Blogging from China, part 3

“Middle-aged women from Shanghai are strong.” That’s what a female student from East China University of Political Science and Law tells me as she and I are walking through a fabric district in Shanghai. “Why do you say that,” I ask. “Just they they are so active, full of energy, in their work, their daily exercise,” she responds. Awhile later, I’m standing their in awe as she bargains down the price of 200 grams of expensive jasmine tea for me in a local tea store. This student was so persistent, so stubborn, I was getting a bit embarrassed. After the purchase, we walk away, and I asked where did she get that skill from? She responds, “My mother. She’s a strong, middle-aged Chinese woman.”

When immigration from China to the U.S. started in significant numbers in the 1800s, the numbers began to cause concern in the minds of anti-Chinese activists. Many folks think of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 as the first anti-Chinese law at the federal level. In fact, in 1870, when the Naturalization laws were extended to those of African descent after the Civil War, Congress specifically rejected the extension to Chinese immigrants. Then in 1875, the Page Law denied the admission of Chinese women who were allegedly entering for “immoral purposes” (e.g., prostitution). The law was interpreted to broadly, that few Chinese women could enter. After the 1882 exclusion was enacted, Chinese women were included in the class of laborers that was denied entry. What was all this about? In my view, this was a way to control the Chinese laborers who were here, and to prevent the growth of the population. No women and anti-miscegenation laws meant that few families could be formed, and the population could be controlled.

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