After the reading about Lee and watching the documentary, it became apparent how the Europeans viewed Asia as its polar opposite. They viewed Asia as a land full of exotic spices and herbs, silks, and other good which the Europeans had desired. The people, the culture, and civilizations were all different from those of the Europeans. Europe viewed itself as the masculine and Asia as the feminine, which has to be conquered. This desire for Asia’s wealth is what lead to the eventual colonization and imperialism of Asia by Europe. Of course this all benefited the Europeans as they had wrongfully profited from the riches of Asia to fuel their own greed. During this, they had also mistreated the Asian crew members on cargo ships who were working for them, and only paid them half for what they paid the Spanish workers, despite them being very skilled. It was surprising to see how they were so underpaid compared to the Spanish workers, despite them being so skilled, but I guess that could also be due to racism towards Asians. The Europeans had mistreated the people of Asia, disrespected their cultures, and wiped them from their wealth, due to them being greedy for wealth and power. This reading proved how much people are willing to do in the name of acquiring power and wealth, even if means to destroy the others land.
Los Chinos were the first Asian immigrants who migrated to the Americas around the late 1500’s. They had then migrated from the west coast down to the south and settled in Mexico City. They had taken jobs such as merchants and laborers and etc in order to support their families and build their wealth. However due to violence and discrimination towards Asian communities, those communities had eventually lost their opportunities and had to look elsewhere.
Afong Moy was the first recognized Chinese female immigrant. Americans viewed her as an object, and not an actual human. She was seen as a circus freak, and people would buy tickets to watch her. This lead to awful stereotypes of Asians, and lead to them being treated as lower class people, and were very degraded by the White Americans.
In conclusion what can be learned from this reading and documentary is that the Europeans greed for money, power, and riches from Asia eventually lead to the the imperialism of Asia, the looting of the land from its riches, the degradation of its people and their cultures, which all still have terrible impacts on the Asian community to this day. Even today, they are often seen as inferior to the white man, and are often victims of racism and hate crimes.
