Solutions to the Chinese immigration Question

The excerpt from Wolter’s Yellow Peril novel (A Short and Truthful History of the Taking of California and Oregon by the Chinese in the Year 1899 by Robert Wolter, A Survivor) and the Nast illustration from Harper’s Weekly (“Every Dog [No Distinction] of Color Has his Day”) suggest different ways to deal with the Chinese Immigration Question. Each of the resources has questions for students to consider.

The Nast illustration can be used to make the students aware that both solutions—exclusion and segregation—were used or proposed for other groups of people in the United States. Attempts to keep others separate from Anglo-Americans resulted in the reservation system for Native Americans, the de facto segregation of African Americans following Reconstruction, and policies aimed at excluding or drastically restricting the immigration of certain groups.

Two pamphlets written to counter the arguments made against Chinese immigration can be found on The Chinese in California website. Each of the title page illustrations below (The Chinese Questions from a Chinese Perspective and The Other Side of the Chinese Question) is a link to the full text of the pamphlet.