Author name: Xin Su

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first and only law in US, implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States. It was signed on May 6, 1882 and repealed on December 17, 1943. The declining economy and high unemployment were politicized for the anti-Chinese movement by Denis Kearney, a labor leader who was himself an immigrant from Ireland. When the Sand Lot rally erupted in San Francisco in 1877, Kearney helped found the Workingmen’s Party of California with a sledgehammer four-word slogan: “The Chinese must go!” Kearney’s attacks against the Chinese for working for cheaper wages were supported by many white Californians. The Workingmen’s Party won almost every elective seat in San Francisco and successfully promoted anti-Chinese sentiment. By 1882 the federal government was finally convinced to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning all Chinese immigrant laborers. The Workingmen’s Party of California was gone after the passage of The Chinese Exclusion Act.

World War II closely linked China and the United States together in the international anti-fascist alliance, during which China was portrayed as a friend and ally by the public media in the United States.  Many Chinese Americans actively participated in the anti-Japanese propaganda and war.  Not only did they survive the harsh domestic political environment of the exclusion period, but their “popular” role in the war also won them respect and sympathy.