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Coming to America
We came to America because we wanted to start a new life. Our journey to America was caused by the terrible conditions in China. We didn’t have much money and the economy there was at a low point. My husband got fired from his job and then we wanted to start a new life in America. However, we couldn’t move at the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act during 1822, otherwise I would’ve come earlier. -
Our Journey
Because we didn’t have very much money, our journey on the boat was very rough. We were in steerage. The conditions here were terrible and we almost starved because the food was so bad. I considered these some of the hardest days since we left China. I tried to keep the children healthy, all around us there could have been contagious diseases but thank god they were. After we took all of the medical exams and we were asked question we were finally free. -
Southern California
The first place we decided to go to was southern California. Here my husband got several menial and manual labor jobs. My family and I stayed in a crowded home with terrible conditions and we rented out only one room. The house was dirty and food was extremely scarce. We stayed in one of poorest villages in all of California and we barely made it by. -
Wanting to Move
After spending one year in this poorly developed village, we had to move to because first of all, we got kicked out of our home because we couldn’t afford paying rent, and then we heard about the Chinatown. When we were first kicked out we weren’t sure where we would move to, then we got the idea that moving to Chinatown would be best for us. -
Reasons to move West
Because our situation was getting pretty bad we knew that we had to move. We decided to go to the Chinatown not far from where we already were. It was still in San Francisco, but we decided to move there because we wanted to be around more people of our kind. We didn’t want to be discriminated against any longer. -
The Chinese Exclusion Act
Before I came to America, Chinese people had been banned from entering due to too many of us crowding the areas. If this law hadn’t been enacted then we would have come to America years earlier. Even when we did come, we were looked at in a different way than others. -
Moving to Chinatown
Because we wanted to be around more Chinese people and not be discriminated against we decided to move to the Chinatown in San Francisco even though it was not that far away from where we had already settled. We took a train there and once we got there my husband got a job cutting people’s hair because our people only like to have their hair cut by others of our kind. -
Settling
It had been a year since we first moved to Chinatown from Southern California. Our situation still was not very stable but we were doing better than we would have done in China or in Southern California. I was glad we had made the move. Right now my husband still did not make much money so we stayed in a terrible tenement. -
Mother in Law Arrives
My husband’s father had died of a severe illness, and since his mother had no one else to stay with she came to live with us. She came in through San Francisco and then she came to live with us in Chinatown. She told us how hard communicating with the Americans in San Francisco had been, and I remembered how hard it had also been for me. -
Conclusion
In China it had been such a horrible time so we moved to America and I am so glad we came here and then decided to come to Chinatown. Right now we are happy, and although work on our developing farm is hard I know that we have chosen the best.
