Chinese Coolie Labor (Coursework Sample)

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Chinese Coolie Labor
Information about Chinese workers in America have posed continuous debate that was detached from the actual situation of the workers in early 20thc America. Due to segregation and immigration of strict laws, the Chinese opted not to serve as alternate sources of labour any more. Following the Chinese coming into America in 1850s, they engaged in mining in California, manufacturing of enterprises, and merchandising. The vast employment of the Chinese in the construction of Central Pacific Railroad in 1865 played a paramount role in the transition from the independent mining of gold, to toilsome labor (Tam 125-126). However, following the railway’s completion, labourers from China witnessed great opposition from California workers. There was great persistence in anti-Chinese agitation, which in turn interfered with the Chinese’ employment. The persistence was induced by the endorsement of the government’s tacit to Sinophobia, following the enactment of the Act of Chinese Exclusion in 1822. The railway road construction in America therefore crystallized Chinese image as workers who could be exploited (Tam 125-126).
Exploitation of the Chinese workers also resulted to them being racially segregated in their working areas in America. Moreover, competition for job between the Chinese and white workers extensively reduced by 1890. The exploitation and mob violence compelled several Chinese labourers to relocate to Chinatown in order to engage themselves in other jobs such as restaurant business and laundry. In 1892, the Act of Chinese Exclusion was extended, which resulted to the permanent exclusion of the Chinese from immigration to USA. The immigrants from China did not pose much threat to the American workers, who did not have any desire for the jobs performed by residents of China. However, both the Chinese immigration supporters and exclusionists continuously wrote about what Chinese citizens had supposedly engaged in, and not Chinese lives during the earliest decades in the 20th C. The arguments of the Chinese writers therefore seek to affirm the low working state of the Chinese workers in America (Tam 125-126).
A periodical article review that was published in 1900-1924 illustrates that Chinese labourers were usually described as inferior and undesirable. Anti-Chinese writers, as well as other sympathetic contributors, contributed negatively or positively to the representations of the Chinese workmen. Miller, for example, a Chinese writer, wrote towards the defence of the Chinese, though he was not much effective. Miller refuted the affirmation that Chinese workers were filthy, due to his daily observation of their bathing habits. However, he wrote about the uprogressiveness of the culture of China, and further claimed that their Chinese detested change. Moreover, Miller he low-rated the Chinese labourers when, in his writings, affirmed that Chinese would rather work at quarter the actual price (Tam 125-126). Secondly, an essay in an eclectic weekly periodical ( The Living Age), posed a warning to the readers ever since Kearney Dennis spearheaded the launching of an attack against the Chinese immigrants, San Francisco culminated to a city of trade-union. But as several sympathetic writers did, the writer did not appreciate Chinese workers. He still branded them coolies, preserving all the pre-requisites of slavery. Furthermore, the contributor of The Livingstone Age advocated for the opinion of union supporters. He claimed that Chinese labourers led a different existence and relocated to their country after hoarding enough money. Different writers therefore opposed or rather, contributed positively towards the exploitation of Chinese workers in America (Tam 125-126).
In conclusion, Chinese workers ...