This paper is an examination of the emergence of direct institutional racism against Chinese immigrants in America, as chronicled in Sucheng Chan's book, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History. When the first immigrants from China began arriving in the United States during the middle of the 19th century, they were subjected to the same kinds of distrust and discrimination that all newcomers and outsiders felt. However, because they could be easily identified by their racial features, they were soon singled out for violent attacks which eventually led to an institutionalized racism that extended well into the 20th century. Early laws prevented Asian immigrants from ever becoming citizens, subsequent legislation attempted to restrict their freedoms and limit their perceived threat to mainstream Americans, while later institutional efforts fought the "yellow peril" in subtler (but no less antagonistic) ways. In the end, however, institutionalized racism slowed but did not stop the contribution of Asian immigrants to American society.
Immigrants from China were the first major group of Asians to come to the United States. They began arriving in the mid-1850s, driven out of their homeland by political and economic forces that encouraged them to join the California Gold Rush and seek the promise of better lives and better jobs offered overseas. Most of the initial arrivals were young men, willing to work long hours for low wages in the hope of earning enough to return to China in a few years. Most actually came from a relatively small area of the mainland, the central part of Guangdong Province in the south, Hong Kong. The ready availability of Western ships throughout these harbors gave many Chinese the choice of emigrating across the Pacific. Chan writes, "Had Western ships not called at Canton, Hong Kong, or Aomen (Macao) to take them to . . . far-off destinations . . . they very likely would have simply traveled by junk t...