Why Chinese People Came To The United States | AJ+

from restaurants to writers to kung-fu flicks whether you realize it or not our culture has been shaped by Chinese immigrants their kids and their grandkids I'm jolly welcomes aj+ this Sunday we're gonna talk to you about why people left China in the first place and how they ended up here in the US [Music] Chinese people have been coming to the US for more than 150 years to pursue economic opportunities escape political unrest and seek higher education to help make this explanation easier we're gonna break this down into four periods the over four million Chinese people live in the u.s. today at the beginning these numbers are pretty small the first group of immigrants left because of political instability and news of golden jobs in California back in the 1850s the cities up and down the Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou were hubs for international trade many people in this area left to pursue better opportunities abroad at the same time the Taiping rebellion and the opium wars led others to Fleet poverty and instability meanwhile gold was discovered in California and extra hands were needed to build the Transcontinental Railroad and these forces kicked off the first wave of Chinese immigration but what started out as job opportunities in America took an ugly turn discrimination and violence white laborers felt like Chinese immigrants were threatening their jobs and took extreme measures to get rid of them they burnt down China towns publicly Lynch Chinese people and pass racially targeted laws this is how we ended up with the Chinese Exclusion Act the first US law restricting immigration based on race after the act was passed the Chinese population started to drop until World War two at the start of World War two Japan had invaded China for the second time most intensively bombs but in all the world is the wartime capital of pre-cana by the end of the war 15 million Chinese people had died and China was in a communist nationalist civil war China and the u.s. became allies to defeat Japan but the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in place so the very people who were fighting alongside the Americans were not even allowed to come into the country after World War 2 the u.s. realized this irony and repealed the laws boost mostly for appearance an immigration quota was set for just 105 Chinese immigrants each year by 1945 the war brides Act passed this law allowed spouses and children to join men in the US before then the Chinese immigrants were mainly made up of bachelors and from here the chinese-american community really started to develop in this third period immigrants left because Mao's policies led to widespread famine and persecution of many people including intellectuals life got even more desolate in the 1950s and 60s the Great Leap Forward Mouse campaigns industrialized the country caused one of the worst famines of the 20th century soon after Mao launched a Cultural Revolution a campaign to purge a country of everyone deemed Western or bourgeois including students professors and doctors the revolution was violent and bloody this changed the makeup of who left China those who had the means to and were willing to risk their lives fled and here's journalist John pomfrit the former bureau chief of the Washington Post in China to explain why this was so important the push factor from China was the chaos the political backbiting the attacks on Western education that were being carried out by Mazda villain in the Communist Party and that pushed huge numbers of Chinese to vote with their feet by going to Hong Kong and then getting access to United States through family reunification meanwhile the civil rights movement was in full swing leading to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965 officially ending the hundred and five quota here the Chinese population really started to pick up the majority came from Hong Kong and Taiwan including some mainland Chinese refugees and many were coming to study in American universities by this time the Chinese population had shifted from mainly blue-collar workers to white-collar workers from 1950 to 1960 the Chinese population doubled after Mao died Deng Xiaoping came to power he was known for opening up the Chinese economy to more free-market principles by 1990 we started seeing signs of a growing economy in China despite the economic reforms China's government remains strict on protests and public dissent when the Tiananmen Square crackdown happened in 1989 over 70,000 Chinese students got permanent residency in the u.s. the following year the u.s. introduced the eb-5 visa something that allowed rich foreigners to essentially buy permanent residency with half a million to a million dollar business investment this program wasn't that popular in its first 18 years but that really started to change as China's economy skyrocketed today's immigrants are wealthier than they have been in the past most believe are looking to pursue business opportunities live in a better environment and get an American education China's economy has really taken off in the last 20 years by 2010 their extreme poverty rate fell to 12 percent down from nearly 90 percent in 1981 that happened in less than 40 years and this completely changed who wanted to emigrate to the United States here's Sean pomfret again to explain how today's immigrants are different from immigrants of the past the push factor is now moreso issues of potential economic opportunity the search for a better life clean food cleaner air cleaner water compared to the 90s Chinese immigration slowed down at the turn of the century the economic boom in China created more opportunities at home so in the last few minutes we told you about more than a hundred years of immigration history from the poor to the persecuted to the wealthy the Chinese American story ranges and like all immigrants there's always been more than one side the dreams of a better life and the challenges they've left behind you guys we just did a three-part series that looks like Chinese American immigration and diaspora in the US through the lens of food so if you liked this take a look at our series don't forget to like share and subscribe and see you guys next Sunday

Channel: AJ+

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Keywords: Chinese in America, Chinese Americans, History of Chinese Immigration, History of Chinese Immigration to America, Chinese American documentary, Chinese People in America, Chinese People in the United States, Chinese Immigration to the U.S, News today, American news, the news, news today, latest news, happening now, u.s. news, world news, current events, us news, top stories, news, aj+, aj+ in-depth, ajplus, al jazeera

Id: enJL68owfDw

Length: 6min 15sec (375 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2017