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发帖数: 727 | 1 Leland Stanford is the founder of Stanford Unviersity. But he is a racist
against Chinese.
1862: Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific and later founder of
Stanford University, calls the Chinese in California the “dregs” of Asia
and a “degraded” people.
1869: Newly arrived Chinese immigrant workers are packed into train cars
with barely any standing room, sent on their way to railroad-construction
sites. Many of them die from suffocation en route.
Fights between Irish and Chinese railroad work crews break out. The Irish
are surprised at the fighting abilities of the Chinese, who are smaller in
size. Later, a mystery blast in the Chinese camp wounds several. Days later,
another mysterious blast kills several Irish workers, after which there is
an instant truce and cessation to hostilities.
The Transcontinental Railroad is completed. About one in ten Chinese workers
had died building the railroads—1,756 miles of track were laid at the cost
of 1.7 Chinese deaths per mile—leaving about 12,000 Chinese still employed
at this point.
On May 10, hundreds of railroad men gather to have their picture taken at a
ceremony in Promontory Point in Utah, to witness Stanford laying the final
“golden” spike. However, the Chinese, who comprised the majority of the
work force, are excluded from the ceremonies entirely (see ceremonial
photograph). In a subsequent oil painting rendition of the memorable event,
only two Chinese men are depicted, crouching; every single participant in
the picture is subsequently numbered and named, while the two Chinese
workers are nameless and faceless.
The Reese River Reveille, an Austin, Nevada newspaper publishes unfounded
rumors of an outbreak of smallpox in the Chinese quarter, stating, “There
is no class in the city that would spread the fell disease so rapidly and
widely as the Chinese, for its members do the principal part of the washing
[laundry] for our citizens.”
1884: Leland Stanford runs for senate and changes his opinion about the
Chinese again, this time, favoring a ban on Chinese immigration.
The Chinese Exclusion Act is amended, with a clarification that it applies
to any and all ethnic Chinese, regardless of their country of origin or
citizenship (effectively banning the Chinese diaspora from entering the US).
Restrictions are increased on the Chinese already in the US and those
seeking reentry. Wives are barred from entry/reentry; anti-miscegenation
laws (against mixed marriages and fraternization) are enacted.
The vast majority of the nearly 100,000 Chinese immigrants reside within the
American West, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington Territory. Most
are bachelor males and their numbers dwindle drastically in the next four
decades as the population ages. |
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