in the fields (65). Gold Mountain firms “moved people, information, money, and goods from China to locations around the world” (66). By 1867, 90% of the railroad workforce was Chinese. In 1882, the US passed Chinese Exclusion laws with merchants, students, teachers, and diplomats being exempt. Chinese Americans, who were citizens, were allowed to apply for readmission from China.

Chinese immigration revealed not only race-based inequalities but also questions of sex-based inequality.