"For thirty years, from 1910 to 1940, Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was the first, often the only, toehold in America for immigrants from China. From the Cantonese Pearl River delta district of Taishan they sailed, fleeing famine and the foreign concessions, bound for the Land of the Flowery Flag, the Golden Mountain. Some were relatives of earlier Chinese immigrants who had come to America for Sutter's gold and stayed to help lay transcontinental railroad tracks. Others, in their anxiety to get to America at whatever cost, pretended to be relatives and arrived with identification papers bought in Canton, and with 'coaching papers," carefully constructed and memorized family backgrounds that they hoped would pass them through immigration examiners. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had been relaxed somewhat under pressure from Chinese Government officials in Canton by 1910, when Angel Island was opened, for Chinese immigrants only. But the immigration laws, so far as the Chinese were concerned, seemed designed to exclude rather than to admit. ...
"During the time they spent on the island, as little as a few days, as long as three years, they carved and ink brushed their concerns onto the walls of their barracks. One hundred thirty-five calligraphic poems survived, first discovered by a Federal park ranger after Angel Island was abandoned in 1940. These tell of voyages from China, detainment on the island, attitudes toward the first Americans encountered -- immigration officials and social workers -- and finally the disappointments and triumphs of the immigrants."
Table of Contents:
PrefaceAcknowledgments
Introduction Under the Shadow of Exclusion: Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island
Poetry Carved on the Walls: Poetry of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island The Voyage Poems 1–22 In Detention Poems 23–64The Weak Shall Conquer Poems 65–90 About Westerners Poems 91–112 Deportees and Transients Poems 113–135
Detention in the Muk Uk Poems from Ellis Island Poems from Victoria, B.C.Oral Histories
Speaking for Themselves: Oral Histories of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island Lim Kam On and Lim Tai Go: The Transpacific Fathers Lai Bing: Paper Son of a Merchant Tom Yip Jing: "To Speak from the Heart" Law Shee Low: "That's How It Was" Mrs. Wong: "Had I Known It Was Like This, I Would Never Have Come!" John Mock, Kitchen Helper: "Then Vroom, They Ate and Were Gone!" Soto Shee: A Story of Survival and Hope Wong Gung Jue: A True Chinese Character Edwar Lee, Interpreter: "A Certain Amount of Fairness"Helen Hong Wong: "No Gold to Be Picked Up" Jann Mon Fong: A Gold Mountain Man's Monologue Xie Chuang: Imprisonment at Angel Island Tet Yee: "All Because China Was a Weak Country" Koon T. Lau: "Why?" Lee Show Nam: "We Were Real, So There Was Nothing to Fear" Emery Sims, Immigrant Inspector: "A Square Deal" Mock Ging Sing: "Just Keep a Hopeful Attitude"Ja Kew Yuen: "Treated as Second-Class Citizens" Lee Puey You: "A Bowlful of Tears"
Appendix
Table 1 Detention Time for Chinese Applicants at Angel Island, 1910–1940 Table 2 Chinese Exclusions and Appeals at Angel Island, 1910–1940
Chinese Glossary Bibliography About the Editors and Contributors Index
