ABSTRACT

The early history of Asian America does not make for a pleasant story. The Chinese were the first Asian immigrants to come to the United States in large numbers. While some Chinese had arrived as early as the late 1700s, the year historians give as the beginning of Chinese immigration is somewhere around 1850. For example in The Asian in the West, Stanford Lyman writes: “Chinese immigration to America effectively began in 1847. A coincidence of catastrophe in China and opportunity in California supplied the expulsive and attractive elements that linked the Middle Kingdom to the United States.” The catastrophe in China included the Taiping rebellion of the 1850s which reduced much of southern China to rubble. Additionally, much of the area was hit with severe droughts during this time. Meanwhile, gold had been discovered in California in 1848, leading to stories of Chinese who had gone to California and become rich. Soon, Chinese immigration to America increased dramatically; according to Roger Daniels, “This economic attraction—what historians of immigration call ‘pull’—coupled with the ‘push’ of Chinese peasant poverty and the existence of cheap and frequent transPacific sail and steamship transportation produced a steady stream of Chinese migration to the United States….” 1 By 1860 some 34,933 Chinese were in the United States. The figure rose to 105,465 by 1880. 2