陶晴：My Journey to Claim American Citizenship

编者按：辛辛那提市民陶晴（Felicity Tao）女士服务的辛城中华文化交流协会（GCCCEA）和其他社区及主流社会机构最近两个月一直致力于把两套铁路华工图片展览带到辛辛那提。功夫不负有心人，美国铁路华工图片展将于2019年8月1日至31日在辛辛那提市中心图书馆正式展出，展览对公众免费开放，是一个具有极强的历史和教育意义的展览。这是她为图书馆网站写的博客，阐述了她为什么要把这个展览搬到辛辛那提，以及这个展览为什么对公众如此重要（英文）。

My Journey to Claim American Citizenship

By Felicity Tao

Bringing the Chinese Railroad Workers Photography Exhibits to Cincinnati is part of my journey to claim American citizenship. 

An immigrant from China, I became an American citizen three years ago. Growing up, I never thought of immigrating to another country. I completed my college education in China and decided to pursue graduate studies in the U. S. because American universities were known for their academic excellence and the country was perceived as a beacon for freedom and democracy. The Chinese of my generation admired the U.S. as a country exemplary of diversity, tolerance, justice, and prosperity.  It’s known to attract talents from all over the world, and I was eager to embrace that experience.

My husband came to study Asian American history at University of Cincinnati at the same time. Through his study, I was exposed to a fuller picture of Chinese American history, a history full of challenges, injustice, and triumphs. However, I read it as someone else’s history back then until my personal journey connected me directly to our predecessors’ painful struggle to claim American citizenship. 

(Ms. Tao was presented the Wendell P. Dabney Award for Diversity by Mayor of Cincinnati in February 2019)

For generations, there has been this deep sorrow in the Chinese American community that no matter how hard we try, we are viewed as permanent aliens because of our appearance and cultural heritage. That sorrow couldn’t be felt more poignantly than the experience of the Chinese railroad workers who helped build the iconic, life-altering Transcontinental Railroad.

The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 marked a profound transformation, shortening a dangerous journey of months to a week and changing the economic, cultural, and geographical landscape of the country.

Between 1865 and 1869, more than 12,000 Chinese workers, who made up 90 percent of the Central Pacific line workforce, toiled at a grueling pace in precarious working conditions to construct America’s first Transcontinental Railroad.  They were hired because of a labor shortage, and they were constantly brought in as a strike breaker. When they stroke because of poor working conditions and lower wages, their employer cut off their food and supplies until they went back to work. Hundreds died. 

However, most of these Chinese workers were all but invisible at the completion ceremony, and in its retelling for many years afterward. They were not recognized, but openly discriminated against, vilified, and forgotten. The 1875 Page Act banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States. Building upon that, the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. It’s the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating, and it wasn’t completely ended until 1965.

It’s no longer someone else’s history I can ignore. I still believe that the United States is a great country I decided to immigrate to, but I also couldn’t deny its struggles. I was told not to speak Chinese on a bus when I was an international student 20 years ago. I was told to go back to China around my apartment building near UC’s campus. Last year, my husband and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in San Francisco, the first city we set our feet on in this country. We were walking on the street, looking for our hotel around Union Square when someone kicked my suitcase and hurled, “Bitch, hurry up! Bitch, go back to your country!” 

Yes, many progresses have been made since the Chinese railroad workers’ time. No, some things haven’t changed. I am in a sense a direct descendant from the railroad workers. 

I met Monica Arima, the primary sponsor of the exhibits, at a support rally for Sherry Chen a couple of years ago. Sherry is an award-winning scientist at the National Weather Service whose work saved lives and properties. She was falsely accused of being a spy by her boss largely because of her Chinese origin. She fought hard to clear her name and won the case against the Department of Commerce, but had her career and life destroyed in this process. Monica has a personal drive to tell minority histories to the general public because she believes we are equal Americans and our history should be remembered and told like anyone else’s in this country.

The descendants of the Chinese railroad workers worked tirelessly to correct the record of this part of American history. On May 10th, 1869, the leaders of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads came together to celebrate the joining of the tracks, and Leland Stanford, the business tycoon and political leader who founded Stanford University, drove a ceremonial golden spike into a tie to unite them. This spring at the Golden Spike Festival marking the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Rail completion, the Chinese railroad workers’ descendants attended the re-enactment of this iconic moment in American history. Most importantly, they took the positions where their ancestors should have stood and recreated that famous photograph taken at the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the one with no Chinese face. 

My son, Teddy, who rides with me every morning this summer to work as an intern downtown, was in the car with earbuds on when I heard the Golden Spike Festival story on NPR. I burst into silent tears when I heard one of the Chinese railroad workers’ descendants, Raymond Chong say: “Chinese were the perpetual foreigner, and we still are the perpetual foreigner.” I didn’t want Teddy to hear this. If he heard this, I would tell him this was not true. America is his home, his homeland. He can grow roots here and have equal opportunities to thrive. Every nation and every people have their struggles, and this is one of ours. We don’t have an option but to work hard to make it a little easier for future generations. 

I hope the Chinese Railroad Workers Exhibits helps give a voice to the Chinese migrants whose labor on the Transcontinental Railroad made a big difference in this country and to the Chinese community that continues to contribute and struggles to be equal citizens. I will encourage everyone in this region to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about our collective history and experience.

【编者按】本文仅代表作者观点，不代表APAPA Ohio及OCAA官方立场。所有图片均由作者提供或来自网络。如存在版权问题，请与我们联系。更多精彩文章，请查看我们公众号的主页。欢迎大家积极投稿！

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