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| On May 31, I went with my family to Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. It is a beautiful island, and has historical significance to my family because my grandfather was detailed there for nine months when he immigrated to the United States as a child. Ollie's sister Charlotte, her partner Wayman, and her daughter Mia came on the tour of Angel Island with my family, along with my sister's Best Man Brian and his wife, Janet.
Chinese immigrants began coming to the United States in significant numbers in the 1840s as part of the Gold Rush. Many of these immigrants did not find gold, settling instead for difficult, dangerous, and low-paying jobs, including mining jobs and work constructing the Transcontinental Railroad. Over the course of several decades, the predominantly white labor unions grew resentful of cheap Chinese labor and began lobbying for the restriction of Chinese immigration. As a result, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which effectively precluded the entry of Chinese immigrants, with only a few exceptions. One of these exceptions was for children whose parents were legally present in the United States. The Act also made Chinese immigrants into permanent aliens by barring them from becoming American citizens. As a result, Chinese immigrants could not enjoy many basic freedoms, such as the right to vote, or even to testify in court. The Act was initially passed in 1882, renewed for ten years, and then renewed indefinitely. (It was not repealed until 1943.)
Then came the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Many structures in San Francisco burned to the ground, including the building that housed all of the birth records for the city. Officials asked San Franciscans to come forward to provide them with information about birth and citizenship. It is theorized that many Chinese immigrants who were not legal citizens took this opportunity to claim that they were born in the United States and therefore American citizens. Many of these new citizens also listed the names of their fictional children of various ages. Papers bearing the names of these "paper sons" and "paper daughters" were then created and sold to families in China, so that those families could send their children to America under the exception in the Exclusion Act that allowed children to immigrate if they had a "parent" legally residing in the United States.
In the midst of this anti-Chinese sentiment, the SS President Lincoln landed in the San Francisco Bay in 1928, carrying my grandfather, age 9. He immigrated alone. He held papers declaring him to be Wong Wai Lay, the son of a family friend whose last name was also Wong. As was the practice, his ship stopped before docking on the mainland and offloaded its Chinese immigrants onto smaller boats, which carried them to Angel Island. Below is a picture of Angel Island taken in 1915. It shows the warehouse for luggage (at the end of the pier), the main administration building (center middle), and the barracks (middle right). For a larger picture, click here: http://www.angelisland.org/images/ISpanLOCphoto.jpg.
After being deprived of their luggage, detainees underwent medical examinations. This experience was particularly terrifying for Chinese children, who did not speak English and were not used to physicians examining them physically. According to the Park Ranger who gave us the historical tour, physicians at the time in China usually listened to a patient's symptoms and then prescribed a treatment, sometimes without even doing a physical exam. In contrast, the Angel Island exams involved what we consider "routine" poking and prodding. Angel Island physicians also wore long white medical coats, which is the color that is typically worn to Chinese funerals.
Here are photographs of detainees waiting to be examined.
After the medical exams, detainees were sorted based mostly on physical appearance into "Asiatic" and "non-Asiatic" groups. The "non-Asiatic" immigrants slept in different barracks, had more access to the outdoors, ate better food, and usually stayed on Angel Island for only several days while they were processed. In contrast, the "Asiatic" immigrants stayed for an average of 3 weeks. According to my grandfather, he was allowed outside for an hour at a time each day or week, and even then, only in a covered, fenced yard. The detainees were also under guard at all times. My grandfather was detained on Angel Island for nine months. This could have been because he was sick, or someone on his ship was sick, or because he did not answer the immigration officials' questions correctly.
The immigration officials were wise to the idea of "paper sons" and "paper daughters." As a result, they questioned Chinese children with particular intensity. These children were asked many questions, which were also separately asked of the "parent" listed on the child's documentation. If the answers did not match up, the child was usually deported. These questions were very difficult to get right. For example, children were asked things like "how many steps are in your house in China?" or "who lives in the third house in the fourth row of houses in your village?" These questions would be difficult to answer even for a child and parent who truly were related. In the time that the parent had been in the United States, another house could have been added to the row of houses in the village. He could have forgotten the number of steps in the house.
Here is a photograph of a Chinese child being questioned.
After nine months, my grandfather was permitted to leave Angel Island and go to the mainland. He worked with his siblings to bring his mother to the United States. He worked in California's orchards picking fruit, and in the shipyards. As a teenager, he attended junior college and then transferred to Berkeley, where he graduated. He moved to the East Coast and met my grandmother at a dance in NYC. He became a successful engineer and raised a wonderful, loving family in New Jersey.
In 1990, my parents and sister and I went to Angel Island with my grandfather. The buildings were closed but we told one of the park rangers that my grandfather immigrated through Angel Island and she called a docent, who took ferry over to the Island and gave us a tour. The buildings had not yet been restored and there was debris and old materials lying around. We walked through the room where my grandfather slept and he pointed out where his bunk had been (he was in the top bunk of a stack of 3 or 4 bunks because he was small and could climb up easily). My sister found a piece of pottery that he recognized as something from the dining hall. After he passed away, my grandmother told us that he kept the piece of pottery on his dresser along with only a handful of other significant keepsakes. Aside from our visit to Angel Island 19 years ago, he rarely spoke of his experiences there.
Now it is a National Historic Site in a California State Park. They have restored the barracks and are working on restoring the hospital. There is a monument on the hill overlooking the pier that is to all of the Chinese immigrants. They have re-created the 10 foot tall fence (this time, without the six strands of barbed wire) that kept the detainees from exploring the island and possibly escaping.
Time for pictures:
Here is a picture of the Golden Gate bridge, as seen from the ferry to the Island.
And here is what Angel Island looks like, on approach.
In contrast to the detainees that sailed right up to the cove where the Immigration Station was, and landed directly on the pier shown in the panoramic picture above, we approached the Immigration Station on from partway around the Island. Below is a picture of us on the ferry.
It was about a 20 minute walk from where we landed to the Immigration Station, and it gave us the chance to see some beautiful open views, which the detainees never saw.
Here is my sister standing on part of the path to the Immigration Station, looking at the Tiburon side of the bay. Angel Island is only a 20 minute ferry ride from Tiburon, and only a 40 minute ride from the SF Piers. The mainland looks so close from the Island. I can't imagine being stuck on the island for 9 months (let alone as a 9 year old) not knowing whether I'd get to ever land on the mainland, or whether I'd be put back on a ship for the arduous three-week trip back to China.
Here is the view of the Immigration Station from the top of the path down to the Immigration Station. The pier, if it still existed, would have extended from the beach out into the middle of this picture.
This sign is on the fence surrounding the Immigration Station. It is explains that even though Angel Island is sometimes called "Ellis Island of the West," it actually was not like Ellis Island for the detainees who were basically imprisoned there without any rights.
Here is the view of the back of the barracks.
These are the signs at the entrance to the Immigration Station.
As you walk into the Immigration Station, you can see where the pier would have been. The sandy area at the base of the picture is the footprint of the old Administration Building, which burned down.
This bell once stood at the end of the pier. It now stands on the land where the old pier hit the beach in front of the Immigration Station. Ironically, it is a fashioned to look like the Liberty Bell.
Below is the view that detainees saw when they first landed on Angel Island. You can see the Administration Building at the end of the pier, and the barracks above it.
Our tour began at the footprint of the old Administration Building, looking out where the pier used to extend. The guide, Casey, who was excellent, told us some background information about the Exclusion Act and the Immigration Station.
Then we walked, as my grandfather walked, away from the pier and up the enclosed steps into the barracks, where the medical examiners would have waited. After entering the steps, the Asiatic detainees rarely ever got the opportunity to be outside of an enclosed space until they were either transported to the mainland, or put on a ship back to China.
The steps led into this building, the barracks (photo taken from the monument, at the base of the hospital).
This was the extent of the outside that most detainees saw on a daily basis.
Some of the detainees carved drawings of ships into the walls. These drawings were almost always next to windows, making it likely that the detainee was looking out the window and could see the ship as s/he carved.
Lots of poems were also carved into the walls. These poems describe the despair, frustration, and confusion felt by detainees.
The different colors of paint show the different layers of poems. Historians have taken down the poems layer by layer to uncover what is underneath, but they have to be careful. You can see that some of them are green; there are many references in the poems to jade-colored walls.
Some of these poems have been preserved very well. This particular poem reads:
Detained in this wooden house for several tens of days,
It is all because of the Mexican exclusion law which implicates me,
It's a pity heroes have no way of exercising their prowess.
I can only await the word so that I can snap Zu's whip.
From now on, I am departing far from this building.
All of my fellow villagers are rejoicing with me.
Don't say that everything within is Western styled.
Even if it is built of jade, it has turned into a cage.
(They don't know why it says Mexican exclusion law instead of Chinese exclusion law.)
The non-Asiatic outdoor area...
...and bathroom.
The outside of the Asiatic barracks, from the back side.
What the bunks would have looked like at the time.
This is the room where my grandfather slept. The metal poles held narrow metal bunks, three or four stacked on top of each other, where the detainees slept and kept their all of their possessions.
Here is a comparison between what the Asiatic detainees ate, and what the non-Asiatic detainees ate. It's hard to read, but you get the picture.
After the tour we went up the hill to see the monument. It says:
Leaving their homes and villages, they crossed the ocean
Only to endure confinement in these barracks
Conquering frontiers and barriers, they pioneered
A new life by the Golden Gate.
Leaving the island.
Here are a few examples of the poems carved into the walls.
I am distressed that we Chinese are
in this wooden building
It is actually racial barriers which cause
difficulties on Yingtai Island.
Even while they are tyrannical they still
claim to be humanitarian.
I should regret my taking the risks of
coming in the first place.
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Instead of remaining a citizen of China, I willingly became an ox.
I intended to come to America to earn a living.
The western styled building are lofty; but I have not the luck to live in them.
How was anyone to know that my dwelling place would be a prison.
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The Chinese Exclusion Act is just one of many American laws that legalized racial discrimination. At the end, the tour guide invited us to think about how the United States treated its Chinese immigrants, and how we should treat immigrants in the future.
Many of the people currently living in the United States who do not consider themselves immigrants should remember that somewhere in their family tree, there was at least one person who came to this county seeking opportunity and happiness, and who probably broke at least one law by immigrating. My grandfather was unlucky enough to do that at a time when our country sought to exclude his countrymen based solely on race. I am encouraged by the fact that our state and federal governments put funding and resources towards restoring Angel Island, because it gives me hope that we will learn from the past.
For more information, see:
http://alpha-asian.blogspot.com/2009/03/trip-into-angel-islands-past.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/gallery.htm
http://www.angelisland.org/immigr02.html
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| Today's pearl of wisdom comes from Helen, of http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com.
When it comes to war the real bad guys are usually hundreds of miles away surrounded by men with money to gain and power to loose. It’s a shame that the guns are almost never aimed at the bad guys. But I understand why the army has to convince my nephew and other soldiers to see it that way. I imagine it would be hard to pull the trigger if you realize the guy you’re aiming at is probably just like you. Yep. You don’t win many wars that way. Instead you have to turn “us” into “them” and “we” into “they”. It’s hard to hate people. It’s much easier to just hate a country or a regime. It’s hard to kill someone’s son or father or brother, but pulling a trigger when you are aiming at a terrorists… well that’s another story entirely. You know, I can’t help but wonder what color the ribbons are in Iraq. I mean you realize that mothers in Iraq support the troops too, don’t you?
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/getting-the-bad-guys/
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| BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILERS AHEAD!
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILERS AHEAD!
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILERS AHEAD!
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILERS AHEAD!
Highlight to read (not because I think that people actually read this...but because I know that the few ppl who do would be very upset to read spoilers accidentally!)
I am very disappointed in the identity of the 5th Cylon. I totally think it should have been Dee (for reasons that I extensively explained to Ollie numerous times).
SIGH.
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| So every week NBC posts a new graphic novel for Heroes that supplements the episodes that are shown on television. Ollie has written a few of these and recently decided to put "me" (or, a character that looks like me, because the last time I checked I could not actually generate forcefields) in one of the comics. The artist, the amazing Jason Badower, convinced Ollie that he should also be in the story. And so we are!! (Ollie's name is Lee because he couldn't very well name him Ollie, since his name is also down as the author and that would be a bit obvious.)
First there was Part 1 of the story, which appeared online last week.
http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/novels_display.shtml?novel=108
Then there was Part 2, which appeared online this morning.
http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/novels_display.shtml?novel=109
And as of today, "my" character has her very own Heroes Wiki page.
http://heroeswiki.com/Abigail
And at the bottom of the wiki page it says:
- Abigail's name and likeness were borrowed from Oliver Grigsby's real-life fiance.
Heroes/Abigail is even mentioned here too: http://heroeswiki.com/Forcefield_projection!!! Gah!!
I dunno, for some reason, being called his real-life fiance sent me into fits of happy giggles.  This is by far the coolest thing that has ever happened to me!!!
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| I am voting no on Prop 8.
I think it is ridiculous that Californians can, by a popular vote, actually amend our Constitution. Some things- like fundamental rights- are beyond the tyranny of the majority. If Americans could vote to amend the federal Constitution, things like flag burning would be illegal. Suspects would not be Mirandized before being arrested.
Proposition 8- like so many other examples in our nation's history of prejudice and fear- reminds me of one of my favorite United States Supreme Court cases,
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). A mere three
years prior to the Barnette decision, the Supreme Court handed down a
decision in the Gobitas case permitting compulsory flag salutes, even for Jehovah's Witnesses, who equated the flag salute with worshiping a graven image. By 1943, Hitler's concentration camps
were discovered, and the world saw the devastating effects of
compulsory government-mandated "beliefs." A different group of
Jehovah's Witnesses brought another test case, and after much
deliberation, the Supreme Court reversed its decision in Gobitas and
issued a beautifully written decision in Barnette, written by Justice
Jackson. He wrote:
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to
withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political
controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and
officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by
the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech,
a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental
rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no
elections.....freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not
matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its
substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of
the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional
constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe
what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other
matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their
faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an
exception, they do not now occur to us.
I think about this every time that people tries to legislate morality
because they are afraid of people who are not exactly like them. This homophobia is FEAR. It is ignorance, it is insecurity, it is selfishness, it is greed, it is HATE.
I just got an email from my parents that shed a whole new light on this particular Proposition. My mother is white and my father is Chinese. People questioned their choice to marry and asked them if they were afraid of the difficulties their children would have, being mixed. They got married in 1974. This would not have been possible- my life, as the second child of a married couple, would not have been possible- a mere 26 years earlier when the law prohibited interracial marriages. If they had met 26 years earlier, would they have elected to stay together and have children? Or would they have balked in the face of social hatred? If they did have children, would I have been the victim of racism and ridicule, as a mixed and therefore automatically illegitimate child? Would my growth into a self-aware, self-identifying young woman be stunted- or even blocked- by the racism of my neighbors?
I agree with those who draw parallels between Proposition 8 and our nation's history of banning interracial marriages. A gay man can no less choose to be straight than an Asian man can
choose to be white. Like racism, homophobia is hating someone for who they
are- not who they choose to be- but who they ARE. How can progressive, blue-state California even be CONTEMPLATING this official constitutionalizing of hate? It makes me sick. A vote on Proposition 8, in this day and age, is the equivalent of turning time back 55 years and preventing my own parents from reaching the alter. Please, vote no on Proposition 8.
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