In this project, I am going to explore how Chinese immigrants came to America to seek for fortune, a better living starting from the mid-eighteenth century in San Francisco for the Golden rush. However, good times did not last long. Soon after huge amount of people came for gold from the east, California passed a series of acts against Chinese foreigners for the gold tax in 1850. Because of laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, lots of Chinese people returned home with money and gold.
Of course, news about the gold in San Francisco spread out all across the country especially southern part of China. San Francisco was known as “the island of immortals”. (H. M. Alai, 1978) For those who remained in America, they struggled to find a place for living. They switched to service industries or cheap working labor. They made great contribution to American railroad construction and an example would be the Central Pacific Railroad. Topic description It has been merely less than three hundred years since the establishment of the United States of America, and it only cost about two centuries for the U.
S. To become the center of the world from a place of nowhere, a place of nothing except the American natives. This is amazing that the two centuries were filled with a merge of different cultures brought by immigrants from all over the world and revolutions of technology, industrialization, progressivism, as well as wars. This is a county that respects every culture, values education, and justice. Each single person got his or her right and fair freedom. This is why this country had been so attractive to all those immigrants who left their own country and culture to seek for a better life here.
The decision of leaving their own country and culture was made with hardship, while the situation at he beginning of nineteenth century in China was very extreme and they had no other choice because survival was even hard there. After the Civil War, the whole country was under quietude. Serf system was abolished and for the first time on the Negro problem, the constitution thoroughly implemented what is called equality. This was the reason why so many people believed that after their hard work, they can get what they deserved, what was waiting for them was hope.
Especially for those from foreign countries and had suffered enough of wars, they would see this new country as heaven. During the Golden Rush in California minion, it was the first time large wave of Chinese immigrant appeared in American history. (Change Iris, 2003) Chinese immigrants in America are exactly what this project is going to explore. Before 2005, if you ask any local man from the roadside that who helped building the railroad in Midwest America, theft say, “I have no idea,” I suppose.
However, during the large reconstruction Of the light rail at the same year, large amount of skeletons was found by accident. In addition, it was surprisingly proved that the scattered relics belonged to those Chinese labor when constructing the railroad. Also, according to the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, around one thousand and five hundreds Chinese labor died during the railroad construction. This is the first time when more Americans began to face those Chinese in U. S. History with fair acknowledgement.
After the construction of railway, those Chinese labor with rich agriculture experiences then asserted those swamp into famous orchard and gardens. Based on an objective point of view, these Chinese immigrants are different from those immigrants from Europe while they came as a whole family. Most Chinese immigrants were single young men ho wanted to earn a better life, and they came by the labor contract. For those Chinese labor with no education at all, all they knew was their own culture. Compared to those European immigrants, they needed a longer time to adapt into American culture.
They had to switch from rural country to urban city, from Eastern culture to the Western culture, from labor of contract to freeman. This is a very hard transformation for anyone in the world. They worked extra hard and in order to save money, they clustered in the region which is now called “Chinatown” in San Francisco. However, later in 1 882, the America Congress eventually passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the only U. S. Law that prevented immigration based on race. This law prohibited immigration from China for ten years, and was later extended. Chinese Exclusion Act, 1 882) Since the racial discrimination against Chinese immigrants and the maladjustment to American culture, especially ninety-five percent of them did not know any English so they could only communicate within their racial group. This period of time of were often considered to be a period of history full of cultural conflicts, political exclusion and lots of social and economic inequality. However, they fought against it, with their continuous opposition and effort, they built their solid community.
Things have changed a lot through the decades, however, this is a period of history and the contribution that Chinese people brought to America needs to be remembered. Digital Methodology In order to convey the information into a digital methodology, I am going to use Microsoft Frontage to establish a website. Information is better displayed and showed with a website since it contains article excerpts, pictures as well as videos. I learned how to use this software in high school, UT in order to refresh my memory, I referred to the Microsoft Office website on “Create a Web site with Frontage”. Microsoft Office, 2013) Following with the tutor videos and explanation, I Will then get started on making the website. First, will plan the content into categories including the immigration background, Golden Rush brought the first wave of Chinese immigration, Chinese Exclusion Act, Angel Island, and etc. Second, will design a site layout. Then, the website will contain pictures, screens Of book excerpts, hyperlinks, videos with text descriptions. As soon as all the materials are organized on the website, I will run a test to make sure the website is published if link works.