America Versus China, the Troubling Prequel
A forthcoming book details the horrific experience of Chinese immigrants in the US in the 19th century. Is it an omen for the future?
A food shop in San Francisco’s old Chinatown, probably late 19th century.
Photographer: Apic/Hulton ArchiveI love visiting California. In many ways, it’s like going home. I have siblings in the San Diego area and up north in San Jose. When my family moved to the US from the Philippines in late 1979, we stayed for a while with an aunt in Orange County. I got my first American job there — hefting bales of newspapers onto a truck from the loading dock of a Fullerton daily. It’s not all onward and upward: The property of several friends and relations were reduced to ashes by the devastating wildfires that have yet to be fully extinguished in Los Angeles.
Still, the resilience of the city’s diverse population coming together amid catastrophe is heartening. The metropolis has counted on people from everywhere in the world for its prosperity. Their forebears’ sacrifices also shouldn’t be forgotten, even though the Golden State hasn’t always glittered for everyone. California and the US West Coast have had their fair share of sinister history.