Nina Wentt DB 6

In the beginning of the 1850s, Chinese female prostitutes arrived because they accompanied Anglo-Americans and Europeans. Their reasoning for arriving to San Francisco was to take advantage of the demand for their services which was to their advantage. This was due to the shortage of women (Chinese women)  and conjugal life. The attempted distinction between “real-wives” and prostitutes was flawed severely rly. Officials attempted to separate the two through distinguishing between social relations vs behavioral and/or moral traits. This was problematic because of the stigmatization of streetwalkers and an imbalance in women who get penalized as prostitutes vs how socioeconomic and racial class had alot to do with it. For example, although “streetwalkers” accounted for 10-15% of all prostitutes and 80-90% all arrests, it was woman of color who accounted for 40% of those streetwalkers and 55% of those arrests. 85 percent of which received jail sentences. Because of this, the label “prostitute” was then attached to certain groups of women (and to note not others such as white prostitutes at the time) through social relations that were indeed racist, gendered, and classists rather then determining based on behavior and moral traits.

The Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigrants from entering the country (which was also the first group to be banned). This resulted in them becoming the first immigrants who had to sneak into the U.S. The did this through Mexico. This was due to a few factors. For example, in the beginning of 20th century, only a few guards worked on the Mexican border and named themselves “Chinese catchers.” The response was international smuggling rings. Border inspectors were paid off by said smugglers. If you were Mexican at the time it was easier to cross the border. Because of this, many Chinese immigrants dressed up like Mexicans and even learned some lines in Spanish to fool border patrol.

Chinese (often labeled Mongolian) people along with Negroes, and Indians were see as an inferior race to “pure Caucasian blood. In the 1870s, the use of cheap Chinese labor undercutting white worker wages cause hostility towards Chinese immigrants. During this time, the state law changed and stated that in separate schools from white children, only Indians and blacks need to be educated. It also didn’t help that the superintendent of schools James Denman (he who closed Chinese schools a decade earlier citing low attendance) now had the legal right to close them for good. These course of events led to anger in the community with Chinese communities arguing that they found it unjust they were paying taxes and were simultaneously denied the right to send their children to public schools and receive an education. This lead to 1,300 people of Chinese decent in 1878 petitioning a Legislature in which they argued 3,000 Chinese children in the state had a right to public education. Even with the support of a clergyman (Rev. William Gibson) this was still met with much resistance including the San Francisco Board of Supervision.

When Chinese immigrants first arrived, they experienced closed confinement that was almost prison like. Both men and women (husband and wives and even mothers are children) were separated for an unspecified amount of time. There was a massive difference in Eastern medicine and Western Medicine. Women and men  were forced to strip nude for full physical examinations. In the East, a examination never required them to be naked so there was a sense of humiliation and shame. Many of the challenges  resided in those who bought their way in with a new identity and having to go through rigorous interrogation with officials . If they were to assume the identity of another the question asked had to aligned identical to the answers received. Considering there was both a language barrier and a culture difference, many detainees often were held for months and/or deported.  Questions were often repeated and were asked in reference to their home, layout of rooms and furniture, how many windows and the distance from their space and their neighbors. Officials would also ask them about their “idols”. If a family planning to immigrate answers to those questions aren’t the same, they were further detained and even deported back to China. These questions show that Chinese immigrants were seen as barbaric, uncivilized, untrustworthy and must be heavily vetted to ensure safety to current American citizens (more like protect pure Caucasian blood). Detainees responded by paying for smugglers to give them guide books and many with unsatisfied with the conditions of these prison like camps. The title of the film is in reference to Chinese detainees carving nameless poems into the wall describing their experience being on Angel Island including  the conditions, the intense interrogation, humility lasting physical examinations and being separated from their family. The poems also express that trauma and the hope of wanting to leave.

Watching this created lots of anger and hurt for me. I knew of The US doing this but never heard the testimony from people who made it to Angel Island. It also made me extremely uncomfortable when the woman was being examined because she didn’t even have a right to body autonomy. Like her humiliation felt like my humiliation and when she started to cry I felt like I wanted to start to cry. It was very disturbing to watch and to also hear how they sacrificed everything only to be propelled into basically a prison. They were treated like prisoners.