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.