Background

     Most of China was in disaaray in the 1930's. The Great Depression had not only affeced America, but the rest or the world as well, including China. China also had a struggling economy, so this just made things worse. At the time, beside being a major target for being invaded by japan, China was also going through a civil war, making the 1930's some of the hardest years of chinese history. These hard times made America a great place to "run" to.

How Immigrants Were Treated

     Before World War II, Chinese immigrants were greatly discriminated against in the United States. In 1870, there was a small depression in the US so jobs were hard to get.The wages charged by the Chinese were much lower that what American natives were charging. This caused many American-born citizens to lose their jobs.

     Chinese immigrants endured many racist attacks. In all corners of the western America, Chinese immigrants were forced out of business. Not only that but they were exiled from towns, beaten, lynched, tortured, and massacred. The Chinese people received little help from the government the racist American natives. Most of people that committed these acts of hatred went unpunished. And although statistics are hard to find, most immigration experts can say with confidence that Chinese immigrants were treated the worst out if all immigrants that came to the U.S. voluntarily. In 1900, Chinatown in San Francisco was quarantined for a suspected outbreak of the Bubonic Plague. There are many stories of people trying to escape, but, if you failed, you were killed almost certainly, regardless of health.^[1] Another form of discrimination would be that men were allowed to enter the country more frequently than women or children because they were good workers. The women and children were often denied entry. This created a gender ratio. ^[2]The hatred towards Chinese immigrants in the U.S. pressured the government into passing the Chinese Exclusion Act.^[3]

 The Chinese Exclusion Act

        In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion was signed prohibiting Chinese immigration for ten years. In 1892 the Exclusion Act was renewed for another ten years, now including Hawaii and the Philippines. The Exclusion act was also extended another ten years in 1902. ^[4]Then, after years of feeling "looked down upon" in 1905 the Chinese organized an Anti-American boycott. It ended after 5 months because of Theodore Roosevelt’s pressure on the Chinese government. Finally, in 1943 China became an American ally due to World War II and the Exclusion Act was repealed.

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