Strangers from a Different Shore
By: Ronald Takaki ©1998
I lived in Honolulu, Hawaii for 2 years, from 2000 – 2002. I can identify with the diverse cultures that Ronald Takaki was speaking about during his stay in the state. This connection he and I share is the prime reason I have chosen to blog on his essay. In the first paragraph Ronald Takaki quoted the common pidgin dialect of the island. He said, “Hey, da kind tako ono, you know,” (This octopus is delicious). The comment brought back many remarkable conversations I had shared with the locals of Hawaii and gave me a sense of brethren to Ronald Takaki. What I find most admirable about Mr. Takaki is that through his studies concerning Asian Americans he came across so much cruelty the pioneers of Asian American history suffered and still maintains a sense of the greater good that came from the endless amount of suffering early Asian Americans endured. One example is described in Mr. Takaki’s 8th paragraph with the explanation of an article submitted by the editor of The Californians, published in 1987. This article excluded the major contributions made by Asian Americans in pioneering aspects of the United States. The editor went as far as defining pioneers as “Americans and Europeans who settle permanently in California between 1823 and 1869.” Mr. Takaki expresses in his essay this timeframe in American history is when the transcontinental Central Pacific was completed and exalts the thousand of Asians who participated in the construction of this railway that remains a productive means of transportation to this day. Another example is the Naturalization Law of 1790 mentioned in his 19th paragraph. This law stated that naturalized citizenship is exclusive to white Americans only. What is sad about this law is that it was not rescinded until 1952. I can understand the ignorance of American culture in 1790, but for this ignorance to perpetuate until 1952 simply seems unacceptable.
Engaging images I have found online that portray the lifestyle of the Chinese at the time the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was enacted can be found at the following link:
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic2a.html
This compilation of imagery leaves me with a satisfied visualization of the society Chinese men and women lived in during the 1800’s. After reading the essay I was filled with a sense of understanding and compassion for early Asian American pioneers. Honestly, I have not been informed of the rigorous lifestyle these people live in until I have read the essay. It seems our society is so caught up on other early American cultures’ hardships that the early Asian American hardship are just overlooked, and, in my opinion neglected to a degree. This alone speaks volumes on modern Asian American people’s integrity to push forward and not let the past beat them down. I feel as though I have been informed and I look forward to more readings by Ronald Takaki in the future.
Asian participation in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteI complete agree with you and Mr. Takaki’s view point that American Chinese has been contributing to the prosperity and the success of US economy and in many other aspects. Before that, I think we should give credits to Chinese workers that contributed a lot to the progress of the US economy and structure. As we can see from the video last Saturday, Chinese workers brought with them their labor power as well as their techniques and skills. They helped developing US in different ways such as the 60 (maybe 80) acre lands that nobody want to touch was developed by Chinese people. Also, Chinese worker definitely contributed largely on the building of railroad in 18 and 19 centuries. Chinese people are well known for their hardworking. They do not complain that much, yet most of the time; they work harder than other people. From Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men (1977): “Ah Goong”, we can see that Chinese workers that time were the most efficient workers because they won in most of the competitions. (Speed on railroad construction).
Many Chinese workers actually stayed in the United States and started their new life here. However, it is apparent that there were a lot of discriminations during that point of time so their American born children were discriminated in different ways. This must be difficult because children raise under this environment may have to face that they have lower status than other children in the same community. However, this did not beat American Chinese down. They have strived hard and working together to build a better community. And their hardworking did earn them a great return. We can see that American Born Chinese had earned their respect by contributing various achievements to the society. One example is Bruce Lee. He born in San Francisco and eventually he became an astonishing artist in film industry. His helped pushing the progressing speed of film industry and many people were benefited from it.
Hey Steven,
ReplyDeleteJust like you, I was also informed after reading "Strangers from a Different Shore" by Tahaki. It is interesting to learn about the early history of the United States. Mr. Tahaki did not just use his personal opinions to write but he used facts, historical events, and legal documents. Therefore, anyone who read this reading should be convinced. Although I am Asian, I still did not know what really happened during the 18th century in America. I was surprised and pleased to learn that there were Asians, particularly Chinese, in America. However, I also feel a little angry because I did not learn about this sooner. Not only Chinese people were here, but they also helped build the current country which we are living in today. Although there is no discriminatory laws against Asian as well as other non-white races nowadays, I think that people are still not well-informed enough about the existence of the Chinese people in the beginning of this country. I went to high school in the US for two years and I did not learn that the Chinese helped build this country. Evidently, I was not the only case since you were also surprised to know the information provided by Tahaki. I believe the US historians and book writer should incorporate the information mentioned by Tahaki into the history courses available to high school and college students in the US. I think the early Chinese immigrants deserve the credit for building this country, and the least that we can do for them now is to learn about what they did.