Chinese In Massachusetts; Their Experiences and Contributions

  

   

This book, authored by Doris Chu, published by the Chinese Culture Institute, funded in part by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, is abundantly illustrated with photographs. It details the extraordinary history of the Chinese people in Massachusetts including the earliest sailors in Boston, the pursuers of knowledge sent by the Education Mission during the Ch'ing dynasty, the strike breaking shoemakers of North Adams, the evolution of Boston's Chinatown, and the significant contributions of Chinese Americans throughout Massachusetts. See the exhibition of the same title.

This boos has been widely collected by libraries and individuals. To order it please fill out the following form and send a check or money order to International Society 276 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116

Chinese in Massachusetts; Their experiences and Contributions # of copies _______@ $20 plus 5% tax if ordered in Mass, and $4.5 for postage and handling for the first copy and $4 for each additional copy.
Total enclosed $ ________

Name ___________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________

Phone ____________________________________________________

Email address _______________________________________________

Please support our program by

Joining our membership.
Attending the events (watch What's New)
Making donations -- Send your tax deductible donation to

International Society
276 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116)

Chinese Culture Institute conducted research and produced an exhibition called "Chinese in Massachusetts; Their Experiences and Contributions" that drew much atttention and interest from the public and the media. A book of the same title was subsequently published.

The exhibition and book focused on the history of Chinese Americans in Massachusetts from the earliest settlement to the birth, growth and development of Boston's Chinatown and the problems facing the community, the rise of the social service agencies in Chinatown and the people they serve, the Chinese community outside of Chinatown, to the contributions made by the Chinese in various fields.

The history of the Chinese in Massachusetts spans nearly two hundred years. As soon as the revolution was over, Americans sought direct trade with China primarily for tea, that rather famous item of contention between Bostonians and King George III. The first American trade3 ship, the Empress of China, reached Canton from New York on August 28, 1784. In 1786, a Boston merchant, Major Samuel Shaw, was appointed first Consul General to China. This affirmed the U.S.-China trade relations not only for the fledgling United States but for Boston in particular. At this time the first Chinese visited Boston. They were sailors recruited by the New England merchant ships that were now sailing to china. According to some records, one of these sailors was buried in the Central Burying Ground at Boston Common.

During the early 19th century American missionaries followed the merchants and traders to china. As part of their evangelical effort small numbers of Chinese youth were brought to this country for schooling. The first group, five boys from Guangdong (Kwang-tung) province, stayed at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut from 1818 to 1825. Most notable in Massachusetts in 1847, the Monson Academy received two students, Yung Wing an Wong Foon, sponsored by Reverend Samuel R. Brown. In 1854 Yung Wing graduated from Yale University. As the first Chinese to earn a degree from an American college, Yung eventually became a prominent scholar and educator and contributed more the Sino-American cultural exchange than anyone else in the early years.

The Chinese did not come to Massachusetts in substantial numbers nor did they stay for a long period of time until 1870 when seventy-five Chinese laborers were brought from California to North Adams to break a strike led by the Knights of St. Crispin, then the largest union in the United States. The number increased to one hundred and twenty three in the following year.

This movement created a furor among the working people. And the Chinese were threatened with violence. But their inoffensive an polite manner and their diligence soon eased the prejudice against them. Even the shoemakers relaxed their hostility. After their three-year contract expired some went back home and some stayed a little longer. In the end most of them left North Adams and dispersed to different places.

After 1875 Chinese started to immigrate to Boston as well as other eastern cities. Some came from North Adams after the demand for their labor ceased. Others came by the Transcontinental Railroad. They came under contract to construct the Pearl Street Telephone Exchange near South Station. At first the sojourners pitched tents on Ping-On Alley. Gradually they expanded their settlements to areas of today's Chinatown and South Cove. South Cove was created by filling tidal flats between 1806-1843. When houses were built in this area during 1835-1850 the residents were middle income white Americans.

The expansion of the railroad network and construction of old South Station in the 1850s depressed the desirability of South Cove as a residential area. The inevitable rent reductions made housing affordable for new immigrants. They also attracted the leather and garment industries. After the transient settlement of successive groups of immigrants from Ireland, Central Europe and Syria, the Chinese began to establish a permanent community in the 1890s on Oxford Street and a block on Harrison Avenue.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the discriminatory immigration act of 1924 severely restricted the entrance of Chinese to this country. Thus the Chinese community in Boston grew very slowly. Furthermore, very few women emigrated from China. As such normal family life hardly existed in the Chinese community.

Racial discrimination made life and work outside the immediate community almost impossible. Ghetto living was not by choice and Chinese clustered in Chinatown that for a long time was a close-knit, self-contained, insular community.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in Boston was far less vehement than that in the west coast. Nevertheless, there were times when racial harassment became brutal. For instance in 1902, the police imprisoned 234 Chinese in order to track down 40 possible immigration violators.

Although the Chinese immigrants had little protection from the Manchu government against the suffering they sustained in this country these people were deeply concerned about the well being of their mother country as evidenced by their support of Sun Yat-sen's revolution which overturned the Qing dynasty in 1911. Furthermore, during the Sino-Japanese War they gave the Chinese government unwavering moral and monetary support.

In 1943, a new era of lessened restrictive immigration for the Chinese was marked by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. As a result female population increased sharply in Boston's Chinatown. For the first time family life was possible. In 1965 came an even more liberal immigration law allowing the Chinese community to grow at a much faster rate than ever. The family associations and institutions such as the Consolidated Benevolent Association that traditionally provided assistance to the community found themselves facing ever increasing social and economic problems in the wake of the tremendous influx of non-English speaking immigrants. Change, apparently must be brought about.

Before 1970, Chinatown's door was closed. It did not seek or receive assistance from the city, state or Federal governments, and the were almost no social services directly available to the community. Furthermore, the encroachment by government agencies and outside institutions reduced Chinatown's land by 50% resulting in great overcrowding. Recognizing that Chinatown was a part of the city, the Chinese community voiced its needs and requested help from the government. In 1969, with the help of the Mayor's Office of Human Rights, the Grievance Task Force was formed to identify the community's problems. In 1970, Little City Hall was appropriated to manage Chinatown's problems. In 1971, a bilingual conference was held to discuss the future of Boston's Chinatown. Many measures have since been taken to improve the socio-economic condition of the community. And many social agencies have been established to tackle the various problems of employment, housing, language and job training, health care, care for the elderly and guidance for the young.

The Chinese community outside Chinatown consists mostly of students and professional people. A large percentage of the latter came from the Chinese mainland before 1949 or from Hong Kong and Taiwan after 1950s. They came to study and settled down eventually. They engage in a wide variety of professions. Many of them are scientists, college professors, physicians, engineers and business entrepreneurs. In recent years, many broke into the heretofore-uncharted territory of arts, entertainment and literary fields. There are many individuals whose outstanding contribution to the society and mankind are remarkable. A few examples are cited in the exhibition and the books.

Other books:

Tang Yin (1470-1543, The Man and His Art
That Gentleman From China
Fallen Casia