The history of Chinese immigrants in America is often only briefly mentioned in US schools. But that's about to change in California starting next year. Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that will ensure students are taught the facts about Chinese American history.
The 1849 Gold Rush in California ignited dreams of newfound fortune, attracting would-be miners from around the world including China.
A large number of Chinese immigrants moved to California to search for gold and to help build the biggest project of that era, the Transcontinental Railroad, which connected the western and eastern halves of the US.
"In 1852 it really jumps. It's 18,000."
"In the total of 20 years, it's estimated a total of 108,000 Chinese."
Peter Blodgett is the curator of Western American History at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
This 19-page handwritten document requested by the soon-to-be Minister to China, John Ross Browne, is a record of Chinese immigrant numbers, employment and even issues of racism.
Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that will ensure students are taught the facts about Chinese American history.
"They find the presence of Chinese incredibly offensive, as the numbers grow. The Americans find this an unprecedented encounter in what we could call today, 'the other'," he said.
The author of the document tried to defend Chinese immigrants. In one passage, he writes, "All laws discriminating against the Chinese should be repealed and they should be protected in their persons and property."
But efforts to treat Chinese immigrants fairly didn't go very far, and in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was adopted, the first major U.S. law to forbid a specific ethnic group from immigrating to, and becoming citizens here. This after nearly 11-thousand Chinese laborers worked to complete the Transcontinental Railroad of which more than one thousand lost their lives.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 and is part of the overall history of Chinese immigrants that has never been taught beyond a brief mention to American students.
But that's about to change in Californian schools starting next year thanks to Assemblyman Ed Chau. Governor Jerry Brown recently signed Chau's bill that will ensure students will be taught Chinese American history properly.
"It is a relief that their hardships are being recognized. Their work and their tribulations did not go unnoticed. And I think that sense of recognition is particularly gratifying to me," said Ed Chau.
Chinese American college students who distinctly remember hasty lessons on the immigrant experience in middle and high school welcome the new legislation.
"I think people just think we just came from China or India settled here and just take up space or something like that. They don't realize we also have a part in America history also."
"When I talk to my friends they don't know anything about history about Asian American history so it puts a lot of things into perspective, how we got here, the sacrifices that our ancestors made."
It's a lesson about immigrants that's still being learned and sometimes refuted to this very day. But maybe, just maybe, education will be the key to better understanding and acceptance.
