Asian American history is the history of ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. The term "Asian American" was an idea invented in the 1960s to bring together Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for strategic political purposes. Soon other groups of Asian origin, such as Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese Americans were added. For example, while many Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants arrived as unskilled workers in significant numbers from 1850 to 1905 and largely settled in Hawaii and California, many Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong Americans arrived in the United States as refugees following the Vietnam War. These separate histories have often been overlooked in conventional frameworks of Asian American history.
Since 1965, shifting immigration patterns have resulted in a higher proportion of highly educated Asian immigrants entering the United States. This image of success is often referred to as the "model minority" myth.
Hostility to immigration
The Chinese arrived in the US in large numbers on the West Coast in the 1850s and 1860s to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Central Pacific railroad hired thousands, but after the line was finished in 1869 they were hounded out of many railroad towns in states such as Wyoming and Nevada. Most wound up in Chinatowns—areas of large cities which the police largely ignored. The Chinese were further alleged to be "coolies" and were said to be not suitable for becoming independent thoughtful voters because of their control by tongs. The same negative reception hit the Asians who migrated to Mexico and Canada.Lee (2005)
Chronology Major milestones according to standard reference worksHyung-Chan Kim, ed. Dictionary of Asian American History (1986); Franklin Ng, The Asian American Encyclopedia (6 vol., 1995) and others are:
16th century 1587: "Luzonians" (Filipinos from Luzon Island) arrive in Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo) California on board the galleon ship Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno during the Manila galleon traide. 1595: Filipino sailors aboard a Spanish "galleon" the San Agustin which was commanded by Captain Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno arrive on the shores of Point Reyes outside the mouth of the Bay Area. The ship was on a trip to Acapulco before it was shipwrecked on the aforementioned area.
17th century 1635: an "East Indian" is listed in Jamestown, Virginia.
18th century
1763: Notice for a captured suspected runaway slave on July 20, 1763, "not resembling the African negros", born in Bombay and spoke good English Filipinos established the small settlement of Saint Malo in the bayous of Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there were no Filipino women with them, the "Manilamen," as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women.See "Filipino Migration to the United States" 1768–1794: Records of three escaped slaves of East Indian ethnicity documented in Virginia and Philadelphia 1775–1783: At least 100 or more Asian Americans lived in the Thirteen Colonies around the time of the American Revolution. Four well-documented Asian Americans are known to have fought in the American Revolution (two serving with the American rebels and two with the British). 1778: Chinese sailors first arrive to Hawaii. Many settled down and married Hawaiian women. 1779: Malays were listed as one of the many ethnicities who were part of the crew of the USS Bonhomme Richard during the Battle of Flamborough Head, in the North Sea. 1785: Chinese sailors of an American ship reached Baltimore. 1798: A tombstone in Boston was dedicated to a person named Chow Mandarin, aged 19, who was born in Canton and died falling off a ship's masthead on September 11, 1798.
19th century 1815: Filipinos working as shrimp fishermen and smugglers in Louisiana serve under General Andrew Jackson's American forces in the War of 1812 and as artillery gunners at the Battle of New Orleans. 1820s: Chinese (mostly merchants, sailors, and students) begin to immigrate via Sino-U.S. maritime trade. 1829: Famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker, both born in Siam (modern-day Thailand), began performing on a series of tours in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, with a Siamese translator brought along to help translate for Chang and Eng. Chang and Eng became naturalized US citizens in the 1830s and settled down in North Carolina. Two of their sons with their American wives later fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. 1835: First account of Chinese laborers on Hawaii by an American, who were noted to perform efficient, backbreaking work compared to indigenous Hawaiian laborers. In response, an Anglo-American entrepreneur hires the first Chinese paid laborers in Hawaii and recommends the importation of Chinese laborers to the Continental US. 1841: Captain Whitfield, commanding an American whaler in the Pacific, rescues five shipwrecked Japanese sailors. Four disembark at Honolulu. Manjiro Nakahama stays on board returning with Whitfield to Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After attending school in New England and adopting the name John Manjiro, he later becomes an interpreter for Commodore Matthew Perry. 1848–1855: First mass wave of Chinese immigrants to the US for gold prospecting including in states such as California, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a period of American history in which the most gold seen at the time was discovered. The initial discovery of gold in America in 1848 attracted many immigrants who were intent on the opportunity and potential wealth that came with gold mining. Word of a mountain of gold across the ocean arrived in Hong Kong in 1849, and quickly spread throughout the Chinese provinces. By 1851, 25,000 Chinese immigrants had left their homes and moved to California, a land some came to call gam saan, or "gold mountain". In 1852, 20,000 Chinese-Americans migrated to California, totaling 67,000 Chinese immigrants in California. In response to increased Chinese immigration, the California legislature passed a new foreign miner's tax of $4 a month. 1850: Seventeen survivors of a Japanese shipwreck were saved by an American freighter; In 1852, the group joins Commodore Matthew Perry to help open diplomatic relations with Japan. One of them, Joseph Heco (Hikozo Hamada) later becomes a naturalized US citizen. 1854: In People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court case that denied the rights of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans to testify against white citizens. Yung Wing becomes the first Chinese American student to graduate from an American university (Yale College) 1861–1865: Several dozen Asian American volunteers enlist in the Union Army and Union Navy during the American Civil War. Smaller numbers serve in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America. 1861: The utopian minister Thomas Lake Harris of the Brotherhood of the New Life visits England, where he meets Nagasawa Kanaye, who becomes a convert. Nagasawa returns to the US with Harris and follows him to Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa, California. When Harris leaves the Californian commune, Nagasawa became the leader and remained there until his death in 1932. 1862: California imposes a tax of $2.50 a month on every Chinese man. 1865: The Central Pacific Railroad Co. recruits Chinese workers for the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah. Many are killed or injured in the harsh conditions blasting through difficult mountain terrain. 1869: A group of Japanese build the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony in Gold Hill, California 1869: The Fourteenth Amendment gives full citizenship to every person born in the United States, regardless of race. 1877: Denis Kearney organizes anti-Chinese movement in San Francisco and forms the Workingmen's Party of California, alleging that Chinese workers took lower wages, poorer conditions, and longer hours than white workers were willing to tolerate. 1878: Chinese are ruled ineligible for naturalized citizenship. 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act is passed banning immigration of laborers from China. Students and businessmen are allowed. Large numbers of Chinese gain entry by claiming American birth. 1884: Philip Jaisohn, a Korean independence activist and physician who later became an American citizen among Koreans for the first time, arrived in the United States. 1885: The Rock Springs massacre in Wyoming leaves 28 Chinese miners dead. 1887: Robbers kill 31 Chinese miners Snake River, Oregon. 1890: In Hawaii, then an independent country, sugar plantations hire large numbers of Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos. They form a majority of the population by 1898. 1892: When Chinese Exclusion Act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, they faced deportation. 1898: Hawaii joins the US as a territory. Most residents are Asian and they receive full US citizenship. 1898: The Philippines joins the US as a territory. The residents of the Philippines become US nationals.
20th century 1901 to 1940
1902: Yone Noguchi publishes The American Diary of a Japanese Girl. 1903: Ahn Chang Ho, pen name Dosan, founded the Friendship Society in 1903 and the Mutual Assistant Society. 1904: Syngman Rhee (이승만), comes to the US to earn a BA at George Washington University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. In 1910, he returned to Korea and became a political activist during Japanese occupation of Korea. He later became the first president of South Korea. 1906: The San Francisco Board of Education segregates Japanese students, but withdraws at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt and protests by the Japanese government. 1907: Gentlemen's Agreement between United States and Japan that Japan would stop issuing passports for new laborers. 1910: Angel Island in San Francisco Bay opens as the major station for as many as 175,000 Chinese and 60,000 Japanese immigrants between 1910 and 1940. 1913: California bans Japanese immigrants ("Issei") from purchasing land; land is purchased instead in the names of US-born children ("Nisei") who are citizens 1924: United States Immigration Act of 1924 (Oriental Exclusion Act) banned most immigration from Asia. The quota for most Asian countries is zero. Public opinion in Japan is outraged by the insult. 1927: In the infamous case of Lum v. Rice, the Supreme Court found that states possess the right to define a Chinese student as non-white for the purpose of segregating them in public schools. 1930: Anti-Filipino riot occurred in Watsonville, California.See "Racial Riots" 1933: Filipinos are ruled ineligible for citizenship barring immigration. Roldan v. Los Angeles County found that existing California anti-miscegenation laws did not bar Filipino-white marriages, but the state quickly moved to amend the law and made it so that Filipinos could no longer marry White people., citing Cal. Stats. 1933, p. 561. 1935: Tydings–McDuffie Act gives "Commonwealth" status to the Philippines hence allowing immigration of Filipinos; Philippines independence is scheduled for 1946 1940: Bruce Lee was born November 27, 1940, in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, California.See Bruce Lee
1941 to 1999 1941: Japanese navy attacks Pearl Harbor; FBI arrests pro-Japanese community leaders in Hawaii and US. 1941: Japanese army invades the Philippines. 1941–1945: Filipino resistance movement, working closely with US Army, fights the Japanese invaders.