The Campus Chronicle

Volume 3, No. 31
August 1, 2003

Chinese worked on a railroad of dreams

A Review
By Weihua Zhang

“The Chinese in America: A Narrative History” by Iris Chang, author of the much-acclaimed “The Rape of Nanking,” is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the history and experience of Chinese immigrants in the United States of America.

Chang opens her book with a metaphor: “The story of the Chinese in America is the story of a journey, from one of the world’s oldest civilization to one of its newest.” It is a befitting metaphor because today, more than 150 years after the first wave of Chinese immigrants came ashore in the 1849-era California Gold Rush, this journey is still going on strong. In her 496-page book, Chang, citing personal interviews, media accounts, scholarly studies, court proceedings, legal documents, government publications and much more, details the history and experience of generations of Chinese immigrants in America.

Chang’s book essentially tells two stories. The first explains why, at certain times in China’s history, certain Chinese made the very hard and frightening decision to leave the country of their ancestors and the company of their own people to make a new life for themselves in the United States. The second examines what happened to these Chinese émigrés once they got here. In general, Chinese came to the United States for the same reasons that many other ethnic groups chose to come: better life and future; social and political stability; freedom to expand and grow. But what happened to the Chinese émigrés was quite a different story and Chang’s unique perspective as a Chinese American sets her apart from other scholars.

Though it is not widely taught at schools or readily acknowledged in history books, it is a historic fact that the first-ever discriminatory law that the United States of America passed against any single group involved ethnic Chinese: The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882). This law barred Chinese from entering the country with the exception of Chinese merchants, teachers and students. Later, ethnic Chinese were denied the right to become naturalized citizens. Chang sums up pointedly in her book that “the great irony of the Chinese American experience has been that success can be as dangerous as failure: whenever the ethnic Chinese visibly excelled — whether as menial laborers, scholars, or businessmen — efforts arose simultaneously to depict their contributions not as a boon to white America but as a threat. The mass media have projected contradictory images that either dehumanize or demonize the Chinese, with the implicit message that the Chinese represent either a servile class to be exploited, or an enemy force to be destroyed.”

Just as they built the transcontinental railroad with their sweat and blood, talent and wisdom, so have the ethnic Chinese built a home for themselves with endurance and sacrifice, intelligence and perseverance. But has their journey been a success? Chang seems to be uncertain at the book’s end. “Only time can tell if their journey will have been successful. This will depend entirely on whether America can continue to evolve toward the basic egalitarian concept upon which it was founded — ‘that all men are created equal.’ For it was the haunting, elusive dream that such a place really existed that first drew many of the Chinese to American shores.”

Zhang is a liberal arts professor.