Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jonah Mismash
Document #1
The two documents I read were both concerning the issue of Chinese immigration to the Untied
States in the late nineteenth century. Both documents were from either side of the debate. One titled
The Evil Of Chinese Immigration was an address from the Californian Senate to the people of the state
on why the Chinese were a detriment to American culture and society. The other document seemed like
an almost direct response to the first one. Written by Yan Phou Lee, it was titled The Chinese Must
Stay, and argued for the point that its title was trying to make.
The Evil Of Chinese Immigration outlined many reasons why the people of the United States
should want the Chinese immigrants to leave, most of which were drastic over exaggerations or
problems and claims formed by racism or lies, or by different situations that put the Chinese
immigrants in a bad spot. The claim that the Chinese live in horribly unsanitary conditions and that this
was not only a decremented to them but also to the American people living around them. They also
showed a lot of distaste for the smoking of opium and claimed that they were spreading it to the young
population of white Americans. They also made the claim that the Chinese women were too lewd for
our cultural norms and that they brought disease that the young population was getting infected with by
doing their business with them. And probably the largest claim they made was that they were stealing
jobs from American laborers because they would work for less money. All these claims boil down to
the main issue I believe, which is that they didn't assimilate. The white Americans didn't like that they
spoke a different language and had habits foreign to their own, but how did the Chinese respond to
this?
In 1882 then US Government passed the Chinese exclusion act which greatly restricted the
immigration of the Chinese to the United States. Yan Phou Lee wrote a response to the rampant racism
against his people in 1889. He starts with talking about how hypocritical it is that Americans claim to
stand for equality and self empowerment, yet they have such an issue with racism and segregation. He
then goes down a list of claims that Americans have made about the Chinese and poses an argument
against them. In the text, its obvious his distaste for these statements as he rights very sarcastically in
some of them. While I feel that this document is somewhat emotionally driven, as he makes some
outlandish claims of his own, it doesn't mean it is not valid. He argues against the claims that the
Chinese are unruly and unsanitary by basically saying that they are the complete opposite and that all
the want to do is the same as any other American immigrant, start a new life of opportunity in a land
that is dedicated to that goal. I feel his most powerful argument is his response to the claim that The
Chinese refuse to assimilate. To this he basically says why should we? We are treated poorly and
looked down upon, not given equal treatment under the law, taxed for no reason and aren't given credit
for what we contribute. I think Mr. Lee could have written his entire argument off of this.
In conclusion I think that all the claims that people in America made about the Chinese were
grounded in very little evidence, if any at all. I really enjoyed reading Yan Phou Lee's response to the
Chinese Exclusion Act. I think both of these are examples of an issue of intolerance that used to plague
America. The Chinese Must Stay was a perfect response to such rampant hatred founded on poorly
formed lies.