What was the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act? | The Chinese Exclusion Act — Transcript

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1. 0:04♪ ♪
2. 0:09(birds squawking)
3. 0:19♪ ♪
4. 0:25NARRATOR: On June 30, 1885,
5. 0:28as the fund-raising campaign
6. 0:30for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty
7. 0:32finally began to pick up speed,
8. 0:34a letter appeared in the pages of "The New York Sun"
9. 0:38written by a young Chinese immigrant
10. 0:40and recent college graduate named Saum Song Bo,
11. 0:43who had come to America years earlier as a small boy,
12. 0:47and who dreamed of becoming a lawyer.
13. 0:55SAUM SONG BO: "Sir: A paper was presented to me yesterday
14. 1:00"for subscription among my countrymen
15. 1:02"toward the Pedestal Fund of the Statue of Liberty.
16. 1:07"My countrymen and myself are honored
17. 1:10"in being thus appealed to
18. 1:12"as citizens in the cause of liberty.
19. 1:17"But the word liberty makes me think of the fact
20. 1:21"that this country is the land of liberty
21. 1:23"for all men of all nations except the Chinese.
22. 1:30"That statue represents Liberty holding a torch--
23. 1:34"which lights the passage of those of all nations who come into this country.
24. 1:42"But are the Chinese allowed to come?
25. 1:47"Are the Chinese here allowed to enjoy liberty
26. 1:51"as men of all other nationalities enjoy it?
27. 1:55"Free from the insults, abuse, assaults, wrongs, and injuries
28. 2:01"from which men of other nationalities are free?
29. 2:09"By the law of this nation,
30. 2:11"a Chinaman cannot become a citizen.
31. 2:18"Whether this statute against the Chinese
32. 2:22"or the Statue of Liberty
33. 2:24"will be the more lasting monument to tell future ages
34. 2:29"of the liberty and greatness of this country
35. 2:33"will be known only to future generations.
36. 2:39Saum Song Bo."
37. 2:46(distant voice speaking Chinese dialect)
38. 3:07(horse whinnying)
39. 3:08(bell tolling)
40. 3:12NARRATOR: The solitary arm of the unfinished Statue of Liberty
41. 3:15had languished on Madison Square in New York
42. 3:17for more than five years when on May 6, 1882--
43. 3:22on the eve of the greatest wave of immigration in American history --
44. 3:25President Chester A. Arthur signed into law
45. 3:28an extraordinary piece of federal legislation.
46. 3:33It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act --
47. 3:35and it was unlike any law enacted
48. 3:37since the founding of the Republic.
49. 3:40Singling out as never before
50. 3:42a specific race and nationality for exclusion,
51. 3:45it made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America
52. 3:48and for Chinese nationals already here
53. 3:51ever to become citizens of the United States.
54. 3:56Fueled by deep-seated tensions
55. 3:57over race and class and national identity
56. 4:00that had been festering since the founding of the Republic,
57. 4:03it was the first in a long line of acts
58. 4:06targeting the Chinese for exclusion--
59. 4:08and it would remain in force for more than 60 years.
60. 4:13It continues to shape the debate
61. 4:15about what it means to be an American to this day.
62. 4:19(seagull squawking)
63. 4:23RENQIU YU: Chinese Americans always have this identification
64. 4:27with the founding principle of this country,
65. 4:31so beautifully laid out by the Founding Fathers
66. 4:35and so eloquently articulated in the Declaration of Independence
67. 4:42and the American Constitution.
68. 4:47The Chinese identify with this fundamental principle
69. 4:50of liberty, equality, and justice for all,
70. 4:55and all men are created equal.
71. 4:59Now, how can you say that this is a group of people
72. 5:05who are biologically and culturally
73. 5:09unfit to live a civilized life,
74. 5:13to appreciate and practice
75. 5:16American culture, political and religious ideals.
76. 5:21That's why I think a lot of Americans had a hard time
77. 5:24to learn that the Chinese Exclusion Act
78. 5:28really exists for 60 years.
79. 5:32They couldn't believe it, the government did that.
80. 5:41MAE NGAI: We have to remember that for most of the 19th century,
81. 5:44immigration into the United States
82. 5:46was basically open.
83. 5:47You just showed up.
84. 5:49So the Chinese exclusion law is one of the first
85. 5:52really comprehensively restrictive laws.
86. 5:56And it's also the first and only time
87. 5:58in the entire history of the United States
88. 6:00that a group is singled out by name --
89. 6:03Chinese, by name --
90. 6:06as being undesirable.
91. 6:09So this is truly a remarkable moment.
92. 6:15JEAN PFAELZER: Starting in California,
93. 6:17the Chinese were marked as different.
94. 6:22And I see the 1882 bill
95. 6:25as a link in a chain of bills and a chain of legislation,
96. 6:31and race riots and purges
97. 6:35that are trying to move the country toward ethnic cleansing.
98. 6:39The 1882 bill was not about labor.
99. 6:43I think it was about white purity,
100. 6:46and, "How do we get rid of people who were different?"
101. 6:54DAVID LEI: Many people think of this exclusion law
102. 6:56as being very racist, very unfair.
103. 6:59But if you look at the world at that time --
104. 7:02every country was like that, and almost every ethnicity.
105. 7:07Try to be a citizen of China,
106. 7:09or try to be a citizen of Japan, is impossible
107. 7:12unless you're ethnically Chinese or Japanese.
108. 7:16But this is a group of people--
109. 7:18Chinese-American, the Chinese that were here --
110. 7:21who actually fought back
111. 7:23and made America better than what it was,
112. 7:27and helped make America what it is today --
113. 7:30the values that we have,
114. 7:32including equal protection under the law; rights to education;
115. 7:38what it means to be American,
116. 7:40what makes you American, to be born here.
117. 7:43All these weren't defined.
118. 7:48JOHN KUO WEI TCHEN: The 1882 exclusion law has been forgotten.
119. 7:52But once we remember it, it is outrageous.
120. 7:55And it's probably why we've forgotten it,
121. 7:57because it is so outrageous.
122. 8:00Many Americans today cannot believe this happened.
123. 8:05How could this country--
124. 8:06in its culture, in its politics, in its economics --
125. 8:09do what it did against a whole class of people?
126. 8:14The exclusion law said,
127. 8:15"That whole race of people are banned from this country."
128. 8:20So it's a racial exclusion law.
129. 8:23So that banning of a whole category of people
130. 8:26directly challenges foundational questions
131. 8:29of what American freedom means,
132. 8:32and what American history means,
133. 8:34who "We the people" can constitute.
134. 8:39K. SCOTT WONG: I think it's essential that Americans know about
135. 8:41the exclusion of Chinese -- not because it's the Chinese
136. 8:44but because it reflects how America has come to develop,
137. 8:50how America saw itself at one time,
138. 8:53and how it continues to see itself.
139. 8:57It has much to do
140. 8:58with the character of our national history.
141. 9:01And that, to me, is the most important thing in understanding
142. 9:06how we became who we are today.
143. 9:08Some of it has to do with the fact
144. 9:11that we excluded Chinese for 60 years.