Chinese Oppression

Immigration to the United States from China began in the early 19th century. Immigrants came during the California gold rush and were often workers on the transcontinental railroad. Soon after Chinese immigrants settled in the US, oppression began. Chinese immigrants suffered racial discrimination on all levels. It got to be so bad that the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This law prohibited immigration from China. This is the only law that has prevented immigration and naturalization based on race. Chinese immigrants were know as the "yellow peril". During this same time, many states had anti-miscegenation laws, which are laws that prevented Chinese men from marrying White women. However, the oppression decreased during WWII because China became an ally with the US. It wasn't until 1943 that Chinese immigration was allowed by law once again. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed which lifted national origin quotas on immigration causing an increase in immigration from China. Today Chinese-Americans make up the largest group of Asian Americans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans). Oppression towards Chinese Americans may not be as extreme as it once was but there are still traces of oppression today.
According to PEW social trends, Chinese Americans make up 1% of the total American population with over 3.3 million people. 44% of US-born Chinese can speak their native language, 59% of Chinese Americans are married, the median annual household income is $65,050, and 35% of Chinese Americans have a Bachelor's degree (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/asianamericans-graphics/chinese/).
Today it is common for people to not distinguish different Asian ethnicities.
Many combine all Asians into the Asian category rather than distinguishing people as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Filipino etc. This is a mild type of oppression. It is not uncommon for Chinese Americans to be asked where they are from, referring to what country their ancestors came from. Some are called communists and 25% of Americans believe that Chinese Americans would side with China instead of the US in a China-US dispute with 7% unsure of what would happen. There is the belief that "China is going to take over the world"and that Chinese workers are robbing Americans of jobs. There also remains the stereotype that Chinese Americans own stores and restaurants.
Here are some more stereotypes that are given of all Asians, not just Chinese. Pardon some of the content.

 So Chinese people are said to be smart, short, all look the same, be bad drivers, and not be good at sports among many other things. Like these videos say at the end, we have the power to uphold stereotypes, pass them on, or stop them. It appears to me that Chinese Americans have done a very good job at being resilient. This is the only minority group that has been literally excluded out of our country but they came back once that law was appealed and have proved to many that they are not aliens but very hard workers and are some of the most accomplished people in our country today.
However, with this desire to be the best, many Chinese parents have very high expectations for their children. This may not necessarily be a negative consequence but US-born Chinese Americans often struggle to live up to their parents' high expectations. As this meme indicates, eliminating stereotypes is not the number one priority but rather to study hard and get good grades.

As you can see, the media often clumps all Asians together rather than distinguishing between different asian ethnicities. Older Chinese people do not think that Panda Express is awful but the younger generation, who most likely never lived in China, think Panda Express is definitely not comparable to real Chinese food. 

Doing this research, I realized that Chinese Americans are an oppressed group. They may not be as much as other groups but I often clump all Asians together and so I need to stop doing that. I also think it would be important to recognize the history of this group of people. They were treated very harshly and I think there are a lot of Americans that don't even know about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As a history teacher, I think this will be an important lesson for students to learn. This is one way I can help support anti-oppression efforts towards this group. I can also continue to be informed and keep up to date on Chinese oppression through current events. 

Here are some more portrayals of Chinese Americans in the media:

Just look at the girl in the background, she's disgusted.

"Hats of to you for not seeing race"

Once again, Asians are all combined.