(NAME-MCE) California Apologizes to Chinese Americans

[Anselmo Villanueva]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1911981,00.html

California Apologizes to Chinese Americans

By Ling Woo Liu Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009
 California Apologizes to Chinese Americans By Ling Woo Liu Wednesday, Jul.
22, 2009
  [image: An engraving of Chinese gold-mining in California]
An engraving of Chinese gold-mining in California
Bettmann / Corbis

What's in an apology? Some expressions of remorse are commonplace — we hear
them on the playground when kids smack each other on the head, or they land
in your inbox after a friend forgets your birthday. It's the grand-scale
apologies, it seems, that are harder to come by.

On July 17, the California legislature quietly approved a landmark bill to
apologize to the state's Chinese-American community for racist laws enacted
as far back as the mid–19th century Gold Rush, which attracted about 25,000
Chinese from 1849 to 1852. The laws, some of which were not repealed until
the 1940s, barred Chinese from owning land or property, marrying whites,
working in the public sector and testifying against whites in court. The new
bill also recognizes the contributions Chinese immigrants have made to the
state, particularly their work on the Transcontinental Railroad. (Check out
a story about the Asian-American experience in late–20th century
California.)

The apology is the latest in a wave of official acts of remorse around the
globe. In 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a similar
apology, expressing regret to Chinese Canadians for unequal taxes imposed on
them in the late 19th century. Last February, Australian Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd apologized to his country's Aborigines for racist laws of the
past, including the forced separation of children from their parents. Five
months later, the U.S. Congress formally apologized to black Americans for
slavery and the later Jim Crow laws, which were not repealed until the
1960s. And most notably, in 1988 the U.S. government decided to pay $20,000
to each of the surviving 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned in camps
during World War II. Says Donald Tamaki, a San Francisco–based attorney who
helped overturn wrongful WWII-era convictions of Japanese Americans: "Part
of what a humane society does is recognize past injustices and address
them."

The California resolution moved quickly through the state legislature since
it was first introduced in February. "It's symbolic to recognize that the
state made mistakes," says assembly member Paul Fong, who co-sponsored the
legislation with assembly member Kevin de Leon. "These laws reverberate to
this date because racism still exists." (Read about a new Asian-American
stereotype in TIME'S 1987 cover story.)

Most of the direct victims of the laws in question have already passed away.
Fong's grandfather was held for two months at Angel Island, an immigration
station near San Francisco that targeted and detained several hundred
thousand Chinese immigrants from 1910 to 1940. Dale Ching, 88, arrived at
Angel Island from China's Guangdong province in 1937 at age 16. Though his
father was an American citizen, immigration authorities detained Ching for
3½ months. "My intent was to try to have a better life, better than in
China," says Ching. "But at that time, they didn't want you to get ahead."

How times have changed. In the throes of huge budget cuts, California is
wooing cash-flush mainland Chinese tourists to its sun-kissed coastline and
world-famous theme parks. So far this year, the state's Travel and Tourism
Commission has opened offices in three Chinese cities. In 2005, Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger toured China on a six-day trade mission to peddle his
state's produce, technology and raw materials. China is now California's
fourth largest export market, after Mexico, Canada and Japan. In 2008
California exported $10.9 billion worth of goods to China, up 40% since
2005.

With the California bill in the bag, Fong now plans to take the issue to
Congress, where he will request an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act,
the only federal law ever enacted to deny immigration based exclusively on
race or nationality. Passed in 1882, the law was not fully repealed until
1943, after China and the U.S. became allies in WWII. Given President
Obama's decision to appoint Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary and Steven Chu
as Energy Secretary, Fong says he's confident of the bill's passage. "As a
person of color, President Obama would understand these issues," he says.

Fong does not plan to press for financial compensation for the surviving
victims of the state and federal laws in question, despite the
Japanese-American precedent. More important than individual compensation, he
says, is to help educate younger generations about the mistakes of the past.
That said, Fong may ask for funding to help preserve the Angel Island
immigration station, dilapidated after decades of neglect. To complicate
matters, the station is located within a state park that, along with several
others, may be shut down to help balance California's budget shortfall.

Not long after his father helped negotiate his release, Dale Ching joined
the U.S. Army and fought Japanese forces during WWII. He went on to become
an electronics technician, but after retiring, he began volunteering as a
docent at Angel Island in hopes of drawing more attention to that moment in
history. "We've been fighting, but nobody would listen," he says. "Finally
someone has said sorry."