The Rice Room - A Conflict of Generations

The birth mingled with the Statesns and Chinese immigrants in atomic number 20 is complex, to say the least. Chinese immigrants helped build much of the base of operations and introduced intensive farming to the bay Area in the 1800s, but, notwithstanding these contributions, continued to be viewed as unwanted laborers by the Americans. By the 1870s unemployment rates were rising in America, and the Chinese immigrants quickly became the scapegoat for American duress. There was a rise in Anti-Chinese (anti-coolie) movements that brush across California (24). These movements polesheesh to the closure of many Chinese settlements and prompted Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1924 immigration Act. These Congressional decisions only perpetuated the record of racism and distrust snarl between the Americans and Chinese in California, which would continue well into the twentieth century. In his novel The sift Room, Ben Fong-Torres traces his complex cross- cultural hereditary pattern as a support generation Chinese American during the mid 1900s; torn between the alluring American lifestyle and the traditional cultural hereditary pattern his immigrant parents struggled to instill in him.\n analogous most immigrants, Bens parents came to America in search of the American Dream. Referred to California as the Golden Mountains , the linked States offered an opportunity to make more money and provide for family back in China. Ben notes that his scram was encourage by his family to seek a greater fortune and accordingly return to fetch them  (11). His induce did as he was told, and came to America via the Philippines. Like most Chinese immigrants in the 1920s, Bens father entered the body politic illegally. Because there were strict limits on the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into America, Bens father added Torres to his name to convince immigration officials that he was of Filipino descent. Bens arrive also entered th e country illegally, and twain lived in fear of beingness disc...