Zhe Lu

Professor Evan Robert Farr

Freshman Inquiry: Portland 107I
15 Nov 2014
Immigration of Chinese
At the very beginning of 19th century, Chinese people set off a wave of
immigration boom. At that time, Chinese individuals were ruled by Qing Government
what was a feudal dynasty. The life was so difficult what means people in China have
the very dark life, they could not get enough resources to live and no many right.
Hence, they immigrated to many other countries, such as Southeast Asia, Russia and
North America (Chinese Immigration in 1900). However, after they arrived to other
countries, the main problem was finding a job and getting some wages. However,
sometime it was very difficult for people who just come due to racism and culture
problems. Therefore, for the exhibit, this paper is try to introduce the background of
the Qing Government and what Chinese faced after they immigrated.
The Qing Government was as similar as other feudal dynasty, the centralization is
the main thing that the ruler used to strengthen domination and control people. The
emperor was the most powerful man, and all things had to be reported to him. The
emperor ensured and firmed the centralization by strengthen the management and
control the speech. For example, a person published an essay that had a ward in that
paper has the same meaning of emperors name what was an illegal. The reason why
they did this is the Qing government wanted to shape the emperor is the powerful man
and no one could violate. Many Chinese people were persecuted due to this reason.
Hence, they wanted to find other way to get better life.

Moreover, Qing Government decided to seclude the country from the outside
world is another reason why many Chinese citizen immigrated to other countries. The
ruler was afraid that many cultures were come into China so that the centralization
was broken. Thus, they closed almost all ports and then no any connections with other
countries. However, the influence is that people in China could not get advanced
science and technology. For example, people in China could not resources to life. The
production of food was too low and many Chinese even could not get full. Therefore,
many Chinese decided to immigrate to other countries.
Nowadays, Chinese people are round the world, such as Southeast Asia, Russia
and North America (Chinese Immigration in 1900). The United States is a major place
that Chinese immigrated to. The Chinese people immigrated to the coastal cities, such
as San Francisco, Los Angles and some other places. However, after they arrived
America, a lot of things that they had to face. They need to find places to live, they
need to find jobs to afford their life, they need to integrate to the local society. In the
article How our Chinese men are employed?, Corbett and N. Corbett state that in
San Francisco, many Chinese were hired because they were hard-working and did
difficult things that local people could not do. After that, many Chinese people
overflow from California to Oregon. In the article Portland in Three Centuries,
Chinese people constructed railroad in Portland, and more and more Chinese settle
down in Portland. The Chinese people contributed a huge part for the development of
United States. For instance, the Chinatown in Portland was the secondary large in all
United States in 1890. Therefore, Chinese people increased the development of
Amercia.
Chinese laborers were the best hard workers, they want to serve their
employers with all of their muscles and skills to do their works. They were very

honesty to their employers. Most of the labors work without a rest in seven days.
When they got their wages, they sent it to their parents and wife. However, Chinese
people still find the job difficultly due to the racism and culture differences. In the
article How our Chinese men are employed? Only 23.6 percent of Chinese people
lived in household with whites, other 67.3 percent did not. It means that just about one
fourth of Chinese people do not care what they lived with. In the opposite, other
people just want live with people in same race. The reason why people have this
thinking is the racial discrimination. Many whites do not like other kind of people.
They think they are the highest level. For instance, when some people, some whites
and some other kind of people, compete one job. The whites always can get that job
because the racism. Therefore, after people settle down the United States, they have to
face the racism.
Moreover, the different culture and different thinking method is another problem
what Chinese immigrants had to face. Every culture has their different property, so
that it causes people have different thinking method. P. Scott Corbett and Nancy
Parker Corbett state that people One of the most common arguments against
permitting Chinese to immigrate to the United States was that they were unassimilable
into American western culture. In other ward, Chinese immigrants could not solve this
problem in their communication and their life. The simple example is that, although
some Chinese immigrants are skillful and hard-working, they still could not get a job
easily because they have the different thinking with the employer. The employer
would think could the Chinese man can do this job very well by using other thinking.
Therefore, the different thinking causes Chinese immigrants problems.
In conclusion, at the beginning of 19th century, people in China got difficult life so
that they decided to immigrate to other country, especially the United State. However,

after they settled down there, there are some problems that they had to face and solve
which are racism and different thinking method.

Chinese in Oregon, c. 1870-1880,P. Scott Corbett and Nancy Parker Corbett,

Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 73-85

Loomis, AW (1869). "How Our Chinamen Are Employed". The Overland

monthly, 2 (3), p. 234.