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BECOMING AMERICAN: THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: GOLD MOUNTAIN DREAMS {EPISODE 1} (TV)

Summary

Part one of three. This documentary series, hosted by Bill Moyers, explores the saga of Chinese immigration to America. Moyers opens the program by detailing how he became interested in the Chinese-American experience. The program begins with a group of Chinese-American students traveling to China to explore their roots in the province of Guangdong. Then, Moyers discusses the mid-nineteenth century phenomenon of traveling P.T. Barnum circuses and how a "living Chinese family" was part of the sideshow as much as the tattooed man or Tom Thumb. Then, Moyers details how Chinese immigration to American began to "trickle" in during the 1830s and 1840s. The words of Yung Wing detail his experience in coming to a Connecticut church to be groomed as a missionary. Historian K. Scott Wong details Wing's celebrated experience in Connecticut as he would go on to attend Yale. Meanwhile, in the present, the Chinese-American students learn just how far back their family bonds go in Guangdong. Then, writer Maxine Hong Kingston and historian Wang Gungwu detail the "Chinese myth" of finding out about the gold rush in America and how this led to a massive Chinese influx in California.

Then, the program details the arduous journey Chinese men took in getting to the American West, and in the words of J.D. Borthwick, the even rougher life these men endured once reaching the mountains. Next, Moyers details the "second wave" of Chinese that came to California, setting up special groups that helped organize early immigrant life. Just four years after the discovery of California gold, a Chinese opera group was touring the area, as the words of Borthwick explains. Then, Moyers discusses how, in the 1850s, California passed its first anti-Chinese laws as the Chinese immigrants had quickly gone from a welcomed presence to an abhorred one. Historian Liping Zhu details how anti-Chinese violence increased after it became apparent that the Chinese would never win court cases against white people. Then, the program details the hardships that "John Chinaman" faced in working the gold mines alongside white workers. This led to Chinese exploring other work options, from gardening and fishing to laundry work and opening restaurants. Also, with the paucity of women, the Chinese were able to take domestic jobs that white men refused. The words of Huie Kin, one such domestic servant, detail his life working for white people. Then, Moyers discusses the Chinese that immigrated to the relatively unknown Idaho and the mostly forgotten history of these people, including many female prostitutes held against their will.

Next, the program details how the Chinese in Idaho were often forced to deal with bullying white men via "frontier justice, Chinese style" and the raft of racial animosity cases in the area. Next, the program looks at the "foolhardy" gamble that was attempted in trying to build the transcontinental railroad. Family historian Connie Young Yu discusses her great-grandfather joining a railroad building crew in 1865. Moyers details how 11,000 Chinese laborers worked on the railroad, cutting through the Sierra mountains, and leading to the unceremonious death of many. Eventually, Chinese railroad workers would be promoted to jobs such as mason, tracklayer, and foreman. Then, the program details the "Strike of the Chinamen," wherein Chinese railroad workers struck in an effort to attain wages equal to the white man. After being forced back to work with threats of starvation and violence, the Chinese workers helped tunnel completely through the Sierras before the last railroad spike was laid at Promontory, Utah. Next, Moyers details how the American Chinese lived in a state of "limbo," even after having lived in the country for twenty years and building communities. Then, the program revisits the story of Wing, detailing his life after graduating from Yale, when his "unswerving loyalty" to American values led to him trying to enlist for the Civil War, marrying an American woman, adopting American fashions, and starting a program of U.S.-Chinese exchanges in which Chinese students under his tutelage learned Western ways.

Next, the program examines how a Massachusetts shoemaker with a need for strikebreakers led to countless Chinese immigrants arriving on the East Coast. L. Ling-chi Wang from U.C. Berkeley details how Chinese laborers helped mobilize the white working class as the "yellow threat" was used to bully unions. Next, Heather Cox Richardson discusses how labor leaders -- such as Dennis Kearney -- began to demonize the Chinese, as well as the rich capitalists hiring them instead of white men. Moyers details how, in a mining town in 1877, white men stormed a Chinese workers' cabin and set them on fire, leading to riots in San Francisco in which white people proclaimed that "the Chinese must go." Next, the program looks at the presidential election of 1880, in which anti-Chinese sentiment was used as a tool to garner support from the working class, most notably by Republican candidate James Gillespie Blaine. By 1881, countless anti-Chinese bills were being bandied about in Congress. Then, the program details -- via the words of Wing -- how "Kearney-ism" prevented Wing's students from getting into Annapolis and West Point. Eventually, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was signed into law, banning Chinese from entering America along with prostitutes, lepers, and morons. This program is closed-captioned. Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: March 25, 2003 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:27:59
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:81952
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: China - Foreign relations - US; Emigration and immigration; Asian American Pacific Islanders Collection
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 2003
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Felice Firestone … Executive Producer
  • Judy Doctoroff O'Neill … Executive Producer
  • Joseph Angier … Producer, Writer
  • Todd Leong … Associate Producer
  • Sharon Owyang … Associate Producer
  • Rob Rapley … Associate Producer
  • Hilary Klotz … Associate Producer
  • Thomas Lennon … Series Producer, Writer
  • Jessica Cohen … Production (Misc.), Film sequences produced by
  • Michael Chin … Direction (Misc.), Film sequences directed by
  • Bill Moyers … Writer
  • Brian Keane … Music by
  • George Gao … Music by
  • Bill Moyers … Host
  • P.T. Barnum
  • James Gillespie Blaine
  • J.D. Borthwick
  • Wang Gungwu
  • Dennis Kearney
  • Huie Kin
  • Maxine Hong Kingston
  • Heather Cox Richardson
  • Tom Thumb
  • L. Ling-chi Wang
  • Yung Wing
  • K. Scott Wong
  • Connie Young Yu
  • Liping Zhu