AAS 160 (LEC)

Whose livelihood most threatened by the increase # of chinese immigrant workers?

Professor Cindy L. Cheng

Class notes  

Week 4-September 25, 2018 

 A distinction starts immigrant rightscitizen rights

Racialization of Chinese workers as “cheap labor” or  “coolie” labor:  

 Interaction between capitalist demands & U.S. national belonging o Foreigners: non-white immigrants

o Migratory labor force of male-identified workers and female identified sex workers

o Social stigma of “women’s work” & “prostitution” to devalue  labor of Chinese male-identified and female-identified  

o Slave labor (vs free labor) the Chinese are categorize as slave  labor

When did hawaiian sugar planters’ ass. founded?

 Not trying to abolish slavery, it served to cripple and  

disadvantage competitors

o Does work that no Americans do

 How is this interaction shaped by ideas about race, gender, sexuality,  and nationality  

 Gender Division Racial division (women work inside/male  outsideRace by cheap labor)

 People called themselves coolie laborers because it was hard and  agonizing work

 Capitalist=profit, industry, growth  

 After railroads are put out, exclusion starts to begin (all really  demanded by capitalists)  

Whose livelihood most threatened by the increase # of  Chinese Immigrant Workers?  

When did the western conception of hawaii begin?

 Other poor workers Don't forget about the age old question of Glycolysis occurs in the cytosol and has ten steps split into what phases?

Asian Immigration to Hawaii-Sugar Plantations:  Largest racial ethnic group = California & Hawaii

Hawaii-Historical Background: 

 Islands firs settled by Polynesians or native Hawaiians

 Western Conception of Hawaii began Jan. 18, 1778

o When the west finally understands

o British Captain James Cook arrived on shores

o Sought to expand British empire

o Renamed Islands Sandwich Islands

 1810 King Kamehameha I united islands; Kingdom of Hawaii under  “guidance” of Great Britain

U.S. Encroachment on Hawaiian Islands: 

Missionary Activities Don't forget about the age old question of Why do we eat?

 1820 First Major Group of missionaries arrived: New England  Congregationalist Missionary Group. (Start to have interest in  Hawaii)

Land Acquisition:  

 March 18, 1848 King Kamehameha III passed the Great Mahele,  radically transformed land ownership and distribution (Very  important!!)

 Replaced land tenure system, where King owned land, to private  ownership of land

 Land divided among King, Chiefs, and Commoners

 Land can be purchases

o Shift landownership to westerners

Trading Rights:  Don't forget about the age old question of What is a market price?

 1875 Reciprocity Treaty

o Allowed duty free importation of Hawaiian grown sugar to the  U.S. (no tax)

o U.S. gained Pu’u loa or Pearl Harbor (gained a large commodity)  Hawaii begins to grow and farm for money, not just for food now (cash  crops/mass produce)

 Increase U.S. Investment in sugar plantations

 Change demographic landscape of Hawaii

o Radically change and major population (Asian)

Settler Colonialism: 

 Type of colonial takeover

 Control of territory obtained through “immigration” governed by  colonializing country  

o Became a state because of the increase of importation of Asian  Immigrations/Settler Colonization

o Present Today: Tibet

o Strategy: “depopulate” and “de-authorize” previous inhabitants  and/or natives  

o Asian Settler Colonialism

Week 4-September 27, 2018  

 Next growth  Philippines

U.S. Acquisition of Hawaii: Don't forget about the age old question of Define accounting.

 1898 U.S. annexation of Hawaii

 1900 became territory of the U.S.

 1959 became the 50th state of the U.S.

Constitutional Rights: 

 1887 Bayonet Constitution

o Limited power of monarchy

o Removed voting rights of Asians (Never really had)

o Established income and property requirements to voting o Over 75% Native population did not qualify to vote

o Well-to-do Europeans, Americans, & Hawaiians held greater  control over policy making in Hawaii

 While landowners make decisions because they are the only ones left Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Ass.  

 Founded in 1895, HSPA was unincorporated, voluntary organization of  Sugar Plantation owners

 Labor HistoryOrganized Labor unions/owners

 Why form this?

o Set wages/policies/regulations

o Keep the duty free (tax free)

 Promote mutual benefits of members and development of sugar  industry

 Control of workers

 Recruitment of workers

 Heavily push for importation of immigrants

 Set up offices in Philippines (Manila, Vigan, Locos Sur) to recruit and  provide free passage to Hawaii

Japanese Immigration to Hawaii: 

 1868 and 1869 First documented case of Japanese Immigration to  “Americas" Don't forget about the age old question of It is a loss of ability to recognize faces resulting from brain damage. what is it?

 American, Dutch, and German Seaman smuggled several hundreds  out of Japan to work in Hawaii, Guam, and CA.  

 Japan heavily regulated the Japanese to restrict them from going  149 Japanese went to Hawaii

 Treated so badly, 1869 Japanese Gov. brought 40 homeforbade  immigration

 ***1885 sanctioned first shipload of Japanese contract laborers to  Hawaii (Why is this important to the U.S.?  Still demand for cheap  labor even though the Chinese exclusion act was in place)   Manage through American consul General of Hawaii

 Over 29,000 Japanese men and women came to work on sugar  plantations on 3-year contract; worked 10-12 hours/day for 26  days/month  

Asian Setter Colonialism in Hawaii:  

 1894 Immigration turned over to private companies  

 1850-1920 ~300,000 Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos,  Immigration to Hawaii  

 Saw more families than CA

o Travel was far, contracts, nature of work

 Depletion Native Populations

o Japanese became a large %  

 1853 went from 0% to 1920 42%

o Why the sudden drastic change?  Diseases, shared poverty  #’s don’t determine the majority/minority, the determinant and access  to power.

Seasons of Rebellion: 

Organized Labor 

 Blood Unionismbased on nationality/race

 Interethnic coalitions and unionsforms base on different ethnic  groups Don't forget about the age old question of Who proposed the idea of an autocerebroscope through which people could examine the activities of their brains?

Divide and Rule 

 Employment of as many nationality as possible on each  plantation to offset power of any one nationality

Social Justice Framework

 What does Equality mean?

 Do we want equality?

Chinese Exclusion: 

Economic Context for Exclusion 

Crisis of 1870 

 1874 stock market crash in San Francisco; inflated  

speculation way above market value of stocks

 Bank of CA closed Aug. 1875; terrible “70’s” began

 1876 drought hit farmers hard; more headed into SF

 Labor Market tightened in 1869, completion of  

transcontinental railroad

 By the decades and over 30% unemployed CA

 Wages for most trades out, up to 50%

 Immigration 19th Century

o 1815-1915 Over 30 million Europeans to U.S.

o 1849-1882 about 300,000 Chinese to U.S.

o 1870 Chinese 8.6% of CA population; 42% European  

Immigrants