Editing Chinese Americans (section)

==== California gold rush, Central Pacific Railroad construction ====
In the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to work in the [[California gold rush]],<ref>[[Bill Bryson]], ''Made In America'', page 154</ref><ref name="Strangers28">{{cite book|title=Strangers From a Different Shore|first=Ronald |last=Takaki|publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]]|year=1998|isbn=978-0-316-83109-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/strangersfromdif00taka/page/28 28]|author-link=Ronald Takaki|url=https://archive.org/details/strangersfromdif00taka/page/28}}</ref><ref name="Chang34-35">{{cite book|title=The Chinese in America|first=Iris |last=Chang|year=2003|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|isbn=978-0-670-03123-8|pages=34–35|author-link=Iris Chang}}</ref><ref name="Kwong44">{{cite book|title=Chinese America: The untold story of America's oldest new community |first1=Peter |last1=Kwong |first2=Dusanka |last2=Miscevic|publisher=[[The New Press]]|year=2005|isbn=978-1-56584-962-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/chineseamericaun00pete/page/44 44]|url=https://archive.org/details/chineseamericaun00pete/page/44}}</ref> and also to do agricultural jobs and factory work, especially the garment industry.<ref name="history.state.gov">{{cite web |title=Milestones: 1866–1898 – Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405033646/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration |archive-date=5 April 2019 |access-date=15 December 2017 |website=History.state.gov}}</ref> Some became entrepreneurs. Chinese often settled in ethnic neighborhoods called [[Chinatown]]s. In 1852, there were 25,000 Chinese migrants in America. After coming to the United States, these immigrants learned a lot of new knowledge about transportation, communications, architecture, medical care that they could not get in China. They also learned new Western culture, including new food, religion, life. 

[[File:Chinese American Fishermen b.jpg|thumb|Chinese American [[fisherman]] at Monterey, CA, circa 1875]]

In order to open up a route to Asia, the United States passed the [[Pacific Railroad Acts]] in 1862. From 1860 until 1869, the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] recruited large labor gangs, with many laborers on five-year contracts, to build on the [[transcontinental railroad]]. The construction of this railway attracted worldwide attention at that time. Most of the workers who first built the railroad were Irish people of European descent. Later, because the conditions for building the railroad were too difficult, most people gave up and turned to the gold rush in California. And the white workers were "unsteady men and unreliable. Some of them would stay a few days, and some would not go to work at all. Some would stay a few days, until pay-day, get a little money, get drunk, and clear out."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chinese and the iron road: building the transcontinental railroad |date=2019 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-0925-9 |editor-last=Chang |editor-first=Gordon H. |series=Asian America |location=Stanford, California |pages=P10 |chapter=Introduction |editor-last2=Obenzinger |editor-first2=Hilton |editor-last3=Hsu |editor-first3=Roland |editor-last4=Fishkin |editor-first4=Shelley Fisher}}</ref>

At the beginning, the person in charge tried to hire only a small number of Chinese people to see their abilities. Later, the person in charge found that the Chinese were smarter and more hardworking than they thought, so more and more Chinese people were hired. The Chinese learn very quickly, are more careful and frugal than white workers, and they need to be paid less than white workers. Construction Superintendent J.H.Strobridge and the acting chief engineer, [[Samuel S. Montague]] was also impressed by the rich experience and efficiency of the Chinese workers. Later, it was proved that Chinese workers laid 10 miles and 56 feet of track in a single day on April 28, 1869.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Voss |first=Barbara L. |last2=色色拉沃斯 |date=2015 |title=The Historical Experience of Labor: Archaeological Contributions to Interdisciplinary Research on Chinese Railroad Workers / 劳工的历史经验: 考古学对于中 国铁路工人之跨学科研究的贡献 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43491356 |journal=Historical Archaeology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=P6 |issn=0440-9213}}</ref>

But the Chinese workers don't seem to like to communicate with workers from other ethnic groups. They have their own "community", with their own chefs and accountants. Chinese workers were responsible for their own board and ate a diet that included imported Chinese staples, such as dried shellfish, fish, fruits, vegetables, and seaweed, as well as locally sourced rice, pork, poultry, and tea. They recount that Chinese railroad workers bathed daily, changing into clean clothes after work, and preferred to build their own dugouts and stone shelters rather than use company-provided tents. The Chinese railroad workers, it is recounted, kept to themselves and, other than gambling, enjoyed few vices.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Voss |first=Barbara L. |last2=色色拉沃斯 |date=2015 |title=The Historical Experience of Labor: Archaeological Contributions to Interdisciplinary Research on Chinese Railroad Workers / 劳工的历史经验: 考古学对于中 国铁路工人之跨学科研究的贡献 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43491356 |journal=Historical Archaeology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=P6 |issn=0440-9213}}</ref>

Chinese laborers built the majority of the difficult route through the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountains and across [[Nevada]]. Some Chinese also died during the construction of the railroad due to the heat of Nevada's summers and cold winters. In June 1867, the company wanted to make up for the lost progress due to the bad winter weather, and the management wanted to increase the workers' working hours. This caused the Chinese workers to strike. The strikers exhibited remarkable organization and discipline. The workers were spread out over several miles of the line in numerous camps, but they managed to communicate closely with one another and coordinate the work stoppage.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chinese and the iron road: building the transcontinental railroad |date=2019 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-0925-9 |editor-last=Chang |editor-first=Gordon H. |series=Asian America |location=Stanford, California |pages=P14 |chapter=Introduction |editor-last2=Obenzinger |editor-first2=Hilton |editor-last3=Hsu |editor-first3=Roland |editor-last4=Fishkin |editor-first4=Shelley Fisher}}</ref> Finally the company gave in and raised their wages slightly to keep them working. 

By 1870, the U.S. Census recorded 63,199 Chinese in the United States,<ref>Bureau, U. C. (2021, October 8). ''1870 census: Volume 1. the statistics of the population of the United States''. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1872/dec/1870a.html
</ref> and by 1890, this number had increased to 126,778.<ref>Bureau, U. C. (2023, February 2). ''1900 census: Volume II. population, part 2''. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1902/dec/vol-02-population-age.html
</ref> Even though the Chinese have made great contributions to railway construction, it is still difficult for them to obtain citizenship. Even in 1871, a white supremacist mob attacked Los Angeles' Chinatown and killed nineteen Chinese residents. Those lynched and shot likely included former railroad workers.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chinese and the iron road: building the transcontinental railroad |date=2019 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-0829-0 |editor-last=Chang |editor-first=Gordon H. |series=Asian America |location=Stanford, California |pages=P40 |chapter=Chinese Railroad Workers and the US Transcontinental Railroad in Global Perspective |editor-last2=Fishkin |editor-first2=Shelley Fisher |editor-last3=Obenzinger |editor-first3=Hilton |editor-last4=Hsu |editor-first4=Roland}}</ref> And with the enactment of [[Chinese Exclusion Act|the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882]], more Chinese were forced to leave the United States.