Book Documents History Of Chinese Immigration And Exclusion

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. -- Do you know that there was a law called "Chinese Exclusion Act"? Do you know what kind of suffering the law caused to tens of thousands of hardworking human beings?

The Chinese Exclusion Act (CEA) passed by the U.S. congress in 1882, and amended many times excluding Chinese from immigrating to the U.S., restricted the rights and activities of Chinese residents in America. It constituted a clear and significant abuse of the U.S. constitution and denial of the fundamental American values to these immigrants. After the initial passage of the CEA in 1882, there were almost no new Chinese immigrants allowed to the U.S. Chinese in the U.S. had little chance of ever being reunited with their families or starting new families here. Because of the CEA, any Chinese who left the U.S. had to obtain certifications for reentry, and the CEA made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens excluded from U.S. citizenship process. Later, the Immigration Act of 1924 would restrict immigration even further, excluding all classes of Chinese immigrants and extending the restrictions to other Asian immigrant groups. These restrictions were not relaxed until the middle of the twentieth century. Obviously, the contributions by the Chinese Americans to the American society are profound, yet the hardships endured by the early Chinese immigrants are a sad chapter in American history.

"The book 'The Rocky Road to Liberty' provides a collection of historic documents, which reveals the discriminations against the Chinese immigrants in the early U.S. history, as well as the path of the Chinese Americans struggled through towards liberty," said Dr. Jielin Dong, co-author of the book and President of the Chinese American Society. "It will remind the world about the injustice in history and never repeat the same mistakes again."

Details of the book can be found at the website: http://ca-soc.org/wpmu284a/rockyroad.php. You may also purchase the book in the Amazon website.

The Chinese American Society (CAS), headquartered in California, is a non-profit organization formed to inspire Chinese Americans' social and political participation and contribution; to enhance understanding among all peoples; and to advocate world peace. CAS has initiated a campaign to urge for a congressional resolution of apology to Chinese Americans for the Chinese Exclusion Act and the concomitant violations experienced by the Chinese immigrants in U.S. history.