Alien Nation: Chinese Migration in the Americas from the Coolie Era through World War II

379 Pages·2014·5.58 MB·English

by  Elliott Young

ALIEN NATION
The David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History
Andrew R. Graybill and Benjamin H. Johnson, editors
EDITORIAL BOARD
Sarah Carter
Kelly Lytle Hernandez
Paul Mapp
Cynthia Radding
Samuel Truett
The study of borderlands—places where different peoples meet and no one
polity reigns supreme—is undergoing a renaissance. The David J. Weber Series in the
New Borderlands History publishes works from both established and emerging scholars
that examine borderlands from the precontact era to the present. The series explores
contested boundaries and the intercultural dynamics surrounding them and includes
projects covering a wide range of time and space within North America
and beyond, including both Atlantic and Pacific worlds.
Published with support provided by
THE WILLIAM P. CLEMENTS CENTER FOR SOUTHWEST STUDIES
at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
A l i e n N at i o n
CHINESE MIGRATION IN THE
AMERICAS FROM THE COOLIE ERA
THROUGH WORLD WAR II
ELLIOTT YOUNG
The University of North Carolina Press / Chapel Hill
© 2014 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved. Designed by Michelle Coppedge Wallen. Set in Minion and TheSans
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Frederic Remington,
Chinese Immigrant Dying of Thirst in the Mohave Desert, 1800s.
Hand-colored woodcut. Used with permission of North Wind Picture Archives.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Young, Elliott, 1967–
Alien nation : Chinese migration in the Americas from the coolie era through World War II /
Elliott Young.
pages cm. — (The David J. Weber series in the new borderlands history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4696-1296-6 (paperback : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-1-4696-1340-6 (ebook)
1. Chinese—America—History—19th century. 2. Chinese—America—History—20th
century. 3. Immigrants—America—History. 4. Foreign workers, Chinese—America—
History. 5. Transnationalism—History. 6. Community life—America—History.
7. Ethnicity—America—History. 8. China—Emigration and immigration—History.
9. America—Emigration and immigration—History. 10. America—Race relations. I. Title.
E29.C5Y68 2014
304.8′951073—dc23
2014017584
18 17 16 15 14(cid:14)5 4 3 2 1
For
Reiko and Zulema
And for the alien, the border crosser,
theclandestino illegal
Of all the specific liberties which may come into our minds
when we hear the word “freedom,” freedom of movement is historically
the oldest and also the most elementary. Being free to depart for where
we will is the prototypical gesture of being free, as limitation of freedom of
movement has from time immemorial been the condition for enslavement.
Freedom of movement is also the indispensable condition for action, and
it is in action that men primarily experience freedom in the world.
—Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times (1967)
Contents
Acknowledgments / xi
Note on Language and Terminology / xv
Introduction: Aliens and the Nation / 1
PART 1. COOLIES AND CONTRACTS, 1847–1874
1. Contested Sovereignties: Coolies on the High Seas / 21
2. Contracting Freedom / 59
PART 2. CLANDESTINE CROSSINGS AND THE
PRODUCTION OF ILLEGAL ALIENS, 1882–1900
3. The Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1882–1900 / 97
4. The Immigration Bureaucracy and the Production of Illegal Aliens / 129
5. Clandestine Crossings to the United States / 153
PART 3. COMPETING REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISMS, 1900–1940
6. Revolutionary Nationalism and Xenophobia / 197
7. Chinese Diasporic Networks / 248
Epilogue / 271
Notes / 289
Bibliography / 327
Index / 341
Table, Figures, and Illustrations
TABLE
Chinese Population in Mexico versus the United States
according to National Census Data, 1890–1940 / 110
FIGURES
1. Chinese Arrivals in the Americas, 1840–1940 / 33
2. Chinese Population in the United States, Mexico, Cuba,
Canada, and Peru, 1847–1943 / 111
3. Chinese Entries and Chinese Transit Passengers to the
United States, 1918–1930 / 159
4. Overseas Chinese Population Distribution in the Americas, 2012 / 275
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chinese migration to the Americas, mid-nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries / 2
Some of the clandestine Chinese migratory routes through
Greater North America / 3
Exhibit K from Marcus Braun’s report on Chinese smuggling
from Mexico / 4
“Coolie Disguised as a Mexican Peon to Be Smuggled into the
United States” / 6
Exhibit J from Marcus Braun’s report on Chinese smuggling
from Mexico / 7
Edgar Holden, “Coolies Embarking” / 23
Edgar Holden, “The Interpreters” / 24
Edgar Holden, “Enraged Coolie” and “A Providential Mischance” / 25
Edgar Holden, “Firing down the Hatchway” and
“Preserving the Peace” / 25
Edgar Holden, “A Vain Attempt” and “Chained to the Hatch” / 26
Edgar Holden, “The Writing in Blood” / 27
Edgar Holden, “On the Lower Deck” / 28
Edgar Holden, “Baraccoons at Macao” / 43
Frederic Remington, “Chinese Coolies Loading a
Steamer at Havana” / 61
“Chinese Coolies Smuggled into the United States, Disguised as Mexicans,
at Work on a Southern Farm” / 62
Contract for a Chinese laborer hired in Macao to work in Cuba, 1867 / 70
Immigrant detention station, Quebec, Canada / 133
Chin Chung, 1902, 1911, 1912 / 145
“And Still They Come!” / 154
Buggy used for smuggling Chinese aliens across the
Mexican border, 1921 / 162
“The Back Door: The Wily Chinese Sneaking over the
Northern Frontier” / 166
Wing Sing & Co. during the flood in Portland, Oregon, 1894 / 168
“And Now They Come as Spaniards” / 185
“Twelve-year-old Indo-Latino mestizo. Fourteen-year-old product of
Chinese-Mexican mixture” / 219
“Anti-Chinese demonstrators of Guasave. . . . Demonstration of neighbors
from Guasave and Verdura” / 221
“One of the most modern sausage factories” / 223
“The wedding night . . . and five years later” / 225
“Mexican Woman: If craziness or ignorance makes you a wife or
mistress of a Chinese man, . . . take a dose of venom or stab yourself
in the heart” / 226
“Oh wretched woman! . . . You thought you would enjoy a cheap life
by giving yourself to a Chinese man” / 228