My Pioneering Asian Pacific American Heritage Week Keynote Speech From 1979

Nowadays we take it for granted that May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month in the United States.  Netflix and all the television streaming services have their special selection of Asian American programming, and reminders of the celebratory nature of the month are everywhere.  But in the beginning, there was only an Asian Pacific American Heritage WEEK, and since this was a new event that nobody had ever heard of, I was grabbed to give the keynote speech at the very first commemoration of the occasion in Los Angeles Chinatown at the Golden Dragon Restaurant on August 9, 1979.   Recently, I found my hand drafted copy of my speech (this before home computers were invented and years before anybody would hear of the Internet (which used to be capitalized)).  So I thought this would be a good time to add that presentation to today's internet.

 

 

It’s a pleasure being part of this gathering commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.  I thought I would start by giving a little background as to how Asian Pacific American Heritage Week came to be.  

 

In June 1977, a resolution was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Congressmen Mineta and Horton authorizing the president to designate the first 10 days of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.  This particular time period was selected because of two significant historical events.  On May 7, 1843 the first known Japanese immigrant arrived in the United States.  And on May 10, 1869, the Golden Spike was driven in Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the Transpacific Railroad.  Despite the absence of Chinese workers at the Golden Spike ceremony in 1869 or the mention of any of them by the speakers at that ceremony, I’m sure you are all well aware of the contributions of the Chinese workers in building the western part of the railroad.

 

Obtaining Congressional approval for Asian Pacific American Heritage Week was a surprisingly long and arduous task.  Under the rules of the House of Representatives, the resolution had to be co-sponsored by at least 218 representatives.   It took a concerted campaign by numerous Asian Pacific groups, such as the Organization of Chinese Americans, of letter writing, arm twisting and plain old fashioned lobbying to gather the required Congressional support.  After a year long battle, the resolution finally passed the House in June, 1978, by a vote of 360-6.  The resolution was approved by the Senate later in the summer and signed without ceremony by President Carter.   Subsequently, many state and local jurisdictions have proclaimed May 4 to 10 as Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.

 

The concept of an Asian Pacific American Heritage Week is one which was largely overdue, given that Asian Americans have been an important part of the American mosaic for over a century and a quarter.   I think the fact that it has taken so long for something like Asian American Pacific Heritage Week to become a reality really typifies the neglect and the lack of recognition of the Chinese and Asian American experience and heritage.

 

The American public probably knows as little of substance (or less) about Chinese Americans as ;it does about any other identifiable group in our society.  If you ask the man or woman on the street about Chinese Americans the response will be limited to a handful of stereotypes—Chinese laundries, Chinese restaurants, chop suey, fortune cookies, and if they’re really with it, Bruce Lee.  Unfortunately, this void extends equally, if not even more noticeably into the historical perspective.  For most Americans, the sum total of the history of the Chinese in the United States is the building of the railroads.

 

The problem is more than how much history the man on the street is aware of.  If one opens the American history books, one has difficulty finding anything beyond mentioning the railroads.  On the local level, if you open a typical history book about Los Angeles, you will probably find something said about the Chinese Massacre of 1871 and chances are that’s all you’ll find out about the Chinese.

 

The logical conclusion that one derives from reading the history books is that aside from building the railroads and locally being massacred over on north Los Angeles Street in 1871 that the Chinese made no other noteworthy contribution to American society and played no other noteworthy part in American history  But nothing could be further from the truth.  Chinese have made many other significant contributions to American society and are an integral part of American history.    But though the purpose of history is to remember, sometimes history forgets.  Let me give you a few examples of the role of Chinese Americans in American history.

 

Agriculture.  It would be an overstatement that California’s agriculture industry would not have reached the pre-eminence it has without Chinese labor.  But it would be fair to say that without Chinese labor the development of California’s agricultural industry would have been delayed by several decades.   From the 1860’s through the 1890’s, at a time where willing manual labor was hard to find, the Chinese provided the bulk of the labor utilized in the formative years for California agriculture.

 

In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta area, Chinese labor constructed miles of levees, dikes and ditches, turning $3 an acre swamp land into $100 an acre farmland.  In every phase of California farming, the Chinese were there.  In the vineyards, the fruit orchards, harvesting vegetables, and picking cotton, Chinese served when no others would.

 

In the Los Angeles area, Chinese contributions in the field of agriculture are most notable.  In the late 19^th century, the Chinese provided Los Angeles with most of its fresh vegetables—vegetables grown by Chinese in gardens on the then outskirts of the city, delivered door to door by Chinese peddlers.  In 1909, Chinese built the City Market produce terminal.

 

A most interesting incident occurred out in Orange County in 1891.  In a swampy area known as Smeltzer, now part of Huntington Beach, some people thought it would be a good idea to grow celery there.  But try as they might, they couldn’t get the celery to grow.  Before giving up on the idea they decided to give it one last shot with Chinese farmers, who had a reputation as being successful in growing celery.  When the Chinese farmers arrived, some of the neighboring residents took offense to the presence of the Chinese.  The locals made their feelings known by attacking the Chinese and stealing their implements.  Armed guards were called in to protect the Chinese farm workers, and sure enough the Chinese were successful in cultivating the celery.  And in so doing, worthless swampland suddenly became valuable farmland and the locals who attacked the Chinese farmers saw their land increase in value from $15 an acre to $400 an acre almost overnight.

 

I’m sure many of you were aware or at least are not surprised by the Chinese agricultural contribution.  But how many of you are aware of contributions in the major area of civil rights?  Civil rights?  Us?  Chinese”  Yes, the Chinese.  Throughout their presence in the United States, Chinese have been subject to discriminatory treatment.  Contrary to what you may have heard, the Chinese have not taken things lying down.  If you go through the case reporters, you will find literally hundreds of reported court cases involving Chinese challenges to discriminatory legal treatment.

 

One landmark United States Supreme Court case is that of Yick Wo v. Hopkins.  In the early 1880s, San Francisco passed a law requiring all laundries operating in wooden buildings to apply for operating permits.  All Chinese laundries at the time operated in wooden buildings.  Rather suspiciously, all permit requests from Caucasian laundry owners were approved and all Chinese requests were denied.  The Chinese protested this law and fought it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which held that such discrimination on a racial basis was unconstitutional.   This case remains as one of the leading precedents prohibiting governmental racial discrimination.

 

In the area of segregated schools between the period of 1899 and 1938 there was only one case to reach the United States Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of school segregation.  That case in 1927, Gong Lum vs. Rice, involved Chinese children in Mississippi who were denied admittance to the white schools there.

 

More recently in the field of bilingual education, the United States Supreme Court held in 1974 there was a governmental duty to provide compensatory instruction where there are concentrations of non-English speaking pupils.  This in the case of Lau vs. Nichols, a case brought by Chinese children in San Francisco.

 

These are some of the more noteworthy cases—there are many others.

 

The Chinese place in American history is not solely one of positive accomplishment.  The anti-Chinese movement of the late 19^th century was a consuming national issue for decades and deserves recognition in our history books, though it has been largely forgotten.  On the spectacular level, there were massacres as in Los Angeles and Rock Springs, Wyoming.  There were many wholesale expulsions of Chinese, such as in Seattle, Tacoma, Eureka, Compton and Burbank, where the entire Chinese population of a city was chased out of town.    There was the Workingmen’s Party and their anti-Chinese agitation.

 

On the day to day level there was continual harassment and discrimination.  The culmination of the anti-Chinese movement came with the Congressional passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.  The 1882 act, which basically continued in force until 1943, made it illegal for most every resident of China to immigrate to the United States.  The 1888 Scott Act prevented most departed Chinese residents from ever returning to the United States.  And the 1893 Geary Act required resident Chinese laborers to register and be photographed or face a year’s imprisonment followed by deportation.

 

In the past few minutes I’ve given you a brief glimpse of a small segment of our Chinese American heritage.  There are many other major accomplishments as well as curious sidelights.  Just as an example of the latter, did you know that the Chinese are responsible for the “union label” which is used widely to indicate a product was made by members of a particular union?  No, the Chinese did not invent the union label.  Rather it was originally used by union cigar makers in San Francisco to distinguish their Caucasian made cigars from Chinese cigars.

 

But enough of the past.  What of the present and the future?   Years ago, Chinese residents in America always talked of “going back” to China.  They even taught their American born children to think in terms of going back there, though it’s rather hard to go back to someplace you’ve never been in the first place.  Today you don’t hear much about “going back” any more.  We’re here to stay.  And I think the creation of Asian American Pacific Heritage Week is belated recognition of the fact that we are here to stay.

 

Historically, Chinese American involvement in certain aspects of American life, particularly participation in the political process, has been light.  There are any number of reasons for this non-involvement, such as the “going back” mentality, past racial discrimination, inhibitions caused by vulnerability of many members of the community because of immigration law violations and a traditional distrust of government.  In the past decade there has been an encouraging increase in Chinese American participation.  Still Chinese involvement falls short of what it should be.

 

It is important that Chinese Americans participate actively in the political processes.  First of all, public participation is the cornerstone of our American way of life.  But what good is the right of participation if this right is not exercised?  More pragmatically, Chinese need to make their voices heard.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease even though the other wheels need it just as much.  There are many needs in the Chinese community, but unless these needs are brought to the attention of the proper parties and agencies and unless we suggest programs and solutions and are able to apply the political pressure to get implementation, little will be done.

 

Our task is made doubly difficult by certain preconceived notions about the Chinese.  First is the notion that the Chinese take care of their own.  It’s true that we don’t like to air our dirty laundry in public, and a combination of pride, face, fear of government and ignorance has inhibited many from seeking and accepting outside assistance.  However the time for such thinking has passed.

 

Second is the notion that the Chinese have made it and that we have no problems.  Certainly, many Chinese Americans have done well, but one doesn’t have to look very far to find many areas needing attention.  One obvious critical area is housing.   It has been estimated that almost 20 percent of Chinatown’s housing units lack plumbing facilities.  And as far as low income and senior citizen housing is concerned we can close all the lights and the curtains in the room here and still be able to see what’s available.

 

In the area of health care, both in physical and mental health care, delivery falls short of the needs.  For example, for many years Chinese Americans have endured abnormally high rates of tuberculosis and suicide.  The availability of services to our Chinese speaking population is far less than what is required.   In employment, many Chinese find themselves on the fringe of our economic mainstream.  Non English speaking members of the community find their economic alternatives severely limited by language problems.  They can’t get to the jobs they otherwise would qualify for because of the language problem, but they can’t salve their language problem because they’re too busy working.   Catch 22 at its very best.

 

These are just some of the areas of concern.  Some progress is being made through existing programs, but the few hundred thousand dollars allocated to Chinatown’s problems can’t do the job.  More attention is needed and it is our job to see that this occurs.

 

The creation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Week has given us an opportunity to reflect on our heritage and our contributions, and to share these with the greater community  It also raises some questions—what is our place in society, what is our future?  Hopefully the recognition accorded by Asian Pacific American Heritage Week also provides the answers.  We are just as much a part of society as anybody else and we are going forward.  How far we go is up to us.