“Chinese applicants...were subjected to longer examinations, interrogations, and detentions
than any other immigrant group.”
- Lai, Lim, Yung, authors of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island 1910-1940
“An applicant was considered guilty until he proves himself entitled to land. The high standards of proof required of Chinese in admission cases and the ways in which applicant and witness testimonies were read against one another were sufficient to exclude every man, woman, and child from landing.” |
“In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed local public records...many Chinese claimed that they were born in San Francisco. With this citizenship the father then claimed citizenship for his offspring born in China. Sometimes, the father would report the birth of a son...and would then be available for sale to boys who had no family relationships in the United States in order to enable them to enter this country.
Sons who entered the country in this fashion were known as 'paper sons.'
The fact that such deception was practiced was entirely due to the exclusion law.
All the 'paper sons' wanted was to emigrate to America in search of a better life.”
- Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
“Applicants were sometimes asked to identify family pictures and draw maps of their ancestral villages and the surrounding countryside. Any discrepancies in the answer of the applicant and the witness could mean exclusion and deportation.”
- Lai, Lim, and Yung, authors of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island 1910-1940
Q: Which direction does the front of your house face?
A: Face west. Q: Your alleged father has indicated that his house in Hong Chong Village faces east. How do you explain that? A: I know the sun rises in the front of our house and sets in the back of our house. My mother told me that our house and also the How Chong Village faces west. Q: Cannot you figure this matter out for yourself? A: I really don't know directions... Q: How many rooms in all are there on the ground floor of your house? A: Three; (changes) I mean there is a parlor, two bedrooms and a kitchen. There are five rooms in all downstairs. The two bedrooms are together side by side, and are between the parlor and kitchen. Q: Do you wish us to understand you would forget how many bedrooms are in a house where you claim to have lived seventeen years? A: Yes, I forgot about it. Q: Did you visit the Sar Kai Market with your father when he was last in China? A: No. Q: Why not, if you really are his son? Interview Transcript from At America's Gates by Erika Lee
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“Is this a jail? And must all Chinese imprisoned here be treated as felons?
This is not the least unlike a cattle pen!”
-Chinese Six Companies and Chinese Chamber of Commerce
“Though the immigrants could see San Francisco through the barred windows,
they were not allowed to see or talk to relatives and friends who lived there.
In fact, they were treated just like prisoners .”
-Ruthanne Lum McCunn, author of An Illustrated History of Chinese in America
“The lavatories were ‘exceedingly unsanitary,’ and the hospital was horribly inadequate.
The dormitories were so crowded and dismal...in the ‘island cage.’”
- Report from Chinese Six Companies and Chinese Chamber of Commerce
“The bathrooms had no privacy. The toilets were all in one row with no dividers. Some women protected
each other’s privacy by covering their faces with paper bags before going up the stairs to the bathroom.”
-Ruthanne Lum McCunn, author of An Illustrated History of Chinese in America
“Many other discouraged applicants vented their frustrations and lodged their complaints
by writing poems on the walls as they waited for the results of their appeals.”
- Lai, Lim, and Yung, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island 1910-1940
“Some immigrants became so unhappy that they killed themselves.
Many expressed their misery by carving poems on the wooden walls of the barracks with
forks and spoons smuggled out of the dining hall.”
-Ruthanne Lum McCunn, author of An Illustrated History of Chinese in America