The Rice Room - A Conflict of Generations

The relationship mingled with Americans and Chinese immigrants in calcium is conglomerate, to say the least. Chinese immigrants helped chassis much of the infrastructure and introduced intensifier farming to the Bay flying field in the 1800s, but, despite these contributions, go along to be viewed as discarded laborers by the Americans. By the 1870s unemployment evaluate were rising in America, and the Chinese immigrants quickly became the scapegoat for American duress. There was a burn up in Anti-Chinese (anti-coolie) movements that swept crossways California (24). These movements lead to the pulley of many Chinese settlements and prompted coition to pass the 1882 Chinese excommunication Act and the 1924 Immigration Act. These congressional decisions only perpetuated the history of racialism and distrust felt between the Americans and Chinese in California, which would occur well into the 20th century. In his novel The Rice Room, Ben Fong-Torres traces his complex cross -cultural heritage as a second generation Chinese American during the middle 1900s; torn between the alluring American lifestyle and the tralatitious cultural heritage his immigrant parents struggled to educate in him. \n desire well-nigh immigrants, Bens parents came to America in attend of the American Dream. Referred to California as the Golden Mountains , the United States offered an luck to make more property and provide for family back in China. Ben notes that his father was encouraged by his family to seek a greater fortune and then withdraw to fetch them  (11). His father did as he was told, and came to America via the Philippines. Like most Chinese immigrants in the 1920s, Bens father entered the country illegally. Because there were strict limits on the event of Chinese immigrants allowed into America, Bens father added Torres to his cook to convince immigration officials that he was of Filipino descent. Bens mother similarly entered the country illegally, and both lived in fear of being disc...