The Rice Room - A Conflict of Generations

The relationship between the Statesns and Chinese immigrants in atomic number 20 is complex, to enunciate the least. Chinese immigrants helped build such(prenominal) of the infrastructure and introduced intensive terra firma to the Bay Area in the 1800s, but, despite these contributions, continued to be viewed as unwanted laborers by the Americans. By the 1870s unemployment rates were move in America, and the Chinese immigrants chop-chop became the scapegoat for American duress. thither was a rise in Anti-Chinese (anti-coolie) movements that swept across California (24). These movements lead to the closure of legion(predicate) Chinese settlements and prompted Congress to diminish the 1882 Chinese Exclusion interpret and the 1924 Immigration Act. These Congressional decisions except perpetuated the history of racism and hunch felt between the Americans and Chinese in California, which would continue come up into the 20th century. In his saucy The Rice Room, Ben Fong-Torre s traces his complex cross- pagan heritage as a second generation Chinese American during the mid 1900s; separate between the alluring American lifestyle and the traditional cultural heritage his immigrant parents struggled to instill in him.\nLike close immigrants, Bens parents came to America in search of the American Dream. Referred to California as the fortunate Mountains , the United States offered an opportunity to grade more money and fork out for family back in China. Ben notes that his military chaplain was encouraged by his family to try on a greater stack and then return to commence them  (11). His bring did as he was told, and came to America via the Philippines. Like most Chinese immigrants in the 1920s, Bens father entered the country illegally. Because there were austere limits on the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into America, Bens father added Torres to his name to exchange immigration officials that he was of Philippine descent. Bens mother also entered the country illegally, and both lived in attention of being disc...