07/19/2019
This story contains important history to know.
They were considered dangerous foreigners who brought drugs into the country, chased white women, described as animals and called "beasts" and "swine", called "filthy", even accused of eating rats, even pets, such as cats.
They were viciously attacked, some even lynched. Out of this hatred, lawmakers created the country’s first major immigration law that singled out and blocked a specific ethnicity group, one senator calling them a “degraded and inferior race.”
The law was called the Chinese Exclusion Act, which halted most Chinese immigration for 10 years and rendered America's more than 100,000 Chinese ineligible for citizenship.
Out of this hatred came the anti-immigrant chant, "And whatever happens, the Chinese must go."
The chant was started by anti-immigrant agitator and hopeful politician Denis Kearney, who denied his own immigrant roots and promoted contempt for Chinese immigrants, the press, and for any politicians who opposed him.
Called "a demagogue of extraordinary power", Kearney, who was supported by the Supreme Order of Caucasians, was known for giving long and hate-filled speeches at rallies.
There were many Americans who knew Kearney was wrong, but said nothing either out of fear or indifference.
But, one man decided to challenge Kearney.
Kearney would call him an an "almond-eyed l***r".
The man, knowing how ridiculous Kearney was, would challenge Kearney to a duel, asking him, tongue firmly in cheek, his preferred weapon - "his choice of chopsticks, Irish potatoes or Krupp guns."
The man's name was Wong Chin Foo.
According to author Scott D. Seligman:
"America's civil rights movements have all had their Martin Luther Kings, their César Chávezes and Gloria Steinems. But to whom can Chinese Americans point? Chinese have been in the United States in sizeable numbers since the California Gold Rush. They were shamefully mistreated, denied rights for most of a century and are generally thought to have borne everything the American establishment dished out passively and without much protest."
Wong Chin Foo would not accept mistreatment, ignorance, or inequality.
"He was the first to employ the term "Chinese American", according to Seligman. "He published New York's first Chinese-language newspaper. He established America's first association of Chinese voters and was probably the first Chinese ever to testify before Congress. In his three decades in the United States, the outspoken Wong fought tirelessly for the rights he felt his compatriots deserved. Although little remembered today, he was arguably the most famous Chinese in the nation during his lifetime."
He became an American citizen in 1874, just before the 1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
According to Seligman, Wong Chin Foo "traversed the country explaining and defending the Chinese," trying to counter anti-Chinese prejudice. He spoke with eloquence and sometimes with humor.
"He famously offered a $500 reward to anyone who could prove the accusation that Chinese ate rats and quipped, 'I never knew that rats and dogs were good to eat until I learned it from Americans.' He wrote scores of articles demystifying Chinese life that appeared in newspapers across the country. And in an essay on Chinese food, he was the first to introduce "chop suey" to American readers," wrote Seligman.
Wong Chin Foo had a difficult task. There was anti-Chinese sentiment across the country.
Leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act, there were widespread racist campaigns to discredit and bring suspicion to the Chinese, according to writer Rosalie Chan. "Newspapers and magazines published racist cartoons to stimulate fears of Chinese immigrants and perpetuate stereotypes . . . violence against the Chinese was also common. During the winter of 1858 and into the following year, armed mobs of white men in goldmines forced the Chinese out of many campsites and towns in California. In 1871 . . . a mob of about 500 people dragged Chinese people out of their homes in Los Angeles, while others built gallows. By the end of the day, vigilantes had lynched 17 Chinese people. These are just two of many instances in which Chinese people were intimidated, driven out of their homes, and even killed."
Kearney was one of the people who encouraged racists to take violent actions.
That's when Wong Chin Foo challenged Kearney, who was a skillful public speaker, "cocky and self-assured," wrote Seligman. But, Kearney never had to face the likes of one Wong Chin Foo.
Wong Chin Foo first dared Kearney to a debate, but Kearney wisely refused. That's when Wong Chin Foo ridiculed him, challenging him to a duel instead with his choice of weapons - "chopsticks, Irish potatoes or Krupp guns."
Finally, in a public confrontation in 1887, the two faced off. Wong Chin Foo was judged victorious. A newspaper declared, "The mandarin got the better of the San Francisco orator in the intellectual contest, and drove Kearney from position to position."
Seligman would write of Wong Chin Foo:
He "believed deeply in justice, equality and enfranchisement, and challenged Americans to live up to these values that they so freely espoused, but so utterly failed to apply to the Chinese in their midst. More than 70 years before Dr. King dreamed of an America that judged people according to the 'content of their character,' Wong declared that only 'character and fitness should be the requirement of all who are desirous of becoming citizens of the American Republic.'"
"Although it took until 1943, nearly a half-century after his death, for America to repeal the prohibition against naturalization of Chinese," wrote Seligman. "No one deserves more credit than Wong for waging the good fight against it. He set a pattern for what he thought being 'Chinese American' should mean that is more or less what it has come to mean for millions. He deserves to be remembered not merely for envisioning and articulating the goal, but also for the creative means he employed, and the boundless energy he expended, in trying to achieve it."
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