Where Do I Begin?

Some of you may know I took a writing class called "Where do I begin?".  Here's a piece I wrote.

My grandmother, May Quan Tsang, came to America in the early 1920s.  She was born in the year 1900 so she was always the same age as the year.  She died in 1993 when she was 93, an easy way for us to remember how old she was.  How I cherished my grandmother.  Who doesn’t?

When she came to America there were approximately 7,000 Chinese women in the US compared to 55,000 Chinese men.  Just 11%.  My grandmother was one of these 11%.  I can’t believe what kind of life she had. The Page Act of 1875 banned Chinese women from entering the US because they were assumed to be prostitutes.  Oh brother.  The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese people from entering the US.  It was the first federal law restricting immigration based on nationality and lasted until 1943.  That’s sixty-one years.  When my mother was born in New York City this was still a law.  How crazy is that?  It also prevented Chinese residents from becoming U.S. citizens.  No other group of people have been prevented by law from entering the US.  That’s just plain prejudice.

There’s been a history of discrimination and hate again Chinese since America was founded in 1776.  I asked ChatGPT for some examples of Chinese discrimination n the 1880s and here is what ChatGPT replied (in addition to the above on the Chinese Exclusion Act).  What’s most upsetting is the violence against Chinese communities:

• In the Rock Springs Massacre (1885, Wyoming): White miners killed at least 28 Chinese workers and drove hundreds out of town.
• During the Tacoma Riot (1885, Washington): Mobs forcibly expelled the entire Chinese population.
• Hells Canyon Massacre (1887, Oregon): Over 30 Chinese gold miners were killed by armed white men.

In the 1900s the Alien law act prohibited land ownership and incremental immigration.  Chinese people were labelled the “yellow peril” and often negatively depicted in cartoonish slanty-eyed characters.  Congressmen and Senators were quoted with racists statements and my heart sinks when I hear the similar condescending garbage about Latin migrants today.  It was really ugly then and it is really ugly now.

In California and the Pacific Northwest locals were afraid of Chinese people taking their jobs and freely lynched, attacked and drove them out of town.

It was hard for Chinese people to marry & start families given limited immigration for women.   I wonder how my Grandmother did it.  She had five children in NYC.  She was a trailblazer.  As a child she never told us of any tough times.  She really had a good life.  Like they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  To me this seems like it would have been a bad time to be Chinese in the USA.  To her (but who knows), it may have been a golden time.  How I wish I could re-wind the clock and learn more.  I know so little of my Grandmother’s past, her childhood, how she met my Grandfather, how old she was when she married.  Because of the language barrier there are only a handful of memories I recall that she shared with me.  She said when the Japanese soldiers came, they ate dirt.  That’s stuck in my head all these years.  I think she had a wonderful life but that’s because I wear the rose-colored granddaughter’s glasses.  She once told me she never worked.  Who knows if that’s true or not but I imagine her walking down Mott Street in high-collared dresses and dainty shoes with a big coat.  Even if she did have a hard life, I wouldn’t believe it.  She only had love for me so I envision everyone only had love for her.

The reality is she did have a difficult life with five children, a deceased husband and no English language skills.  In the world surrounding her, the Cable Act of 1922 prevented a Chinese woman born in the US marrying a Chinese man for fear citizenship would be taken away.  Japanese Americans were forced into Internment camps during the war and later paid reparations to prove that the act was wrong. Today, birth-right citizenship for some groups are being challenged.  Things have not progressed since my Grandmother left NYC in May of1935 with her five children after her husband died. 

 

In 1982 two Detroit auto-workers murdered Vincent Chin a Chinese-American because they thought he was Japanese and stealing their jobs as more as more Americans bought Japanese cars.

 

Fast forward to today.  During Covid the stupid President used slurs like Kung Flu and Asian virus fueling violence against all Asian Americans.  Unfortunately, this opened the door to outward hate, attacks and scapegoating & normalized this rotten behavior. The FBI recorded a 77% increase in Asian hate crimes from 2019-2020.  “Go back to China” was (+ still is) yelled randomly all over the place.  Amy Tan the famous author says she yells “Go Back to School” when people say this to her.  Go Amy!

In March 2022 a six-year-old boy and his father were stabbed at a Sam’s Club in Midland Texas by Jose Gomez a 19 year old who accused them of spreading Covid.  This breaks my heart.

I recently read about an Asian American marketing executive who carries her passport around.  Why?  Because at any time she could be stopped and her identity questioned just because of the way she looks.  This could happen to me any day too.  It makes me furious for myself, my children and my granddaughter.  The 2024 elections proved that half of the country doesn’t like me just because I look different from them.  The plethora of imbeciles sitting right outside my zip code makes me want to scream.

Why does it seem like the massacres of 1885 could easily happen today?  Because it can.  It hurts me to my core and feels like there is a ticking time-bomb in my brain, ready to shoot straight out of my head and burst all the way to the stars where those poor astronauts are stuck.

How can I get rid of the hate I harbor in my heart for all the stupid people in this country, in this world?  I can’t.  It’s a bigger problem.  But what can one person do?

Write. Write your stories down.  Write the history down.  Go ahead and write your heart out. Write Julie Write. 

If some day history books get banned at least I’ll have a Chinese history book to share with my granddaughter.