1898 Treaty of Paris: Philippine Independence?

The Philipines declared their independence on June 12, 1898 in Cavite el Viejo or what is now Cavite, Philippines. Filipino General Emilio Aguinaldo and his revolutionary forces signed and publicly read the Declaration of Independence making Aguinaldo the first Filipino president. The declaration proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine islands from the colonial rule of Spain. This was a result of the recent triumph over Spain in the Battle of Manila which ended the Spanish American War. The Treaty of Paris was signed and the United States bought the Philipines from Spain for 20 million. This declaration was not recognized by the United States or Spain. The Spanish government had ceded the Philippines to the United States for 20 million in the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the Spanish American war.

The Treaty of Paris was a surprise and angered the Philippines. Filipino nationalists

were aggravated at the arrogance of the imperial powers to bargain away their recent independence for the price of U.S $20million without even discussing with Filipinos prior to the engagement. La Independencia , a newspaper published in Manila by a revolutionary, General Antonio Luna, stated that "people are not to be bought and sold like horses and houses. If the aim has been to abolish the traffic in Negroes because it meant the sale of persons, why is there still maintained the sale of countries with inhabitants?"

There were many ill feelings and tension was growing between the American troops in Manila and the people surrounding the capital at the time. The annexation was proving to cause m

ajor problems. The Filipinos felt betrayed because they had fought the Spanish in hope that America was there to liberate them, then leave rather than stay and make bargains with Spain. The Americans did not trust the Filipinos at the time because of the hostility felt by the Filipino towards Americans. The United States had "Anti Filipino," feelings which resulted in raids and revolts.

As a result of this, the United States had to endure battle with Philippines. Aguinaldo’s guerilla fighters put the United States through a much more bloody and difficult conflict than the Spanish American war. Nonetheless, the force of Americans was too difficult for the Filipinos to overcome and many Filipinos were still injured. The United States ended the revolt on March 23, by capturing General Aguinaldo and forcing him to take an oath of loyalty to retire and lead no more revolutions with a pension as payment itself.

This event is a type of racism. The fact that the United States bought the Philippines with the assumptions that the Philippines is a country unable to govern itself is racist. In other words it is a example of Hegemony, or how America exerted its cultural dominance over the Philippines without even informing them. The United States justification is that they were on a “civilizing mission,” meaning that they were doing what they thought would help civilize the Philippines.

Link to Battle of Manila Bay Newsreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcDtiaxwykk

No Japs in Our Schools / Citizens' Mass Meeting

December 10 1906:
"Under the Auspices of the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League / The Meeting will be Addressed by Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz... and Other Prominent Citizens / Be Sure to Attend and Register Your Protest By Your Presence"



Japan War Scare of 1906-1907
At the turn of the century, US and Japanese interests appeared to be aligned. A US-Japanese treaty signed in 1894 had guaranteed the Japanese the right to immigrate to the United States, and to enjoy the same rights in the country as US citizens [but not to become citizens]. Both nations supported the idea of an “open door” for commercial expansion in China. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, US President Theodore Roosevelt acted as a mediator at Japan’s request, and the two sides of the conflict met on neutral territory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
And in 1905, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft met with Prime Minister Katsura Taro in Japan. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 had been a source of some concern for the United States. Because of the 1902 agreement between Britain and Japan, if the United States and Japan entered into a conflict, Britain might be obligated to join Japan against the United States. The two concluded the secret Taft-Katsura Agreement, in which the United States acknowledged Japanese rule over Korea and condoned the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902. At the same time, Japan recognized US control of the Philippines.
But not too long after the turn of the century, tensions rose over Japanese actions in northeast China and immigration to the United States. Japan had real grievances against the United States. In excluding Japanese immigrants, America offended Japan's pride. In Japan the military spirit had become a national cult. The anti-Japanese movement became widespread by 1905, due both to increasing immigration and the Japanese victory over Russia, the first defeat of a western nation by an Asian nation in modern times. The Japanese were a major focus of California politics in the fifty years before World War II. Their small numbers, their political impotence and the racial feelings of many Californians frequently combined with resentment at the immigrants' willingness to labor for low pay to make them a convenient target for demagogues or agitators. In 1900, both the Democrats and the Populists of California adopted expressly anti-Japanese planks in their platforms; similarly, the Republican position proposed effective restriction on "cheap foreign labor." - Web Link

On October 11, 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education ordered that Japanese students in the city’s public schools henceforth be taught in racially segregated schools

Japanese immigration to the continental United States was concentrated during the years 1900-1920, and was always governed by changing legal restrictions and relations between the two nations. As the population and success of Japanese communities grew in the United States, so did the racial prejudice against them. The anti-Japanese campaigns began with racial stereotypes and propaganda, and became institutionalized into laws that denied Japanese citizenship and prohibited property ownership.


Here is the clip which is a short music video on the Japanese American Internment in the United States to the music of Within Temptation (Overcome). - This is not the period of the early 1900s. However, it shows the hars time of the Japanese Americans during World War 2.

Hells Canyon 1887

Hells Canyon Massacre 1887

A tragic massacre occurred in Oregon along the Snake River in Hells Canyon in 1887. Hells Canyon is a natural death trap with sloping cliffs, dangerous canyons, and massive boulders. It seems ironic that a massacre happened in such a traitorous area. On May 25, 1887, a gang of seven horse thieves killed 31 Chinese Miners. The thieves killed the Chinese Miners and deposed of their bodies in the river. They also took their gold equating to around $4,000-$5,000. They slaughter of these Chinese miners was brutal and disturbing. They were shot, dismembered, decapitated, drowned, and thrown in the river.

An investigation took place, but attention to detail was few and happened days after the massacre. A trial was held, however, no one was held accountable for the murders. George Craig, a Wallowa County Rancher who attended the trial said, “I guess if they had killed 31 white men, something would have been done about it, but none of the jury knew the Chinamen or cared much about it, so they turned the men loose.”

This event brought media representation to the Chinese population in the American West. The media coverage of the event was seemingly biased. Some articles stated that they couldn’t prove that it was white men who killed the Chinese miners and perhaps it was Indians who killed them. It was said that this was possible a mystery that would never be solved. Regardless how the massacre was represented at the time, it still provided media coverage in the form of articles and a trail. The trial and articles helped expose the racial factors that contributed to the massacre, even just by reading an article today, one can feel the tone of insincerity towards the ones who lost their lives.

The massacre was an act of hatred and racial discrimination. The police and legal system did not do the massacre justice. They simply did not investigate the crime scene enough. The investigations took place on several different occasions because the first investigation that happened days after the massacre didn’t provide enough detail. The trial did not even convict anyone of murder. It wasn’t until an active investigation occurred did anyone even confess to committing the crimes. A complete list of the victim’s names was never truly known. It wasn’t until 2005 that the Oregon Board of Geographic Names began to truly research the victims in this massacre.

Philip Ahn And the Politics of Cross-ethnic Performance

FROM SILENT FILMS TO TELEVISION PROGRAMS, HOLLYWOOD HAS EMPLOYED ACTORS OF VARIOUS ETHNICITIES TO REPRESENT "ORIENTAL" CHARACTERS, FROM CAUCASIAN STARS LIKE LORETTA YOUNG MADE UP IN YELLOW-FACE TO KOREAN AMERICAN PIONEER PHILIP AHN, WHOSE MORE THAN 200 SC

Philip Ahn(1905-1978) was in many was as unique as his father. Like Dosan, he was a universal man. He was an artist, a diplomat, a businessman, a patriot, and a leader of his community. These days his uniqueness is unnoticed and his lifetime accomplishments have been ignored. He has become somewhat of a forgotten man. Young Asians in the film and TV industry talk entertainment history like they are the pioneers. Present-day Korean American community activists act as though they are the first generation to encounter real social victimization. Many Koreans don't realize that there are Americans of Korean heritage who were as patriotic as any Korean born and truly helped put Korea in a position to participate in the modern world on a global basis. If you ask who Philip Ahn is, not many people know. Usually a non-Korean would most likely know more. Philip Ahn should be remembered well by all people because he was a person who made history and influenced many people's lives.

I would like to say Philip Ahn is the one who has almost brough Asian Americans a type of acceptance such as Bruce Lee. After the result of Bruce Lee's overcoming obstacles(racism), it would contribute efforts to the Asian Americans' fair life in America. Also, he could be a model for all Asian Americans in the reason of his perseverance. Likewise, Philip Ahn played in various role and Ahn was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6205 Hollywood Boulevard. He is the first Asian-American actor to receive a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

The Philip Ahn admiration Society - The official web site

The 1906 Earthquake of San Francisco and its effect on Chinatown

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed much of downtown and many of San Francisco’s 19^th century features. Chinatown in San Francisco was no exception to the damage caused by the quake. Many Chinese immigrants and first generation Chinese Americans were killed in the quake due to the dense living arrangements in the packed neighborhood, at the time, which was home to nearly 14,000.

Racism against the Chinese was rampant in that age. Chinese immigrants had come to work in the railroads and mines and were widely viewed as a competitive threat to the working class, says California historian Kevin Starr.

Racism was widespread during the time period against Chinese immigrants, in Los Angeles for example, 14 Chinese men were lynched to death. However, the Chinese of San Francisco were well prepared to defend a largely bachelor society. Restrictive immigration laws prevented Chinese men from bringing their families to America, which created a highly masculine identity of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Before the quake, Chinatown had a reputation as a crowded slum rife with disease, brothels and opium. Afterwards, many city leaders sought to relocate Chinatown to the south of the city near Hunters Point and other undesirable locations.

Upon discovering this, the Empress of China and the Chinese consul to San Francisco were extremely upset about the potential relocation of Chinatown and sought to relocate Chinese merchants, businesses, and family associations to other U.S. cities such as Los Angeles or Seattle. Due to the massive amount of overseas trade and taxes that Chinese merchants brought the U.S. economy, city leaders reconsidered their proposal and allowed Chinatown to be rebuilt on its previous location.

One problem that many didn’t foresee with the rebuilding of Chinatown in San Francisco was the important birth documents that were destroyed in the earthquake fires. For Chinese Americans, virtually all of the birth records in the city were destroyed. That allowed Chinese-born men to claim that they were American citizens, and therefore had the right to bring their families to America. Upon sensing this window of amnesty, many Chinese saw this time as an opportunity to bring their wives and children to America, thus coining the term “paper sons” which referred to the fact that many arrived on false or questionable documents.

When American immigration authorities discovered the ruse, they opened a way station on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay where new Chinese immigrants were detained for months while they were subjected to tough interrogations to verify their identities.

But over time, Chinatown filled up again, with families that dwelled in overcrowded, single-room, dormitory-style hotels. Many, still in use today, are the focus of redevelopment efforts by the Chinatown Community Development Center.

1907: Asian Indian millworkers are attacked by white working men in Bellingham, Washington.

In Bellingham, Washington on September 4, 1907, almost 500 white working men attacked East Indian millworkers. A mob of white men chased two East Indian mill workers they had found on the street and then beat them. Then the mob headed to a boardinghouse where many Asian millworkers lived, and smashed the windows terrifying the residents out of their beds and to the tideflats. The rioters went from house to house and to all mills driving every East Indian worker they can find out chasing them to the train station. The next day almost all of Bellingham’s Indian workers had fled the city by boat or train. The police had responded very leisurely and the city condemned the mill owners for inviting “undesirable and unwanted,” East Indian workers into the city in the first place.

The working men declared that their purpose was to move the Indian workers and chase them out of town so they would stop crowding white labor out of the mills. There were about 250 Indians employed and rumors that the managers at Whatcom Falls Mill Company plant had been replacing white workers with lower paid Asian workers had angered the white men. According to the working whitemen, the darker skinned Indian men had been gathering on the sidewalks after work and forcing female passer-bys to walk in the street as well. The white worker’s excuses and justifications for the hate crime are a mere example of stereotyping that the Asian American’s are inscrutable and untrustworthy.

At the time, The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was affiliated with the National Asiatic Exclusion League, which had approximately 800 members in Bellingham alone that declared they would, “guard the gateway of the West Coast against Oriental invasion.” Members had also previously written to President Theodore Roosevelt, warning him they would massacre Asians if he didn’t stop their immigration.

In addition to being attacked, the East Indians experienced other types of racism such as stereotypes and hateful slurs. The Bellingham Herald, which was the newspaper at the time stated: “The Hindu is not a good citizen. It would require centuries to assimilate him, and this country need not take the trouble. Our racial burdens are already heavy enough to bear.” The paper went further to insult the intelligence and work skills of the Indians as well. Later, other papers contained insults and racial epithets as well.

After this, most of the Indian millworkers along with Chinese, Japanese and Filipino workers who fled from the riots never returned to Bellingham, Washington.

This racism faced by the Indians is an example of Oriental stereotyping. The millworkers were viewed as coolies or low wage laborers. They posed a threat to the white working man which helped create an emergence of the working class identity. The riot was a act of class consciousness with a purpose to degrade the Asian’s national and racial identity.

1884: Tape vs. Hurley

The case Tape vs. Hurley occurred in 1884 where Joseph and Mary Tape sued the San Francisco School Board over segregated schools. Joseph and Mary Tape were both immigrants from China who resided in San Francisco. Both had steady jobs, Joseph was a businessman and an interpreter for the Chinese consulate and Mary was an amateur photographer and artist. Their child, Mamie Tape was eight years old at the time when they tried to enroll her at the all-white Spring Valley Public School. Her admission was denied because of her Chinese descent despite the fact that she was American born and thus a citizen. Joseph and Mary immediately took the issue to California’s Supreme Court and sued the San Francisco Board of Education. They stated that the school’s decision violated the California Political code which says:

"Every school, unless otherwise provided by law, must be open for the admission of all children between six and twenty-one years of age residing in the district; and the board of trustees, or city board of education, have power to admit adults and children not residing in the district, whenever good reasons exist therefor. Trustees shall have the power to exclude children of filthy or vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases."

The school officials defended their position by arguing that the California constitution declared Chinese people to be, “dangerous to the well-being of the state,” and therefore the city had no obligation to educate Chinese students.

The judge at the time, Justice McGuire handed down the decision in favor of the Tape family. He wrote:

"To deny a child, born of Chinese parents in this state, entrance to the public schools would be a violation of the law of the state and the Constitution of the United States."

Despite the fact that the Justice ruled in favor of the Tapes and Mamie’s acceptance to Spring Valley School, the family still experienced racism. The San Francisco school board officials lobbied for a separate school system for Chinese and other “Mongolian,” children. A bill was passed through the California State legislature which permitted the school board authority to establish the Oriental Public School in San Francisco. In 1859, “The Chinese School,” was created which Chinese children were assigned to. It was a Chinese-only school and Chinese children regardless if they were citizens or not were not permitted into any other public schools in San Francisco. This racism can be attributed to the Anti-Chinese sentiment and negative views held about Chinese people due to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Link to documentary of Mamie Tape’s Case:

http://www.cetel.org/mamietape.html

Racial discrimination - Korean American

The first group of Koreans to the United States officially came to Hawaii in 1903, Dr. Horace Allen was a medical doctor who developed his close relationship with King Kojong. He is one of the influential Americans who initiated and made possible the Korean labor immigration to Hawaii.
102 Korean migrants arrive in Hawaii, they involved Hawaii sugar plantation labor.

Korean American is one of the ethnic minority groups residing in the United States. The United States' first Korean American, Peter Chang, is born in October. His life is the history of Korean immigrants. His mother boarded one of Korea's first immigrant boats, the Gallic, in 1903, well into pregnancy, and gave birth to Chang at the Crusaders Hospital in Oakland near San Francisco, as Chang became the first Korean-American.
Chang considers himself 100 percent Korean and 100 percent American. He is a citizen of the United States, but he cannot escape from being a Korean, which is what makes him a quintessential "Korean-American."
"My father (Chang Hong-bong) was a ginseng trader who escaped to the United States to flee Japan's imperialism, but he also disliked the racism of America that only gave Asians dirty bottom work," Peter Chang explained. "So he took the family to Shanghai, China, and went back and forth between China and Australia selling ginseng before he met with a sea accident."
While Chang was working as a waiter at a restaurant in Shanghai, he met a Mr. Cunningham, the U.S. consul-general in Shanghai, who helped the 18-year old who spoke fluent English get on a boat to the United States. En route, he learned navigation skills and earned an AB certificate as soon as he got off the boat.
Chang enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became a sailor in 1922. He wanted to enter the U.S. Naval Academy, but he was not given the chance to apply because of racial discrimination. Chang chose torpedo school and submarine school and graduated both at the head of his class. Afterward, he became a torpedo specialist in the U.S. Navy.

Likewise, Perter Chang's experience could be one of the examples of the racial discrimination in the American society. Even he has spent his all life in the United States, he cannot escape from being a Korean. Thus, the reason why many ethnic minority groups to be a model minority.

Anti-Chinese riot- Rock Springs, Wyoming

In Rock Springs, Wyoming on September 2, 1885, riots broke out between Chinese immigrant miners and white immigrant miners. The riots were due to the large amount of racial tension that existed between the two groups. This was because the Chinese miners were getting hired more that the white immigrant miners. This was because the Chinese were getting paid less than the other white miners. So the selfish white miners, who were already getting paid more that the Chinese, began to mistreat the Chinese miners. 150 white miners sparked the riot that caused the death of 28 Chinese miners, left 15 wounded, and 75 Chinese homes were burned to the ground. The attacks on the Chinese were extremely violent and portrayed sheer brutality. Not only was there physical human damage, but also the physical property damage was estimated at around $150, 000 worth of damage that the US had to pay.

The riot brought about wide spread media coverage and made the Anti-Chinese riot a diplomatic and political issue. The Rock Springs riot brought change and awareness to Anti-Chinese violence in the west, the mining industry, and it even potentially affected trade between China and the US.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the United States in 1848 due to the California Gold Rush and in the 1860s with the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese came over as laborers and at first, were well received. However, when the Gold Rush began to fade, there was still a large population of Chinese laborers, who became know as coolies. The large population of Chinese immigrants moved into cities like San Francisco working low wage jobs. Animosity began to form towards the Chinese because they began to increasingly grown in population and were taking jobs in a post Civil War economy.

All of these events lead to the passing of the Chinese Exclusion of 1882 by the US Congress and President Chester Arthur. The Chinese Exclusion Act stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. Along with the stop on immigration, the US also prohibited US citizenship for Chinese immigrants who were already in the US and deported many people back to China. If a Chinese person living in America at this time wanted to go see their family in China, they would most likely not be let back in to the US. So this means that most who chose to stay in the US during this time weren’t able to see their families for 10 years. After the 10 years of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Congress amended it for another 10 years unter the Geary Act. This act regulated Chinese immigration until the 1920s.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 place Chinese representation on the map. They were already a huge factor in the economy of California due to the Gold Rush and the Central Pacific Railroad. The exclusion of the Chinese laborers lead to boycotts and court cases. Republican Senator George Frisbie Hoar stated that Chinese exclusion is "nothing less than the legalization of racial discrimination."

Japanese Americans in Hawaii and the Sugar Boom

The Hawaiian sugar industry in the 1880s was a booming business. In contrast to Japan’s painful transition to a modern economy that had widespread unemployment, bankruptcy, and civil disorder Hawaii appealed to many Japanese that were looking for work because of the many job opportunities with the sugar boom. From 1884 to 1894, over 28,000 Japanese emigrants migrated to Hawaii, the majority being single men. As opposed to the first wave of Japanese to Hawaii who were from Yokohama, this second wave of emigrants were farmers and farm laborers who intended to emigrate as temporary workers instead of the typical work-settlers.

As years passed, three quarters of the Japanese emigrants moved back to Japan. Hawaiian plantation owners, anticipating the American laws against contract laborers in 1900, imported 26,000 contract laborers from Japan in 1899 in order to beat the ban (the largest ever admitted in a single year). However, the contracts were voided under U.S. law and left thousands of Japanese free to migrate to the mainland. Even with this opportunity, many Japanese chose to stay in Hawaii. Even up until 1910, there were four times as many Japanese residents in Hawaii as in the American mainland. One of the primary reasons many Japanese chose to stay was that race relations in Hawaii were much better than that in the mainland.

At a time when Japanese immigrants were virtually non-existent on the mainland, a small group of native-born Japanese ancestry grew in Hawaii. By 1910, the native-born Japanese were about one-third as big as the foreign-born Japanese in Hawaii; this was considered a huge increase when compared to the less than seven percent total on the mainland. Japanese American race relations with larger society were to some extent shaped by the wake of the Chinese immigration wave to America. Both on the mainland and on the islands, the Chinese too had started as unskilled laborers and had worked their way up the social ladder to become small businessmen and were resented by their advancement and competitors. Hawaiian-native Japanese were seen, during this time, as welcomed labor substitutes for Chinese workers.

However, the rising success of Hawaiian-native Japanese was short-lived due to the widespread stereotype of Chinese as “Yellow Peril,” soon all Japanese and Japanese Americans would also be clumped into this stereotype. This racial lumping of Asians and Asian Americans threatened the living standards of White American society, especially businessmen. Due to the feared outcomes of the “Yellow Peril” scare, laws were passed in Hawaii to block the movement of Japanese into positions of skilled occupations and their purchasing of land in California.

Upon their arrival to Hawaii, many Japanese gained their economic foothold in agriculture and working as contract-laborers. After their eventual acquisition of land and farming, many whites saw them as formidable competitors. On the farms where laborers were paid by the amount that they collected, Japanese earned significantly more through their hard work and longer work hours. Through the generations of Japanese emigrants that continued to stay in Hawaii and the American mainland, many Japanese Americans today still attribute their ancestry to those who left Japan in search of a better life and endured tremendous hardships so that future generations would have a better life. Since this Japanese emigration wave from 1884-1894, Hawaii was and still has the largest single population of Japanese outside of Japan, which accounts for nearly 15% of the entire state.

Wong Kim Ark v U.S.

Wong Kim Ark (黃金德; Toisanese: wong gim 'ak; Cantonese: wong gam dak; Mandarin: huáng jīn dé) was born in San Francisco, California, sometime between 1868 and 1873. His father, Wong Si Ping and his mother, Wee Lee were immigrants from Taishan, China and were not United States citizens.

Wong’s case is influential to Asian American Popular Culture due to his court case’s effect on all Asian Americans born in the United States today. In 1890, Wong’s parents returned to live back in China. To his surprise, Wong found himself back in the states that year and was allowed back into the United States on the grounds, “upon the sole reason that he was a native-born citizen of the United States.”

Four years later, unfortunately the immigration circumstances had changed and Wong, who was a San Francisco cook at the time, sailed to China for a temporary visit in 1894. After his visit, Wong traveled back to San Francisco only to find that he was to be detained at the Port of San Francisco by the Collector of Customs and denied permission to enter the country because Wong was now considered “not a citizen” due to the fact that his parents were not U.S. citizens. This came as a shock to Wong since he was born and raised in the city and county of San Francisco. According to the logic of U.S. customs at the time, Wong’s parents and all other descendents of first generation Chinese immigrants were subjects of the Emperor of China and not to be considered loyal to America. Since the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that was placed by congress prohibited all persons of Chinese descent from coming to the United States or becoming naturalized citizens, Wong was previously able to enter the country though the fact that he was a natural born citizen.

Seeing this problem as one that affected all Chinese American citizens, Wong challenged this situation with the Supreme Court case “Wong Kim Ark v. US,” which called upon to decide whether an American-born person of Chinese decent could constitutionally be denied U.S. citizenship and be excluded from the country. Chief Justice Melville Fuller, who presided at the hearings expanded on the idea that the history of U.S. citizenship law had broken with the idea of English law tradition; thus embracing the U.S. right of expatriation and the rejecting the British doctrine of perpetual alliance.

After analyzing the evidence regarding Wong Kim Ark case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wong and also acknowledged the notion that children of foreigners that acquired U.S. citizenship through birth on U.S. soil should be granted full rights. Despite this ruling for all foreigners and their American born children, many saw Chinese individuals in a different light due to their strong cultural traditions which were discouraging to mainstream American society, the inevitable fact that pledging allegiance to U.S. citizenship was a capital crime in China, and that the current provisions of the Chinese Exclusion act made Chinese immigrants already in the country still ineligible for citizenship.