Early Chinese Diasporas and the Chinese Exclusion Act

In China, the statements about early Chinese diasporas and the Chinese Exclusion Act in a variety of literature, including history textbooks and research papers, are based on a set of presumptions underlying political or racial implications. (which include the formation of the early Chinese communities in America, the reason for the emergence of Chinese Exclusion Act, and the abrogation thereafter. Generally the presumptions assume the following: early Chinese laborers are forced to America by violence; the later strong resistance among local community against Chinese diasporas was out of racial prejudice; the pass of the Chinese Exclusion Act is to exclude all Chinese nationals; the termination of the Act is the fruit of struggle of American minority groups, including the struggle of Chinese diasporas” omitted). The presumptions are often so widely referred to in all kinds of research in the relative fields that it seems to be considered as truth without question. However, after a close reading of the historical documents, I find that the difficulties the early Chinese diasporas encountered and the emergence of the Chinese Exclusion Act should be attributed to economic factors rather than political or racial persecution. The presumptions—although for the most part fallacies and far from the historical truth—are widely accepted as truth because they are part of the sources of nationalism ideology construction and, later, the touchstone of the narration of the nation-state.