Chinatown In The Twentieth-century America

The Chinese in the United States, like other non-Anglo-European minorities in this country, have experienced blatant prejudice and serious harassment. When they were no longer needed to build the western railroads in the 1870's, the Chinese were subject to continuous attacks on their homes and business establishments, as well as their persons. They were subject to persistent legal harassment in the form of exclusionary legislation, starting with the Exclusion Act of 1882 in California.Chinatown, as an early shelter for the Chinese immigrants who sought opportunities overseas, served the growing Chinese population in the United States. Persistent prejudice and harassment stemming from mainstream American racism and fear of economic competition had resulted in the tightening of internal bonds within this minority group and the development of protective associations of one kind or another. Traditional patriarchal associations transplanted the ruling structure of feudal China. Family, village associations, and secret societies were initially formed to defend immigrants against racial attacks from whites. Today, this traditional order has been modified and challenged by modern associations, but it continues to exist and has adapted itself to modern society.As a product of discrimination and exclusion, Chinatown reflects American racism, social and economic adaptation of an ethnic group, and the dilemma of ethnic identity in modern American life. However isolated, it is scarcely immune to the larger society. The process of change has already started, transforming Chinatown from an urban ethnic ghetto into an interest group based on a common culture.