♪ ♪ (birds squawking) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR:
On June 30, 1885, as the fund-raising campaign for the pedestal
of the Statue of Liberty finally began to pick up speed, a letter appeared in the pages
of "The New York Sun" written by a young Chinese immigrant and recent college graduate
named Saum Song Bo, who had come to America
years earlier as a small boy, and who dreamed
of becoming a lawyer. SAUM SONG BO:
"Sir: A paper was presented to me yesterday "for subscription
among my countrymen "toward the Pedestal Fund
of the Statue of Liberty. "My countrymen
and myself are honored "in being thus appealed to "as citizens in the cause of liberty. "But the word liberty
makes me think of the fact "that this country
is the land of liberty "for all men of all nations
except the Chinese. "That statue represents
Liberty holding a torch-- "which lights the passage of those of all nations who come into this country. "But are the Chinese
allowed to come? "Are the Chinese here
allowed to enjoy liberty "as men of all other
nationalities enjoy it? "Free from the insults, abuse,
assaults, wrongs, and injuries "from which men of other
nationalities are free? "By the law of this nation, "a Chinaman cannot
become a citizen. "Whether this statute
against the Chinese "or the Statue of Liberty "will be the more lasting
monument to tell future ages "of the liberty and greatness
of this country "will be known only
to future generations. Saum Song Bo." (distant voice speaking
Chinese dialect) (horse whinnying) (bell tolling) NARRATOR: The solitary arm of the
unfinished Statue of Liberty had languished on Madison Square in New York for more than five years
when on May 6, 1882-- on the eve of the greatest
wave of immigration in American history -- President Chester A. Arthur
signed into law an extraordinary piece
of federal legislation. It was called
the Chinese Exclusion Act -- and it was unlike
any law enacted since the founding
of the Republic. Singling out as never before a specific race
and nationality for exclusion, it made it illegal for Chinese
workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals
already here ever to become citizens
of the United States. Fueled by deep-seated tensions over race and class
and national identity that had been festering since
the founding of the Republic, it was the first
in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese
for exclusion-- and it would remain in force
for more than 60 years. It continues to shape the debate about what it means
to be an American to this day. (seagull squawking) RENQIU YU: Chinese Americans always
have this identification with the founding principle
of this country, so beautifully laid out
by the Founding Fathers and so eloquently articulated in
the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. The Chinese identify
with this fundamental principle of liberty, equality,
and justice for all, and all men are created equal. Now, how can you say
that this is a group of people who are biologically and culturally unfit to live a civilized life, to appreciate and practice American culture, political
and religious ideals. That's why I think a lot
of Americans had a hard time to learn that
the Chinese Exclusion Act really exists for 60 years. They couldn't believe it,
the government did that. MAE NGAI: We have to remember that
for most of the 19th century, immigration into the United States was basically open. You just showed up. So the Chinese exclusion law
is one of the first really comprehensively
restrictive laws. And it's also the first
and only time in the entire history
of the United States that a group is singled out
by name -- Chinese, by name -- as being undesirable. So this is truly
a remarkable moment. JEAN PFAELZER:
Starting in California, the Chinese were marked
as different. And I see the 1882 bill as a link in a chain of bills
and a chain of legislation, and race riots and purges that are trying to move the
country toward ethnic cleansing. The 1882 bill was not about labor. I think it was
about white purity, and, "How do we get rid
of people who were different?" DAVID LEI: Many people think
of this exclusion law as being very racist,
very unfair. But if you look at the world
at that time -- every country was like that,
and almost every ethnicity. Try to be a citizen of China, or try to be a citizen of Japan,
is impossible unless you're ethnically
Chinese or Japanese. But this is a group of people-- Chinese-American,
the Chinese that were here -- who actually fought back and made America better
than what it was, and helped make America
what it is today -- the values that we have, including equal protection under
the law; rights to education; what it means to be American, what makes you American,
to be born here. All these weren't defined. JOHN KUO WEI TCHEN: The 1882 exclusion law
has been forgotten. But once we remember it,
it is outrageous. And it's probably
why we've forgotten it, because it is so outrageous. Many Americans today
cannot believe this happened. How could this country-- in its culture, in its politics,
in its economics -- do what it did
against a whole class of people? The exclusion law said, "That whole race of people
are banned from this country." So it's a racial exclusion law. So that banning of a whole
category of people directly challenges
foundational questions of what American freedom means, and what American history means, who "We the people"
can constitute. K. SCOTT WONG: I think it's essential that Americans know about the exclusion of Chinese -- not because it's the Chinese but because it reflects
how America has come to develop, how America saw itself
at one time, and how it continues
to see itself. It has much to do with the character
of our national history. And that, to me, is the most
important thing in understanding how we became who we are today. Some of it has to do
with the fact that we excluded Chinese
for 60 years.
