英语专业 本科毕业论文 美国文化

英语专业 本科毕业论文 美国文化 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 摘要 当今，华人工作在美国的各个领域，从美国顶级的大学到小城镇的餐馆，都可以看到他们的身影。美国华人的成就有目共睹，被成为少数族群的典范，然而他们的祖辈曾经生活在美国社会的边缘，地位卑贱却从事当时美国最辛苦、最危险的工作。但却是成千上万的他们，为美国的西部发展和美国的经济发展贡献一生。 本文主要描述了华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献。全文一共四个部分:一、华人移民去美国的时代背景。1849年在加利福尼亚州发现黄金后，第一批华人移民来到美国加州。 帝国主义国家对中国的疯狂掠夺及对中国的统治也是驱使成千上万的中国人到美国加州的原因之一。第二、三部分讲述华人对美国早期经济和社会发展做的贡献。淘金热给美国西部带来了巨大的财富，更多的人想到西部去，更多的资源需要运出西部，这就迫切需要建造一条横贯大陆的铁路。华工的大量移入，对美国的铁路建设、矿藏开采、农业生产、渔业发展、烟草制造、毛纺织等工业领域的发展起了很大的促进作用。随着华人到来而在美国落地生根的历史悠久而且博大精深的华人饮食文化已已成为美国多元文化的有机组成部分;中医药的广泛使用，也是对美国医疗事业的补充。四，总结。美国西部开发是其19世纪资本主义经济发生巨变的一个重要组成部分,历史不容置疑，华工在美国经济发展中的贡献更是不容否定的。 关键词:华工;经济发展;社会发展;贡献 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 ABSTRCT Today's Chinese Americans work in many occupations and professions. From the Chinatowns in large cities and small towns where Chinese storekeepers and laborers had settled. While the earlier generations of Chinese Americans lived a miserable and humble life, they made great contributions to the United States. This paper is mainly concerned with the contributions of Chinese Americans to early economic and social development of the United States.It contains four parts in total. First,it will introduce the background of Chinese immigrants. After the 1849 discovery of gold in California, the first wave of Chinese immigrants started coming to California. The forces that drove thousands of Chinese to California were the direct result of the imperialist plunder and domination of China. The second and third parts mainly deal with the contributions of Chinese Americans to early economic and social development of the United States. A transcontinental railroad was needed to move more people west and natural resources safely and profitably to major markets back in the east. The population of Chinese labors who went to America for making a living increased year by year. It played an important role in promoting the development of America‘s mineral mining, railway construction, agriculture as well as some other light industry such as fish - shrimp, cigarette manufacturing, wool spinning and so on; Chinese food was brought to America, Chinese herbal medicine was used widely. It also made a remarkable contribution in the full-scale development of America in the later period of 19th century. Lastly, American western development is one of the most important components in its capitalist economic development.The historical facts can not be denied.Chinese American‘contributions to the economic development in the United States are undeniable. Keywords : Chinese labors; economic development; social development;contribution 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 CONTENTS 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 2. The contributions of Chinese Americans to early economic development of the U.S. .......... 1 2.1 The Gold Rush .................................................................................................................... 1 2.1.1 Discovery of gold in California .................................................................................. 1 2.1.2 Contributions of Chinese miners ................................................................................ 2 2.2 The Central Pacific Railroad ............................................................................................... 3 2.2.1 The necessary of built the Central Pacific Railroad ................................................... 3 2.2.2 Chinese labors' hard working ..................................................................................... 4 2.2.3 Other railway's building ............................................................................................. 7 2.3 Agriculture and light Industries ........................................................................................... 7 2.3.1 Turning Swamp into Farmland ................................................................................... 8 2.3.2 Food and vegetable fruit plant .................................................................................... 8 2.3.3 Watering system ......................................................................................................... 9 2.3.4 Viticulture ................................................................................................................. 10 2.3.5 Other industries ........................................................................................................ 10 3. The contributions of Chinese Americans to early social development of the U.S................ 11 3.1 Associations ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Chinese food culture ......................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Chinese herbal medicine ................................................................................................... 11 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 12 References ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ 14 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 The Contributions of Chinese Americans to Early Economic and Social Development of the United States 1. Introduction The British mainly relied on white slaves to develop the North American Coast from east to west and 1.6 thousand kilometers of virgin forest; Americans developed the Southern agricultural production which based on cotton and tobacco by millions black salves; and hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers developed the Western and made great contribution to the United States economy. From the period of Reconstruction to the end of the nineteenth century, Americans witnessed a period of unprecedented industrial expansion, immigration, and urbanization. As thousands streamed westward in search of gold and better lives, they could hardly keep up with such a rapidly changing society. During this time, manufacturing replaced agriculture as the country‘s leading source of economic growth. Twelve new states entered the Union, and over 13 million immigrants joined a population that more than doubled. Landscapes changed, people changed, cultures changed. In the midst of all these changes were the early Chinese immigrants, totaling not more than two percent of the immigrant population, who arrived with their gold mountain dreams. Pioneers of their time, these young, mostly single men left a southern China that was war-torn and poverty-stricken.. Some chose to sign a contract which promised a steady wage in return for safe passage; others may have been lucky enough to leave as merchants, with the emperor‘s blessing and confident in their abilities to take advantage of the American desire for Chinese goods. In any case, these young men left their homes in hopes of making it rich in a faraway land. At first, these early Chinese immigrants found plenty of work. Industries were growing, the economy was booming, and cheap labor was in high demand. 2. The contributions of Chinese Americans to early economic and social development of the United States 2.1 The Gold Rush 2.1.1 Discovery of gold in California The Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery brought some 300,000 people rushing to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately 150,000 arrived by sea while the others walked overland. With the news of gold, many families trying their luck at agriculture in California decided to go for the gold, becoming some of California‘s first miners. While most of the newly arrived were American, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. Many started out in mining. Chinese immigrants are engaged in general manual laborers accounted for the majority. Chinese laborers in California aims to reach a very simple, They were 1 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 everywhere welcomed and their wages were such that they could save a substantial part to send back to the families they had left at home in China; They were careful not to antagonize these whites by prospecting ahead of them, and in return they received the same treatment in the mining districts that they had met with in San Francisco. 2.1.2 Contributions of Chinese miners Chinese workers are employed which the white people abandoned deserted areas. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. In a short time, they used Chinese waterwheel as a gold rush tool and had greatly increased efficiency. Probably the most conspicuous characteristic of the Chinese is their passion for work. The Chinaman seemingly must work. If he cannot secure work at a high wage he will take it at a low wage, but he is a good bargainer for his labor and only needs the opportunity to ask for more pay. This is true of the whole nation, from the lowest to the highest. They lack inventiveness and initiative but have an enormous capacity for imitation. With proper instruction their industrial adaptability is very great. They learn what they are shown with almost incredible facility, and soon become adept. If the social conditions prevailing in California in the days of ‘49 are recalled, it is not difficult to realize how welcome the Chinese who first came to the country were. Here were men who would do the drudgery of life at a reasonable wage when every other man had but one idea—to work at the mines for gold. Here were cooks, laundrymen, and servants ready and willing. Just what early California civilization most wanted these men could and would supply. The American capitalists thought that more profitable from employment laborers, so they hired increasing numbers of Chinese laborers. In Washington and California, Chinese miners made up 25 percent of the mining population, while in Oregon and Idaho they comprised nearly 60 percent. In 1860, 2.4 million of 8.3million miners were Chinese in California, and it equaled two thirds of the Chinese population in the West Coast. In 1870, about 30 000 miners of which 17,000 were Chinese (accounted for 27% of Chinese American). Of course, Chinese laborers were not only found in California, but also in the States of West America, where gold was discovered one after another. In May 1852, the legislature passed a second Foreign Miners' License Tax--this time aimed at Chinese immigrants. The law required a monthly payment from every miner who was not a citizen. By 1870, California had collected $5 million from Chinese miners--accumulating between 25 and 50 percent of all State revenues. From 1792 until 1847 cumulative US production of gold was only about 37 tons. California's production in 1849 alone exceeded this figure, and annual production from 1848 to 1857 averaged 76 tons. During this decade California's gold production equaled $550 million – about 1.8% of American GDP. Although the Chinese made a tremendous contribution in extracting much needed minerals, their presence was not always appreciated. For instance, in 1852, California passed a new foreign miners‘ tax that discriminated against the Chinese, Mexican and other immigrants. By 1858, Oregon required Chinese miners to purchase monthly licenses. Both of these measures were intended to harass and discourage Chinese miners from staying in the industry. While a few were able to make ―modest ?fortunes‘ serving the Gold Rush . . . most found only back-breaking toil, poverty, and too often, death.‖ 2 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 At first, most of them were also known, traveled by sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months,and cover some 18,000 nautical miles. An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, to take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle, and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship sailing for San Francisco. Many gold-seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail. Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever and cholera. 2.2 The Central Pacific Railroad 2.2.1 The necessary of built the Central Pacific Railroad The First Transcontinental Railroad was built in the United States between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska with the Pacific Ocean at Alameda, California on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay opposite San Francisco. By linking with the existing railway network of the Eastern United States, the road thus connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States by rail for the first time. The line was popularly known as the Overland Route after the principal passenger rail service that operated over the length of the line through the end of 1962. On January 8, 1863, with a ground-breaking ceremony at Sacramento, the Central Pacific Railroad finally started work on the western end of the long talked about transcontinental railroad. The terrain over which this railroad was to be built was so rough that the prevailing opinion in Washington, D. C., was that the Central Pacific, confronted at the start with the rugged Sierra Nevada, going from nearly sea level to more than 7,000 feet altitude within 100 miles, would be fortunate to reach the eastern border of California before it is met by the Union Pacific coming from the East. Two years after the beginning of construction, the line had completed less than 50 miles of running track. The first and largest challenge was figuring out how to cut a path through California's and Nevada's rugged Sierra Nevada, which stood as a final barrier to the West. The workers of the Central Pacific had the dangerous task of ramming tunnels through these mountains, and then laying tracks across the parched Nevada and Utah deserts. Some engineers, watching the project from afar, said this was impossible. In a major recruitment drive for five thousand workers, the Central Pacific sent advertisements to every post office in the state of California, offering high wages to any white man willing to work. But the appeal secured only eight hundred. E. B. Crocker, brother of Charles Crocker, was one of the first to suggest that the way to solve the railroad's manpower problem was to use Chinese for the construction work. At this time it was a period of recession in the mines. Chinese ex-miners were seeking employment in other endeavors in towns and the countryside at low wages. However, when Central Pacific General Superintendent Charles Crocker suggested several times that Chinese be hired, his Irish construction superintendent, J. H. Strobridge, resisted strenuously: "I will not boss Chinese. I will not be responsible for work done on the road by Chinese labor." He just did not think Chinese were fit laborers for building a railroad. However, events forced Strobridge to change his mind. Labor was as scarce and as unreliable as ever. The desperate superintendent finally decided to experiment by hiring fifty Chinese from the vicinity, restricting them to the simple work of filling dump carts. This was in February 1865. 3 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 2.2.2 Chinese labors' hard working The Chinese proved so adept at this task that they were soon given the duty of driving the carts as well as loading them. Next, though doubting that they were capable of really hard physical labor, he tried them using picks on softer excavations, with excellent results. Emigrants seemed to be more willing to tolerate the horrible conditions, and progress continued. Chinese laborers were hired at approximately 28 dollars per month to do the very dangerous work of blasting and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the high Sierras. They lived in simply dwellings and cooked their own meals, often consisting of fish, dried oysters and fruit, mushrooms and seaweed. Work in the beginning was slow and difficult. After the first 23 miles, Central Pacific faced the daunting task of laying tracks over terrain that rose 7,000 feet in 100 miles. According to records, between 1856 to 1866, the winter temperatures reached an all-time low, snowing in great flakes lasted five mouths. Snowflakes covering the ground, track and road building have all been buried and covered with snow and ice 15 feet thick actually. The Chinese lived practically entirely out of sight of the sky that winter, their shacks largely buried in snow. They dug chimneys and air shafts and lived by lantern light. They tunneled their way from the camps to the portal of the tunnel to work long, underground shifts. A remarkable labyrinth developed under the snow. The corridors in some cases were wide enough to allow two-horse sleds to move through freely, and were as much as 200 feet long. Through them, workmen traveled back and forth, digging, blasting and removing the rubble. The increasing necessity for tunneling then began to slow progress of the line yet again. To conquer the many sheer embankments, the Chinese workers used techniques they had learned in China to complete similar tasks. They were lowered by ropes from the top of cliffs in baskets, and while suspended, they chipped away at the granite and planted explosives that were used to blast tunnels. Central Pacific began to use the newly invented and very unstable nitro-glycerine explosives—which accelerated both the rate of construction and the mortality of the laborers. Many workers risked their lives and perished in the harsh winters and dangerous conditions.Appalled by the losses, the Central Pacific began to use less volatile explosives and developed a method of placing the explosives in which the Chinese blasters worked from large suspended baskets which were then rapidly pulled to safety after the fuses were lit. Construction began again in earnest. The Chinese made the roadbed and laid the track around Cape Horn. ―The Chinese made the roadbed and laid the track around Cape Horn.Though this took until the spring of 1866, it was not as time-consuming or difficult as had been feared. Still it remains one of the best known of all the labors on the Central Pacific, mainly because, unlike the work in the tunnel , it makes for a spectacular diorama. As well it should. Hanging from those ropes, drilling holes in the cliff, placing the fuses, and getting hauled up was a spectacular piece of work. The white laborers couldn't do it. The Chinese could, if not as a matter of course, and then quickly and at least they made it look this way easily. Winter in 1866, Loss of life was heavy. Snow slides were frequent. On December 25, 1866, the Dutch Flat Enquirer reported that "a gang of Chinamen employed by the railroad were covered up by a snow slide and 4 or 5 died before they could be exhumed.... The snow fell to such a depth that one whole camp of Chinamen was covered up during the night and parties were digging them out when our informant left.‖ As the Chinese laborers‘ shabby working environment and snow over the winter, Chinese workers die in an accident still happened from time to time. In 1866 Sierra Ridge during winter construction, the 4 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 Chinese workers were killed in an avalanche about 500 to 1000 people; 1868, extending to the Nevada slopes of railway, there were 1,000 Chinese workers died of disease and accidents. Thousands Chinese laborers were at work. They were a great army laying siege to Nature in her strongest citadel. The rugged mountains looked like stupendous ant-hills. They swarmed with Celestials, shoveling, wheeling, carting, drilling and blasting rocks and earth, while their dull, moony eyes stared out from under immense basket-hats, like umbrellas. At several dining camps hundreds sitting on the ground, eating soft boiled rice with chopsticks as fast as terrestrials could with soup-ladles. In addition to track laying, the operation also required the efforts of hundreds of tunnels, explosive experts, bridge builders, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, masons, surveyors, teamsters, telegraphers, and even cooks, to name just a few of the trades involved in construction of the railroad. ―Without them it would be impossible to go on with the work. I can assure you the Chinese are moving the earth and rock rapidly. They prove nearly equal to white men in the amount of labor they perform, and are far more reliable. ―—E. B. Crocker, 1867 The Chinese soon set an example for diligence, steadiness, and clean living. They had few fights and no "blue" Mondays. California governor Leland Stanford, also one of the directors of the Central Pacific, said in his report to the president of the United States on October 10, 1865: As a class they are quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious and economical—ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work required in railroad building, they soon become as efficient as white laborers. More prudent and economical, they are contented with fewer wages. We find them organized into societies for mutual aid and assistance. These societies, that count their numbers by thousands, are conducted by shrewd, intelligent business men, who promptly advise their subordinates where employment can be found on the most favorable terms. Chief Engineer Montague cites the Chinese in the work force in his message to the Board of the CPRR for 1865 said: "It became apparent early in the season, that the amount of labor likely to be required during the summer could only be supplied by the employment of the Chinese element, of our population. Some distrust was at first felt regarding the capacity this class for the service required, but the experiment has proved eminently successful. They are faithful and industrious, and under proper supervision, soon become skillful in the performance of their duties. Many of them are becoming very expert in drilling, blasting, and other departments of rock work." Systematic workers these Chinese – competent and wonderfully effective because tireless and unremitting in their industry. Order and industry then, as now, made for accomplishment. Divided into gangs of about 30 men each, they work under the direction of an American foreman. One of their numbers is selected in each gang to receive all wages and buy all provisions. They usually pay an American clerk – $1 a month apiece is usual – to see that each gets all he earned and is charged no more than his share of the living expenses. They are paid from $30 to $35 in gold a month, out of which they board themselves. They are credited with having saved about $20 a month. The Chinese labored from sunrise to sunset six days a week, in twelve-hour shifts. Only on Sundays did they have time to rest, mend their clothes. Without the efforts of the Chinese workers in the building of America's railroads, the development and progress as a nation would have been delayed by years. Their toil in severe weather, cruel working conditions and for meager wages cannot be under appreciated. In the summer of 1866, to move farther faster, the railroad kept several shifts of men going day and night. Shoulder to shoulder, hour after hour, the Chinese railroad workers chipped away at the rock, breathing granite dust, sweating and panting by the dim flickering glow of 5 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 candlelight, until even the strongest of them fainted from exhaustion. Six years after the groundbreaking, after a long, bitter and often terrifying struggle against Indian attacks, brutal weather, floods, labor shortages, political chicanery, lawlessness and a war, the first transcontinental railroad finally became a reality. Laborers of the Central Pacific Railroad from the west and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east met at Promontory Summit, Utah. And then the day came when the final spike, the "Golden Spike," was to be hammered down to bold the last length of track. The iron rails had spanned a continent. In celebration of the occasion, the dignitaries came—bankers and railroad tycoons, politicians and railroad men—to be photographed at the uniting of the nation. Of the hundreds of people in that memorable photograph taken at Promontory Point in Utah, on May 10, 1869, there was one large group who were wholly invisible. The Chinese . . .Nowhere to be seen were the thirteen thousand railroad men from China who had dug the tunnels, built the roadbeds, and laid the track for half of the transcontinental line—that of the Central Pacific Railroad-crossing the most precipitous mountains and torturous deserts of the West. These Chinese workingmen had become faceless. They had disappeared. One oil painting of the event later symbolically depicted three railroad men crouching beside the tracks as they drove in the Golden Spike. Two of the three were Chinese. That famous painting was reprinted in hundreds of thousands of copies; it proudly hung in saloons and brothels throughout the West for years. And yet, in the reproduction of the painting a curious thing had happened. Beneath the painting there was a drawing in which the people who had gathered for the joining of the tracks were outlined, each face numbered, so the viewers might identify who was who. But there was no drawing of the three railroad men. Once again, the Chinese railroad men had been rendered faceless. They had vanished from history. Men of China not only built the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, they built the whole or part of nearly every railroad line in the West. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, their labors were belittled and their heroism disparaged for a century afterward; the white workers on the western railroads were resentful of the skill and strength of the "little yellow men" whom they contemptuously compared to midgets and monkeys. From the beginning, the white railroad men had ridiculed the young men of China as too "effeminate" to do a "real man's work," such as laying iron rails. They were too "delicate." They had "too small hands." They were much too small. A railroad historian reflected the popular prejudice of the time when be described bow "the Chinese marched through the white camps like a weird procession of midgets."The transcontinental railroad is considered one of the greatest American technological feats of the 19th century. It is considered to surpass the building of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the crossing of the Isthmus of Panama by the Panama Railroad in 1855. It served as a vital link for trade, commerce and travel that joined the eastern and western halves of late 19th-century United States. The transcontinental railroad quickly ended most of the far slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded it. The railroads led to the decline of traffic on the Oregon and California Trail which had populated much of the west. Travel from coast to coast was reduced from six months or more to just one week. They provided much faster, safer and cheaper transport east and west for people and goods across half a continent. The Sacramento Reporter of June 30, 1870, reported that a train bearing the accumulated bones of 1,200 Chinese workers on the Central Pacific passed through Sacramento. Perhaps this can be considered a minimum figure of the loss in Chinese lives. In 1863 the Central Pacific began working east from Sacramento, California, on the nation's first transcontinental railroad. The railroad made little progress before 1865, then the company 6 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 decided to hire Chinese laborers to level roadbeds, bore tunnels, and blast mountainsides. Eventually, the Central Pacific employed more than 12,000 Chinese workers, more than ninety percent of the workforce. On May 10, 1869, the CPRR joined with the Union Pacific to complete the line at Promontory Point, Utah. Dignitaries did not invite Chinese workers to the opening ceremony. While CPRR Director, Judge Edwin Bryant Crocker in his speech also paid tribute to the Chinese: "I wish to call to your minds that the early completion of this railroad we have built has been in large measure due to that poor, despised class of laborers called the Chinese, to the fidelity and industry they have shown." 2.2.3 Other railway's building In December 1869, the Central Pacific launched the construction of a line down the San Joaquin Valley. By 1872 the railhead had reached Goshen. By 1875 the Southern Pacific was surmounting the Tehachapi Mountains in a line that zigzagged back and forth up the slopes, running through 17 tunnels to the summit, which was reached by the middle of 1876. Concurrently in March 1875, 330 Chinese tunnel diggers also started the attack on the last barrier to Los Angeles, the boring of the 6,975-foot-long San Fernando Tunnel, the longest west of the Appalachians. Crocker then became president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and promptly hired over 3,000 Chinese, assigning 2,000 to the grades and tunnels of the Tehachapi mountains and another 1,000 to digging the San Fernando tunnel. One thousand Chinese and five hundred whites worked on the San Fernando Tunnel section of the railroad. The work force faced enormous difficulties as "seven thousand feet of water-ridden trap and sandstone formation lay ahead of the Southern Pacific tunnel diggers." The mountain was saturated with oil and water;a constant dripping from the ceiling and sides of the tunnel rendered the atmosphere extremely damp and disagreeable. Its soft blue rock formation caused frequent cave-ins. Due to such accidents, so common to this work, some lives were lost. Deep in the mountain, hundreds of feet below its surface, oppressive heat and dampness made the work unbearable. Workers stripped to the waist, perspiration pouring from every pore. "Oriental toilers fell at their work in regular succession and had to be carried to the sunshine burning with fever." Deep in the mountain, hundreds of feet below its surface, oppressive heat and dampness made the work unbearable. "Oriental toilers fell at their work in regular succession and had to be carried to the sunshine burning with fever." The air was so foul that candles burnt but dimly.Laborers passed out with monotonous regularity; cave-ins and accidents took a fearful toll. But the men kept on working. In July 1876 the Chinese tunnel diggers broke through the final partition of earth. It had taken more than a year to complete the longest tunnel west of the Appalachians. As a great engineering feat, the San Fernando Tunnel still stands as a tribute to its builders. On September 5, 1876, Los Angeles was connected to San Francisco by rail, giving a tremendous boost to the development of the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles area. 2.3 Agriculture and light Industries Since the beginning of 1970s, most of Chinese workers are turning into agricultural and planting field, until the start of 20s century, they are the main force of west part of America, especially California. In statistics, in 1870, Chinese workers remain one tenth in agriculture, in 1880, it increases to one third, till 1884, half of farmers in California are Chinese. In 1890, 7 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 Chinese remain about 75% in California. Chinese workers make great contribution in all the states across the western part of us we could set California as an example. The main contributions are as below: 2.3.1 Turning Swamp into Farmland California has lots of goods and spices, which owns good name across the whole country. This state has 3 million acre wet lands. Only the white cannot finish it, otherwise most of the white wouldn‘t like to do these harsh tasks. So some white open up companies to hire a huge sum of Chinese to finish this harsh and dangerous task. When the railroad was finished in 1869, many Chinese laborers hoped to return to farming, which almost all of them had done back in China. While some of them were able to buy small plots in California, thousands had no money to buy land and found work for the next decade building the levees. The Chinese laborers made many innovations in construction, including developing an oversized horseshoe wired to the hooves of horses for packing and leveling dirt. Between 1860 and 1880, laborers, most of them Chinese, worked on 88,000 acres of rich Delta farmland. Building the levees was hellish, dangerous work. The workers labored waist-deep in water, draining swamps and marshes, digging up hard peat soil by hand to fill the levees. They were paid by the yard of land moved, which came to about a dollar a day. During and after the time they labored building the levees, Chinese people settled in the Delta growing fruit and vegetables and working in the canneries. By 1870 Chinese immigrants made up 45 percent of all farm laborers in Sacramento County. An extensive system of earthen levees has allowed widespread farming throughout the delta. Its peat soil makes it one of the most fertile agricultural areas in California and arguably even the nation, contributing billions of dollars to the state's economy. Certain specialty crops, such as asparagus, are grown in the delta in quantities unmatched anywhere else in the United States.The levees built by Chinese immigrants created huge profits for capitalists and opened up some of the most fertile and productive land in the world. 2.3.2 Food and vegetable fruit plant Since most of the early Chinese immigrants were from farming areas in Guangdong Province in China, it was natural for them to become involved in agriculture in this country. Few of them were able to become in dependent farmers because most were not citizens and were prevented from owning land by local laws and restrictive covenants. Many had truck gardens in which they raised vegetables and fruit they sold door to door. Others were sharecroppers or tenant farmers, who leased land and paid the landlord part of their crop. Most were migrant farm laborers. Chinese American farm labor was essential to the development of various crops which required special skill and care. Early Chinese immigrants were the only ones who could grow celery, and were the main labor force for the Earl Fruit Company in Orange County. Development of the citrus industry in Riverside County was dependent on Chinese American workers. Chinese American farmers grew strawberries, peanuts, rice, and other fruits and vegetables. Chinese American migrant farm workers harvested wheat, other grains, hops, apples, grapes, and pears and processed them for shipping. The difference in the eating and drinking habits of the Chinese and white workers building 8 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 the Central Pacific were as great as their other living habits. The Chinese menu included dried oysters, abalone, cuttlefish, bamboo sprouts, and mushrooms, five kinds of vegetables, pork, poultry, vermicelli, rice, salted cabbage, dried seaweed, sweet rice crackers, sugar, and four kinds of dried fruit, Chinese bacon, peanut oil, and tea. Seemingly, this was the forerunner of the modem American well-balanced diet. The fare of the Caucasian laborer consisted of beef, beans, bread, butter, and potatoes. Chinese make use of farms experiences to set up more farming affairs. In Sacramento River and united delta, they set up 18 million good farms, which is suitable for wheat, corn, linen, vegetable, cotton and subtropical fruit. These lands are all based on hands, without any agricultural machines. Before built up, the land values at 1-3 bucks, while it values at 100-200 bucks after it‘s built-up. It is the largest wheat farm in the world; also it has the name of the northern European bread basket. In 1856, California can only feed 300k people, in 1860, it can produce 6million bushels, which is more than the total amount of other states. In 1868, it produced 20million bushels, export 6million bushels to Australia and England till 1873; it is the largest wheat base in America. In 1889 and it produced 40million bushels wheat. We could say that all the achievement is tightly related to the efforts of Chinese. On the statistics of California in 1886, there are about 30k Chinese employed in the fruit farms, which remains seven eighth of the total workers on the farms. In 1970s, the owners in California make use of Chinese workers to open up a new promising industry, which is planting business plants, such as pears, apples, apricots, nuts, beer wheat etc. they plant water lily at first. In Sacramento Valley farms, there are about 2.5k Chinese working on the farms during each fruit season. According to William. Heinz, the Chinese remain 80-85% in the grape farms. While on the contribution that Chinese made, he says, hey made it possible that it produces 2billion, half a billion gallons alcohol every year. On the other hand, some Chinese brought vegetable seeds and broadcast the technology of planting the seeds they brought. Because of their farming backgrounds many Chinese possessed superior horticultural skills. Chinese farmers developed Bing cherries and frost-resistant oranges, among other perishable, but profitable crops. Chinese laborers reclaimed over 5 million acres of tulle swamps in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river deltas. They were a mobile labor force in the orchards, vineyards, hop yards and cotton fields. In 1882, most of California's harvest labor was Chinese. Some Chinese farmers became sharecroppers or land tenants, growing mainly fresh fruits and vegetables. Chinese vegetable peddlers were familiar sights in many Western towns. During this period, Chinese is a key reason, in other words, the only key role to some extent. 2.3.3 Watering system In 1874, Kunlun city in California plans to build a 5 billion gallon water dam, the Chinese workers only get paid 1 buck a day. They use horses to make half a million dam soil solid. In the same year, Chinese built up a 3 thousand feet tunnel, during which 6 Chinese workers died. The early agriculture development in California made great sense to the American economy. On one hand, it encourages the local agricultures, new farm products to evolve. Meanwhile, it set a good example across the whole America. On the other hand, it provides a wider market to the development of American economy—material and consuming market. The development of American agriculture turns into the base of the industrial development. The development of California agriculture turns into the base of the whole American agricultural development. What is more, the Chinese workers are the base of the agricultural development in California. 9 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 2.3.4 Viticulture Chinese immigrants also provided essential labor for development of the wine industry in California. They built and worked for small wineries in Contra Costa County. They were employed by Colonel Agostin Haraszthy in his Buena Vista Vineyards in Sonoma County, the first modern commercial vineyard in California, and later worked at the Beringer Brothers Winery in Napa County in 1876. Chinese Americans also worked in vineyards in Southern California, and even constructed the buildings of the Brookside Winery in San Bernardino County from bricks they themselves made. 2.3.5 Other industries Exactly when the Chinese began to fish off the coast of California is unknown, but oral tradition states that fishing began before gold was discovered. There were early communities in Monterey, San Diego, and San Luis Obispo counties, whose inhabitants fished for squid, abalone, and various kinds of fish. As early as 1854, there was a fishing village on Rincon Point in San Francisco. Chinese began fishing for shrimp in California probably around the mid-1860s. Numerous villages or "shrimp camps" were established on the shores of both San Francisco and San Pablo bays. Shrimp fishing was a long-established industry in China. Many immigrant Chinese arrived with knowledge of fishing and preservation techniques necessary to develop a shrimping enterprise in California. By the 1870s observers could see sampans and fishing junks harbored near camps and villages all along the California coast. One of the occupations in which Chinese Americans faced little competition was seaweed farming. This appears to involve the simple but laborious task of gathering edible seaweed from the rocks where it grows, drying it in the sun, and packing it for shipment. Actually, if more than one crop is desired, rocks must be prepared for the succeeding crop by burning off inedible seaweed. Otherwise, inedible seaweed will take over, and will prevent edible seaweed from growing back. Many of these seaweed farms were located along the coast of San Luis Obispo County. Chinese Americans also worked in fish canneries which processed the fish that other fishermen caught. For example, most of the employees at the salmon cannery in Del Norte County, established by the Occident and Orient Commercial Company in 1857, were Chinese immigrants. From the early days of the Gold Rush, the Chinese were active in the service trades, especially in communities with few women. Many Chinese men found niches doing work that was considered "women's work" in both China and the United States. They worked in occupations that served non-Chinese, such as servants and laundrymen, and in occupations that crossed racial borders, such as cooks in homes, cafes and restaurants. The Chinese also provided services to their own people, revolving around the maintenance of traditional cultural ties. A shortage of manufactured goods caused by the American Civil War and the growth of California's population after the war resulted in increasing numbers of Chinese factory workers. Chinese labor helped the rapid growth of light industries in California. Industrialists employed Chinese workers in the cigar, shoe and boot, garment and woolen industries of San Francisco, then the industrial center of the West. Chinese workers also manufactured slippers, cigar boxes, brooms, cordage, matches, candles, soap and other consumer goods. 10 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 3. The contributions of Chinese Americans to early social development of the United States 3.1 Associations The Kong Chow Association was the first Chinese organization established. In 1849 Norman As-sing, a prominent merchant, became the leader of the Chew Yick Association and served as an interpreter. Tong K. Achick arrived in 1851 and founded the Yeong Wo Association. Later, he and As-sing were rivals for leadership of the Chinese American community in San Francisco. In 1854, Toisan emigrants in the United States founded their own district association, the Ningyang Association (Ningyang Huiguan), which had the largest membership of any US Chinese district associations. According to one observer's account, in 1876 the Ning Yung Association had 75,000 members. With such a large membership, the Ning Yung Association became the most powerful of the seven Chinese district associations and had a bigger voice in the Chunghwa Chung Association, which was the collective organization of all Chinese district associations in America. Most Chinese immigrants came to San Francisco where they developed a Chinese American community and made an effort to join the city's political and cultural life. In the 1850s they participated in festivities celebrating California admission into the Union and in the Fourth of July Parade. Chinese Americans also preserved their own cultural traditions. They celebrated the lunar New Year in the traditional way. In 1852 the first performance of Cantonese opera was held and the first Chinese theatre building completed. Two Chinese-language newspapers began publishing. Since the 1850s, the majority of Chinese in the United States have sent remittances to support their families and relatives in China. They also sent money to establish schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other public institutions. 3.2 Chinese food culture Asian food is probably the most visible transplanted culture in America. Wherever they went, immigrants brought their cookery with them. After completion of the Central Pacific Railroad, thousands of Chinese laborers returned to Sacramento before branching out to look for work. Sacramento's Chinatown extended along the street. Two-story wooden buildings filled the row. Every building had a brightly colored, second-story balcony, as was the custom in China. Shops and restaurants filled the first floors along the street, with most people living directly above their shops. In the nineteenth century, Chinese restaurateurs developed US Chinese cuisine when they modified their food to suit a more Western palate. It's catering to railroad workers, restaurants were established in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown. These restaurant workers adapted to using local ingredients and catered to their customers' tastes. 3.3 Chinese herbal medicine Like Chinese restaurants, herbal stores began to appear as soon as the Chinese arrived in America. With the growth of Chinese immigrants, more and more herbal doctors arrived to serve the needs of the community. Soon the herbalists began to serve non-Chinese patients as well. Unlike Chinese cuisine, herbal medicine could not change its ingredients, flavor, or dispensation 11 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 to suit the taste of mainstream Americans. As a transplanted culture, it had to remain distinctively Chinese for its effectiveness. Herbal medicinal formulations were made from hundreds of indigenous herbs gathered in the mountains and valleys of China. The supply of medicine relied on the constant importation of herbs from China. In their efforts to bypass unfair restrictions and cross ethnic boundaries to serve a larger community, Chinese herbalists developed and expanded an ethnic career and business in a Western society where most of their patients were not familiar with Chinese culture and where the medical profession was becoming increasingly standardized and regulated. Acceptance of and respect for Chinese herbal medicine demonstrate how mainstream American patients adapted themselves to an Asian medical therapy. The history of Chinese herbal medicine is a case of reverse assimilation and an expression of ethnic resilience in cultural migration. Herbal medicine fulfilled an important health need in the nineteenth century for both Chinese and non-Chinese alike. Western medicine had not yet developed wonder drugs, anesthetics, vaccinations, or sophisticated surgical techniques. Patent medicines were widely used, and their contents were not regulated by any agency of the government. The presence of the ailanthus tree (the so-called "Tree of Heaven") throughout California has long been a puzzle. The tree is native to China, but not to the United States; yet it grows profusely in those regions where early Chinese immigrants lived. All sorts of fanciful explanations are given — that the Chinese accidently brought the seeds to this country in the cuffs of their trousers, or that the Chinese brought the seeds to this country because they were homesick. The real reason Chinese immigrants brought ailanthus seeds to this country is that the trees are thought to contain an herbal remedy beneficial for arthritis. The Chinese "wedding plant" was also brought to this country as an herbal remedy. 4. Conclusion Chinese Americans have made many large strides in American society. Today, Chinese Americans engage in every facet of American life including the military, elected offices, media, academia, and sports. Over the years, many Chinese Americans have blended the American lifestyle with a more natively Chinese one. But Chinese laborers have made tremendous contributions to the early United Sates in the process of economic development. Chinese immigrants to the United States brought many of their ideas, ideals and values with them. In a thsense, they have laid a solid foundation for economic growth of the United States in the early 20 century. However, we have not seen the praises of the Chinese workers in American history. On the contrary, Chinese laborers in the United States have been excluded, deported, or even ruthless killed. The exclusion has even up to nearly a hundred years, but the historical facts can no be denied. Chinese laborers‘ contributions to the economic development in the United States are undeniable. References [1] Allen, James B, Glen M. Leonard. The Story of the Latter-day Saints [M]. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book 12 大连民族学院2010届英语专业本科毕业论文 Company, 1976. [2]Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad [M] 1863-1869 . [3]Brands, H.W., The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream [M]. New York: Anchor, 2003. [4]Bain, David Howard. Empire Express; Building the first Transcontinental Railroad [M]. Viking Penguin. 1999. [5]Beebe, Lucius. The Central Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads: Centennial Edition . Howell-North. 1969. [6] Cooper, Bruce Clement (Ed), The Classic Western American Railroad Routes. New York: Chartwell Books (US) / Bassingbourn: Worth Press (UK); 2010. 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[17]朱杰勤. 十九世纪后期中国人在美国开发中的作用及处境[A] . 吴泽. 华侨史研究论集[C] . 上海:华东师 范大学出版社,1984. 13 华人为美国早期经济和社会发展所做的贡献 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my teacher, classmates, roommates and dear friends, who have given me great help and constant encouragement in these four years. Your support and understanding is the source of my ceaseless progress. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Mr. Zhong Chongyue, who read through this thesis meticulously and offered critical comments on it. Without his help, the thesis could never have reached its present form. I would also like to thank all the writers whose works were referred to in this thesis. Here, I will give thanks to my parents for their love and support during my studies in college. Finally, all my wishes to my university, I've spent most of my precious time here; there is my youth, my love and my best memories. Thank you all. 14