From Exclusion To Acceptance

The history of America is a history of immigration. During this long time, there is a particular ethnic group which had been regarded as a separate racial in law and excluded on immigration, and their children were suffered from segregated education. They had initially been referred to as "The Yellow Peril", and later known as "The Model Minority"--this is Chinese American immigrants.Since the gold rush in 1848, the Chinese almostly landed from San Francisco, which made this city as a door of the old and new world, as well as the largest Chinatown in America. From a cultural point of view, the Chinese inhabited in San Francisco transplanted our nation culture into a foreign country and competed with the strong American culture, thus the Sino-US dual culture conflicts in Chinese society was very prominent, and the cultural impact of Sino-US dual education also brought a great deal of confusion to Chinese children. Before the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, the history of segregation education in San Francisco was also the most representativeHas given this, the article seeks to specific analysis of the San Francisco Chinese family education (which is the continuation of the traditional culture), Chinese school, Church school as well as the public school imposed by American influences during the period of the Chinese Gold Rush immigrants in 1948 to the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. By reflecting the cultural mentality of the Chinese children and the typical case study as strong evidence, this article is trying to explore the impact of dual education between China and the United States on the construction of cultural identity and the identity of the native-born Chinese from the perspective of social, ethnic, historical, cultural and psychological.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this article is divided into four chapters.The First chapter describes the history of the cross-pacific Chinese society from South China to San Francisco. traditional Chinese Society in South China and the Chinese community in San Francisco after the Gold Rush. By studying the original place South China and the immigration target San Francisco from the angle of social, historical and cultural, as well as referring to Mead’s Three-Figurative Culture Theory, this chapteranalyzes the difference among the social and cultural of South China,American society and the Chinese society in San Francisco. This is a pilot study in this article, and it is intended to reveal the influences to the education activity of Chinese by the different cultures between Chinnese and the United States.The Second chapter investigates the Chinese public schools and missionary schools in San Francisco. The segregated education policy was a manifestation of racial discrimination to the education rights of Chinese children. Therefore, the Chinese in San Francisco hadbeen fighting for an equal education right. Besides studying, Chinese children still faced discrimination from mainstream society during the course of employment. Chinese children had suffered all kinds of discrimination inside and outside the public schools. Compared with public schools, church-sponsored schools treated the Chinese a little more fair, hence many Chinese children learning there and learned English as well. Among the American social institutions, public schools and missionary schools were the main channel of the assimilation impact imposed on ethnic minorities, in which learning English played an important role on the Americanization and the Christianization of the assimilation of Chinese children.The Third chapter introdues the investigation on the family education and the Chinese School in San Francisco. Family was a prerequisite element for Chinese educational activities. The family education for children in Chinese families moved towards normalization along with the splitted families in Chinese community in San Francisco turned into two-parent families gradually. Driven by the tradition of advocating education in Chinese parents and the education promoting activities before World War Ⅱ, Chinese schools in Chinatown of San Francisco developed rapidly. By learning the national language and culture, Chinese schools stimulated the national consciousness and patriotic feelings of the Chinese in America.The second and third chapters’ empirical research is the cornerstone of this study, it shows the native born Chinese children’s education experience and their psychological state under the cultural conflict, including a microscopic description of educational activities and the analysis to typical cases.The fourth chapter analyses the education influence to the cultural identity construction of the Chinese children. During the growing of Chinese children, as a cultural pass activity,Sino-US Dual Education not only affected the attitude how Chinese children treat their own, the Chinese community and mainstream society, but also played a key role in their cultural identity. But subjected to the complex social factors, education on the cultural identity is limited. Attitudes changed from the mainstream society, racial discrimination, segregation education and social change, not only hinder the normal development of education of Chinese, also lead to the inter-generational differences of the Chinese children cultural identity, and present development characteristics of stage.From the investigation to the education history in 1848-1943 of the Chinese in San Francisco, I find that:both exclusion and acceptance constituted the tone of the Chinese social and education development; education played a decisive role in the transition of cultural identity of Chinese Americans especially native born Chinese-they were educated by Sino-US dual education, absorbed nutrients from both Chinese and American culture, and finallygained a new identity as Chinese Americans; the enlightenment of the Chinese education in San Francisco is that the Chinese education should be more concerned about the cultural, and the culture harmony should be the theme of cultural exchange between China and the West.