Chinese in Washington: The Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion centers on a collection of the Chinese Exclusion Act case files at the National Archives in Seattle. The files comprise information from forms, interrogations, and correspondence of Chinese who went through U.S. Customs as they entered, re-entered or departed from the Ports of Seattle, Port Townsend, and Sumas, Washington; Portal, North Dakota; and Portland, Oregon.
This book selects 56 files—out of some 50 thousand—of Chinese from various backgrounds (merchants, U.S.-born, students, diplomats, women, and teacher) and various cities in Washington state who settled and spent significant time here or traveled through the state between the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion and 1943, when that act was repealed.
Each case profiled in the book typically contains a summary of information and testimony from the interrogations to determine the subject’s identity, and whether they were U.S. citizens, as well as whether they met the eligibility under the Exclusion Act to enter or return to this country. The interrogations they went through were often excruciating and, at times, resulted in many weeks of detention in crowded, indecent conditions.
Take the case file of Look See, wife of merchant Chin Quang. We learn that Look See was married to Chin Quang, a manager at the Wa Chong Company, and that she made two trips to China, one in 1904 and another in 1917. She came to America in 1882 or 1883, when she was 13 years old with her sister, who would marry Chin Gee Hee. The case files states that a Chin Kee testified that Look See and Chin Quang married according to Chinese custom and they had six children. The file mentions that a witness, John C. Whitlock testified that he was 48 years old, lived in Seattle for 16 years, and collected rent at the Wa Chong Company, and was well acquainted with Chin Quang. Whitlock, Justice of Peace Samual F. Combs and Chin Quang all testified in affidavits in Look See favor in 1904 before she left for China. And, Look See was admitted when she returned. The file mentions that Look See left Seattle in 1916 with a couple of her sons and her daughter, and returned in 1917.
In addition to the case files, Chinese in Washington: The Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion includes a very brief description of the Exclusion Acts, other legislation affecting Chinese immigration to the U.S., and a brief story on the Chinese Pavilion at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
The book’s author is Trish Hacket Nocla, who is a certified genealogist emeritus, a public historian and retired librarian with a master’s degree in library and information science. She has worked with the Chinese Exclusion Act files at the National Archives in Seattle as a volunteer since 2001.
The book is published by Arcadia Publishing’s History Press, known for publishing brief pictorial narratives of the histories of many local and regional places throughout the U.S. For instance, it has published books on Seattle neighborhoods such as Beacon Hill, Pioneer Square, and Capitol Hill. The Chinese in Washington: The Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion slightly deviates from those histories of place publications, as it focuses on a subject —or, more accurately, summaries of case files from the Chinese Exclusion Act immigration files.
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major U.S. federal law to explicitly prohibit immigration based on nationality, banning Chinese laborers from entering the country, and barring Chinese in the U.S. from naturalization. It is generally acknowledged that the Chinese Exclusion Act, along with the restrictions that followed it, essentially curtailed the population growth and the development of the Chinese in America while maintaining racial discrimination, mistreatment, and oppression towards them.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, after the US became an ally of China during WWII, as such as arrangement conflicted with the discriminatory provisions of that Act on the Chinese in America. Four years later, the War Brides Act was amended to allow wives of Chinese servicemen to enter the U.S. on a non-quota basis, which led to a number of Chinese servicemen going to Hong Kong or China and returning with wives. However, it was not until the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act (Hart-Cellar Act) that US immigration laws did away with the very low, discriminatory annual immigration quota for Chinese (105) and replaced it with a policy that allows up to 20,000 per country.
Documenting the challenges, struggles, and the difficulties the Chinese in Washington State had to endure and the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act would be useful to understanding the Chinese experience in Washington State. Moreover, a comprehensive study of the Act—how it came about, its discriminatory provisions, and consequences—would help us understand U.S. sentiment and policy regarding racial diversity and immigration.
However, this book does not do that. While some of the case files in the book are interesting, the book provides anecdotal evidence on the legacy of that Act on the Chinese in America rather than a scholarly, systematic, scientific, analysis of the legacy of the Exclusion Act on the Chinese in Washington State. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any reason to purchase this book, unless they are someway related to one of the persons whose file contained in this book.
