Chinese+Immigration+to+the+United+States

**Historical Overview**
[|Chinese Americans: The Eagle and the Dragon] from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library provides an historical overview of immigration from China to the United States from 1800 to the present day.


 * Chinese Immigration is a history in two parts:**
 * 1) From the 1850s to the 1880s before being halted by federal anti-immigration legislation
 * 2) From the 1970s to the present following normalization of U.S./China relations

Why Did the first Chinese Immigrants Come to the United States? from KCC Alterna-TV News

Chinese American Women: A History of Resilience and Resistance, National Women's History Museum

Primary Sources from Harper's Weekly, The Chinese American Experience, 1857-1892

Early Chinese Immigration

 * Many of the first Chinese immigrants were wealthy merchants and skilled artisans known for their hard work.
 * Well and widely received by Americans
 * In the 1880's poor unskilled workers came looking for work on railroads, to mine gold, to become cooks, and take other jobs considered 'dirty" or undesirable.
 * They worked hard for little pay.
 * Unlike the skilled Chinese immigrants who were well received, were treated negatively and attitudes were hostile towards them

Chinese Immigrants in the West


For more, see [|The Chinese and Westward Expansion] from the exhibit "//The Chinese in California, 1850-1925//" from the Library of Congress.

[|The Unsung Story of Chinese and Japanese Immigrants Who Brought Rice to California] from Good Magazine, December 24, 2014.

[|Chinese in California, 1850 - 1925] from the University of California Berkeley

The Story of Ing "Doc" Hay, a Chinese herbalist in a small town in Oregon in the 1880s from Crossing East, a radio program about Asian American History



Chinese Workers and the Transcontinental Railroad
See also Dramatic Event page on **The Transcontinental Railroad**

Timeline from Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, Stanford University

[|Chinese-American Contribution to Transcontinental Railroad] from the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Some 80 percent of those involved in building the Transcontinental Railroad were immigrant Chinese workers.

The [|Chinese Workers Strike] in June 1867 from PBS American Experience.
 * Anti-Chinese Sentiment and the 1867 Chinese Workers Strike, Chinese Historical Society of America



Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

 * First law in American history to ban a specific racial group from entering the country
 * Angel Island Inspection Station was built in 1910


 * Paper Sons and Daughters**
 * Chinese-American Descendants Uncover Forged Family Histories, NPR Code Switch (December 17, 2013)

**Chinese Immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts,** Office of the Historian, United States Department of State

 * Chinese Immigration and the First U.S. Immigration Laws, University of Texas at Austin as part of its Border Views series


 * Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 from University of Washington Press

**Link to Immigration Gateways and Ports of Entry for more about Angel Island Immigration Station and other ports of entry**

[[image:masscities.png width="80" height="48"]]Chinese Immigrants in Massachusetts

 * [|Chinese Workers Arrive in North Adams, June 13, 1870] from MassMoments.