The Transnational History of a Chinese Family

Life as an Immigrant Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the early 20th century, many Chinese families struggled to gain social, economic, and educational stature in both China and the United States. In the book, A Transnational History of a Chinese Family, by Haiming Liu, we learn about the Chang family rooted in Kaiping County, China, who unlike many typical Chinese families’ exemplified hard-work and strong cultural values allowing them to pursue an exceptional Chinese-American lifestyle. Even with immigration laws preventing Chinese laborers and citizens to enter unless maintaining merchant status, Yitang and Sam Chang managed to sponsor approximately 40 relatives to the states with their businesses in herbalist medicine and asparagus farming. Though the Chang’s encountered many of the hardships typical of Chinese families for the time, they relied on their outstanding work ethic so that their families would always be supported, receive the best possible education, and preserve family and kinship relationships to get them through the tough times and long periods of separation. America in the early 19th century was a place full of racial discrimination, and citizens were very unwelcoming to immigrants of other races. During this time period, they did not find the presence of these immigrants useful, and went as far as passing federal restrictions on immigration. For one race in particular, the Chinese, there were very high restrictions in place. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which we discussed in lecture, banned almost all Chinese laborers and their families from entering the U.S for 10 years. Some changes were made, and the Act was passed again as in 1892 as the Geary Act, but it was not completely repealed until 1942. Luckily, being an herbalist, Yitang Chang was classified as a merchant, and this allowed them to immigrate into America since they were not laborers. This classification was a sign of an educated Chinese man, a quality