Dick Cheney and other conservatives constantly warn us of the “China threat.” Check out these headlines and articles:
This belligerent U.S. attitude that insists that China will inevitably ripen into our next big enemy concerns me for two reasons.
First, why can’t the U.S. work toward an upcoming era of cooperation with China, rather than assuming that we must eventually go to war because China is an emerging superpower? This preference for aggression rather than cooperation is a xenophobic tactic that Neocons have previously used to make “enemies” out of many other countries with whom we should be working to develop strong relationships. What is China’s sin, by the way? China is doing the same things the United States does. For instance, China competing economically with vigor. China is accruing wealth. China is testing sophisticated weapons. China is expanding its influence into parts of the world where petroleum can be found in the ground. Yet the U.S. is paranoid about China. If our frustration is that the Chinese practically own us (along with Japan), that is our own fault that we can’t control our own profligate government spending. I’m not advocating being naive. Perhaps China will someday threaten American interests. I’m suggesting that we should save harsh rhetoric if that happens.
Second, I have a personal stake in this rhetoric. I have two Chinese daughters (they are both adopted) and many Chinese friends and acquaintances. I am concerned that Americans, led by our government and media, will morph into a people who will once again view Chinese people with disdain. Don’t laugh. Look how Americans now view people of Middle Eastern descent. Our dysfunctional government and simplistic mainstream media are quite capable of developing similar derogatory racial attitudes toward Chinese people, including the Chinese people already living in the United States. I don’t want to live in an America that is any more xenophobic than it already is.
But why do I say “once again,” as though the Chinese have previously been the victims of horrible racism in the U.S.? Because the Chinese have, indeed, been victims of widespread racism for most of their existence in the United States. A detailed work on this subject is Iris Chang’s The Chinese in America (2003). In that work, she showed, among other things, the damage that can be caused when media and government conspire to denigrate people whose only crime was to be of a certain ethnicity or culture. [The quotes in this article are from The Chinese in America].
Chang was a Chinese American freelance historian who died at the age of 36 after a nervous breakdown following an episode of depression. She was a fascinating person. In addition to The Chinese in America, Chang left another literary gem, The Rape of Nanking.
It was through Chang’s writings that I learned much of what I know about the Chinese in America. More than 100,000 Chinese laborers came to America to make their fortunes during the gold rush. They came to America because it was not easy to survive in China, especially in rural China.
In the typical rural village, people slept on mats on dirt floors, their heads resting on bamboo pillows or wooden stools. . .. An arm load of fuel warmed and fed a dozen people . . . most lived and died without gaining more than a dim comprehension of the world beyond their own village … the promise of gold electrified the imaginations of the impoverished Chinese. It ignited hopes among poor people … They borrowed money from their friends and relatives, sold off their water buffalo or jewelry or signed up with a labor agency that would front of them the money for passage in exchange for a share of their future earnings in America.
In America, however, the Chinese faced different sort of challenges. Nonwhites could not become naturalized US citizens under a 1790 statute. Many of the Chinese didn’t actually make it to America. Three quarters of a million Chinese men were decoyed into slavery in what was known as the “coolie” trade. Many of them were locked into filthy receiving stations. Chang estimates that between 15 and 45% of the “coolies” died in transit to the final work destinations. Cuba was one of these destinations, where the coolies were made to work on sugar plantations 21 out of 24 hours each day. Suicide was common.
But many of the Chinese workers did make it to San Francisco. Between 1848 and 1850, San Francisco, previously a desolate area of sand dunes and hills, suddenly grew to a population of 30,000. It was a “roaring frontier town.” 92% of California were men, and “violence was the rule.” During the 1850s, 85% of the Chinese in California were engaged in mining. Mark Twain wrote that the Chinese “are quiet, peaceable, tractable, free from drunkenness . . . a disorderly China man is rare, and a lazy one does not exist.”
The Chinese worked so hard (and successfully) at mining that, in 1852, legislators proposed that Chinese migrants be prohibited from mining. (more…)