Immigration and exclusion (c. 1850-1943)
Factors on both sides of the Pacific shaped the early relationship of overseas Chinese in the United States with both America and China. In China, the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) threw southern China into a massive civil war, leaving an estimated 20,000,000 dead of war, famine, and disease.1 The First and Second Opium Wars (1840-1842, 1856-1860) further devastated the Chinese state. After 1860, the demands of European foreigners for cheap labor forced the Qing government to lift virtually all restrictions on Chinese emigration, opening the way for legalized mass emigration.2
On the other coast in the western United States, the discovery of gold in 1848 in northern California created an explosion of newcomers from around the world seeking their fortunes. Thousands of people came from around the world, including Germany, Chile, Mexico, Ireland, Turkey, and France. For thousands of Chinese from the famine- and war-torn southern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, the allure of the gold rush was especially strong. Over the next decade California's population swelled dramatically; in 1848 San Francisco was home to 1,000 people, and two years later it boasted over 20,000.3
However, many of the Chinese who came did not intend to stay, and were so known as "sojourners." It was mostly men who emigrated away from their home villages, sending remittances, or money back home, to their families. If they could make enough money, they would return to China to find wives and start families of their own, spending most of their time working overseas and visiting every few years before returning to settle or retire in China. Upon their return, they would often have a higher socioeconomic position in their home villages due to their prosperity.
During this period, China established embassies and consulates overseas in an attempt to protect its nationals abroad, recognizing the significant role of their remittances to the country's economy. In 1893, China repealed the last laws that had previously punished Chinese nationals who went abroad, making emigration fully legal.5 However, China's political and economic weakness made it almost unable to protect sojourners' rights and freedom of movement to Western countries. In 1882 - a decade before the Qing government legalized emigration - the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act (text) in response to growing resentment toward cheap Chinese labor, preventing almost all Chinese immigration to the country.
Nonetheless, remittances continued to move across the Pacific and the overseas Chinese grew in importance to the Chinese state. In 1909, China passed the Citizenship Law stating that all children of a Chinese father (or of a Chinese mother, if the father could not be identified) were Chinese citizens, even if they were to acquire another citizenship overseas. This law sought to strengthen the ties of overseas Chinese to the economic development of the mainland, for the country was "[beginning] to realize as she never did before that her children born abroad will be a source of strength to her, if properly fostered and utilized."6
The overseas Chinese would indeed seek to revitalize China, if not as the Qing government intended; Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance, which would spark the 1911 Revolution that ended the Qing Dynasty and led to the establishment of the Republic of China, was largely funded by overseas Chinese (especially in Southeast Asia). It is often said that Sun Yat-sen said, "The overseas Chinese are the mother of the revolution."7 In 1939, as the Japanese invaded China in World
War II, overseas Chinese sent back almost $350 million in donations and
remittances, comprising 61% of China’s total defense budget for that year.8
Official policies of the People's Republic of China furthermore courted the support and loyalty of overseas Chinese. From 1912-1919, the government sought to promote and supervise the education of overseas Chinese, concurrently appointing Chinese consuls in foreign countries as Advisers on Overseas Chinese Education. In 1926, the first Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission was established lasjfdlajsdlfjasldjfk Stephen Fitzgerald has described the Kuomintang's approach to the overseas Chinese in 1926 as having three goals:
During this period, China established embassies and consulates overseas in an attempt to protect its nationals abroad, recognizing the significant role of their remittances to the country's economy. In 1893, China repealed the last laws that had previously punished Chinese nationals who went abroad, making emigration fully legal.5 However, China's political and economic weakness made it almost unable to protect sojourners' rights and freedom of movement to Western countries. In 1882 - a decade before the Qing government legalized emigration - the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act (text) in response to growing resentment toward cheap Chinese labor, preventing almost all Chinese immigration to the country.
Nonetheless, remittances continued to move across the Pacific and the overseas Chinese grew in importance to the Chinese state. In 1909, China passed the Citizenship Law stating that all children of a Chinese father (or of a Chinese mother, if the father could not be identified) were Chinese citizens, even if they were to acquire another citizenship overseas. This law sought to strengthen the ties of overseas Chinese to the economic development of the mainland, for the country was "[beginning] to realize as she never did before that her children born abroad will be a source of strength to her, if properly fostered and utilized."6
The overseas Chinese would indeed seek to revitalize China, if not as the Qing government intended; Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance, which would spark the 1911 Revolution that ended the Qing Dynasty and led to the establishment of the Republic of China, was largely funded by overseas Chinese (especially in Southeast Asia). It is often said that Sun Yat-sen said, "The overseas Chinese are the mother of the revolution."7 In 1939, as the Japanese invaded China in World
War II, overseas Chinese sent back almost $350 million in donations and
remittances, comprising 61% of China’s total defense budget for that year.8
Official policies of the People's Republic of China furthermore courted the support and loyalty of overseas Chinese. From 1912-1919, the government sought to promote and supervise the education of overseas Chinese, concurrently appointing Chinese consuls in foreign countries as Advisers on Overseas Chinese Education. In 1926, the first Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission was established lasjfdlajsdlfjasldjfk Stephen Fitzgerald has described the Kuomintang's approach to the overseas Chinese in 1926 as having three goals:
1http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/580815/Taiping-Rebellion
2Guofu Liu, The Right to Leave and Return and Chinese Migration Law (Leiden, the Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007), 131.
3http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/goldrush.html
4http://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-california-gold-rush
5Guofu Liu, The Right to Leave and Return and Chinese Migration Law (Leiden, the Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007), 132.
6Tsai Chutun, "The Chinese Nationality Law, 1909," The American Journal of International Law 4.2 (April 1910), 407.
7Jianli Huang, "Umbilical Ties: The Framing of the Overseas Chinese as the Mother of the Revolution," Frontiers of History in China 6.2 (2011). Huang discusses the veracity of this statement's attribution, as well as its usage throughout the 20th century to maintain a connection between diasporic Chinese and the mainland.
8Xiao-huang Yin, "A Case Study of
Transnationalism: Continuity and Changes in Chinese American Philanthropy to
China," American Studies 45.2 (2004).
5Guofu Liu, The Right to Leave and Return and Chinese Migration Law (Leiden, the Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2007), 132.
6Tsai Chutun, "The Chinese Nationality Law, 1909," The American Journal of International Law 4.2 (April 1910), 407.
7Jianli Huang, "Umbilical Ties: The Framing of the Overseas Chinese as the Mother of the Revolution," Frontiers of History in China 6.2 (2011). Huang discusses the veracity of this statement's attribution, as well as its usage throughout the 20th century to maintain a connection between diasporic Chinese and the mainland.
8Xiao-huang Yin, "A Case Study of
Transnationalism: Continuity and Changes in Chinese American Philanthropy to
China," American Studies 45.2 (2004).
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