A Study of Asian American Issues in the United States - Nicoline Pedersen - Krista Celo - Eden Stilman - Seren Ventullo

Timel ine of Chinese Exclusion

1850

Anti-Chinese sentiment in California became part of state law through the implementation of a foreign miner’s tax. Chinese were systematically harassed and driven out of cities and towns across the West. The possessive investment in whiteness designates non-native's as inferior, and thus deserving of maltreatment. Chinese were officially granted unequal status along with other racial minorities when the California Supreme Court ruled that Chinese immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans were prohibited from giving testimony in cases involving a white person. The perception of Chinese individuals as "inferior" and lacking adequate intelligance was a consitutent to their inability to participate in these court proceedings.

1854

1855

The California governor set in motion the first attempt by Californians to prohibit Asian immigration by signing a bill that taxed any master or owner of a ship found to have brought Asian immigrants to the state.

1858-59

A veritable race war began in the goldfields as armed mobs forced Chinese out of various campsites and towns.

1875 The Chinese Exclusion Act barred entry of Chinese laborers for a period of ten years. Chinese immigrants were perceived as unfair economic competition, in that they robbed “true” Americans of job opportunities. Moreover, non-native unwillingness to assimilate to western culture perpetuated the proclivity to designate Chinese immigrants as “other." The Page Act banned Asian women suspected of prostitution, as well as Asian laborers brought to the United States involuntarily. Stereotypical distinctions of Asians as "unclean" intensified the prospect of every Asian women being distinguished as a prostitute. The Act is also a testament to the sexual threat Americans believed the Chinese population presented. 1862 The Coolie Trade Act outlawed coolie labor and U.S. involvement in the coolie trade. The act highlights the growing economic threat Americans perceived the Chinese immigrants to present. 1882

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