Chinese Cultural and History

The Chinese cultural and history is the longest standing of any other group on earth. This fact is known because of the evidence of a 4,000-year-old writing system that has made it possible for the Chinese to communicate and preserve their cultural history. The writing system is called logographic. The Chinese Dynasty was established 221 B.C. and survived till 1911 ("Chinese history a brief overview" 2011). Over the years, each and every one of the foreign invaders and rulers maintained the Chinese cultural system. The survival of the Chinese highly dependent on their agricultural and many of the natives worked in the fields.

The first main wave of Chinese immigrants that emerged to the United States was the 1848 "Golden Mountain", which was during California's Gold Rush (Golden adventure, 2007). During this time Chinatown was founded. Later during the Transcontinental Railroad is where Chinese's immigrants stood out and lead them to become the key factor for laying the tracks down for the western railways (Golden adventure, 2007).

Industrial employers gladly hired Chinese immigrants because they were cheap labor. However, Americans were angered by what they termed yellow peril (Borstlleman, 2003). Newspapers and clergy considered the United States a land for whites only and opportunities for employment should go to whites. In some towns, the Chinese were terrorized to the point that they had to leave their homes. In 1882, U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which disallowed immigrants from China entering the U.S. for the next ten years and denied citizenship to those already settled in the U.S. (Borstlleman, 2003). The Act was renewed in 1892 and extended indefinitely in 1902. President Grover Cleveland supported the immigration laws and stated that the Chinese were "an element ignorant of our constitution and laws, impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare" ("Chinese immigration a ragged tale of riches" 2003). The Act was repealed in 1943.

Many Western states put in place laws which made it nearly impossible for Chinese immigrants to own land or to work. One such law was the Foreign Miners' License tax which required foreign miners who were not citizens to pay a monthly payment (Anti-chinese legislation and court cases, n.d.). Since Chinese immigrants could not become citizens, they paid California this monthly payment. Laws were also passed that disallowed Chinese men from marrying white women (Anti-chinese legislation and court cases, n.d.).

The laws passed by the United States prevented new immigration. There was an earthquake in San Francisco, 1906 that lead to citywide fires that demolished numerous records of the immigrants. With this occurrence, Chinese were able to say they were legal citizen and also claim their children were too. This was widespread practice