The early Chinese immigrants in America

The story of Don Lee

Don Lee first arrived in the U.S when he was eleven years old. He recalled that the Chinese were treated badly on the voyage to America. When facing the immigration office's detention and interrogation, as an eleven-year-old boy, he felt very intimidated. Several months later, his father bribed the officials in the immigration station, and Lee was released. He received western education like American kids did, yet due to the anti-Chinese anger among some Americans, he had to confront racial discrimination in several occasions. When he went to UC Berkeley, one of his professor even contended that  " I want to be clear that you Chinese will not get an A or B from me."  Lee also faced discrimination when he was looking for job after graduating from UC Berkeley--all of his caucasian peers got jobs, but he couldn't because he was Chinese immigrant. Luckily, jobs opened up in 1951, and he was employed to help construct national defense highways. Nevertheless, until this day, he could still not forget the injustice he encountered as a Chinese immigrant. 

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