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Chinese
Immigration:
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Chinatowns
At first, Californians were barely aware of the
Chinese presence because they were employed in railroad construction and
mining, distant from the centers of population.
Because demand in these jobs was dwindling many Chinese began
congregating in San Francisco and many other West Coast cities, making
their presence more apparent.[1]
Around 1870, the Chinese worked in urban manufacturing making
shirts, shoes, boots and cigars.[2]
The large populations of Chinese coming to American cities
usually squeezed into a few blocks where Chinatowns would emerge.
Most Chinatowns had narrow streets, alleys, and shabby apartments
that were perfect havens for opium smoking, gambling joints, and
brothels. These social
evils were attributed to the Chinese and sensationalized by whites.[3]
Anti-Chinese agitators held the Chinese responsible for the ills
associated with prostitution even though this problem was not strictly
Chinese. All of the poorer
classes in American society suffered from this evil.
It became even more of a focal point since the Chinese rarely
brought women with them when they emigrated.
The anti-Chinese faction claimed Chinese prostitutes demanded
less money for their services, making the vice readily available to
young white males, thus exerting a bad influence on the entire
community.[4]
“The Chinese are uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all
conception without any of the higher domestic or social relations;
lustful and sensual in their dispositions, every female is a prostitute
of the basest order….”[5]
In 1875, the American
Medical Association sponsored a study of Chinese prostitutes and their effect on the “nation’s
bloodstream”.[6]
Chinatowns were also known for housing ordinance violations. They were notorious for housing conditions in which fifteen
to twenty people would cram into the tiniest of spaces. In 1870, California passed the Cubic Air Law, which stated
there must be five hundred cubic feet of free space for one room per
adult. The Chinese rarely
complied and were constantly arrested for violating this law.
The Cubic Air Board also adopted the “Queue Ordinance” in
which male prisoners had to cut their long ponytails to within one inch
of their scalp.[7]
Doctors alerted Americans about the dangers the Chinese posed to
American health. Dr. Arthur
Stout wrote a book on the subject called Chinese Immigration and the
Physiological Causes of the Decay of the Nation.
This caused many to associate Chinese with disease.[8]
To doctors, “Chinatown was a laboratory of infection, peopled
by lying and treacherous aliens who had minimal regard for the health of
the American people.”[9]
The San Francisco Board of Health was lead by physicians who
credited “Chinatown with introducing and disseminating every outbreak
to hit San Francisco.”[10]
Even newspapers described the Chinese as “sickly people” and
more often than not left out the names of diseases the Chinese were said
to spread to make epidemics appear more horrific.[11]
The Board of Health deliberately created a scare by broadcasting
the presence of the bubonic plague.
This was to convince San Franciscans of the necessity to get rid
of the Chinese and burn Chinatown.[12]
Because of all the problems associated with Chinatown, Frank M.
Pixley, spokesman for the municipality of San Francisco, concluded, “
I believe the Chinese have no souls to save, and if they have, they are
not worth saving.”[13]
Pixley’s view was becoming the predominant attitude toward
Chinese among nineteenth century Americans.
[1] McClellan, The Heathen Chinee, 10. [2] Choy, Dong, and Horn, The Coming Man, 19. [3] Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America, 39. [4] Ibid, 40. [5] Stuart Creighton Miller,
“An East Coast Perspective to Chinese Exclusion, 1852-1882,” The
Historian 1971, 33(2): 190. [6] Salyer, Laws Harsh as Tigers, 11. [7] Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America, 38. [8] Salyer, Laws Harsh as
Tiger [9] Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America, 38. [10] Ibid. [11] Miller, “An East Coast Perspective,” 196. [12] Choy, Dong, and Horn, The Coming Man, 102. [13] Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America, 41.
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Created by Jaime Boyle Last Updated 12/06/03 |
