Jennie F. Lew

The following viewpoint is an excerpt from a 1994 television program titled Separate Lives, Broken Dreams: Saga of Chinese Immigration, produced by Jennie F. Lew.

During the mid-1850s, China was experiencing a depression caused by years of drought, then floods, disease, and famine. At the same time, California was in the midst of its gold rush. The lure of riches proved to be irresistible to thousands of Chinese, who left their homes in search of a better life. Although initially welcomed as a dependable and inexpensive workforce, the Chinese were eventually blamed for the lowered wages, unemployment, and poor working conditions of the American depression that followed in the 1870s. Americans unleashed their prejudices against the Chinese, claiming they did not assimilate into American society. Eventually, laws and local ordinances against Chinese workers were...