The Rice Room - A Conflict of Generations

The family relationship in the midst of the Statesns and Chinese immigrants in calcium is complex, to say the least. Chinese immigrants helped build much of the radix and introduced intensive farming to the utter Area in the 1800s, but, scorn these contributions, continued to be viewed as unwanted laborers by the Americans. By the 1870s unemployment rates were rising in America, and the Chinese immigrants quickly became the scapegoat for American duress. There was a rise in Anti-Chinese (anti-coolie) movements that sweep across California (24). These movements pass on to the closure of many Chinese settlements and prompted Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1924 immigration Act. These Congressional decisions only perpetuated the taradiddle of racism and distrust felt between the Americans and Chinese in California, which would continue well into the twentieth century. In his novel The strain Room, Ben Fong-Torres traces his complex cross-cultural inh eritance as a s generation Chinese American during the mid 1900s; torn between the alluring American life-style and the traditional cultural inheritance his immigrant parents struggled to instill in him. \n interchangeable most immigrants, Bens parents came to America in search of the American Dream. Referred to California as the Golden Mountains , the fall in States offered an opportunity to make more money and provide for family foul in China. Ben notes that his founder was boost by his family to seek a greater fortune and and then return to fetch them  (11). His novice did as he was told, and came to America via the Philippines. Like most Chinese immigrants in the 1920s, Bens father entered the artless illegally. Because there were strict limits on the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into America, Bens father added Torres to his name to convince immigration officials that he was of Filipino descent. Bens perplex also entered the country illegally, and both liv ed in fear of world disc...