Chinatown
After many years of famine and poverty plaguing the land of China hundreds of thousands of Chinese in seek of opportunity began immigrating to the United States. Many motivated by the discovery of gold in California others came to the United States to seek better economic opportunity. Yet there were others that were compelled to leave China either as contract laborers or refugees. The Chinese brought with them their language, culture, social institutions, and customs. Over time they made lasting contributions to their adopted country and tried to become an integral part of the United States population. In the eighteenth century, Chinese green tea became very popular among Europeans and Americans. Chinese silk and porcelain were also in great demand. The Chinese, on the other hand, needed almost nothing the west had to offer. This created an imbalance of trade, especially bad for the British, who were weary of sending shiploads of silver to Hong Kong. Their solution was to develop a third-party trade,exchanging their merchandise in India and Southeast Asia for cotton and opium, which became welcomed in China as currency, in spite of the Imperial Chinese prohibition on opium. During the early 1800's opium addiction reached epi
Their skills were recognized and imitated on other farms. As a result Hong Kong became a British territory. England was given 'most-favored-nation' status, and British nationals were exempt from Chinese law. Chinese entrepreneurs started their own factories, competing with the white people. In 1850 the California legislature passed a law taxing foreign miners $20 a month. Since mining and railroad construction dominated the western economy, Chinese immigrants settled mostly in California and states west of the Rocky Mountains. The Chinese provided a quarter of California's labor force. After gold was discovered in California, Chinese immigrants joined gold seekers from all over the world. Not only was the majority of Chinese excluded from immigrating, however, the few Chinese that did immigrate were treated inhumanely. Anti-Chinese sentiment had existed ever since the great migration from China during the gold rush, where white miners and prospectors imposed taxes and laws to inhibit the Chinese from success. In 1852 a mass meeting was held in the Columbia Mining District where a resolution was passed to exclude Asians and South Sea Islanders" from mining activities. With the gold rush, the Chinese were prompted to exploit other western state resources, providing products of use to the American society. Their customs, their food, their dress, their art, and their voices have been added to the Nation of Immigrants in which creates the unique melting pot experience of the United States. Economic development and racial exclusion defined the patterns of settlement for Chinese Americans. First, the Americans claimed that jobs were scarce, and the Chinese were stealing the only jobs that there were because of there willingness to work for smaller wages.
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Acceptance Essays
