Gathering Marks 1943 Repeal of Chinese Exclusion Act

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act tore Samsik Low and his mother from his father, leaving generational scars that still trouble him.

The act, which prohibited further Chinese immigration and denied U.S. citizenship to Chinese already in the country, prevented Low’s father, who had found a better life for himself in California, from bringing his wife to the “Mountain of Gold,” the Chinese expression for America.

Every 10 years, Low’s father would visit his wife in China. In 1927, after one of these trips, Low was born. Ten years later, Low’s mother died without ever having seen her husband again.

On Wednesday night, Low was one of about 300 Chinese Americans who commemorated the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The actual anniversary is today.

In addition to sharing stories about the effect of the act on them and their relatives, those who gathered at the remembrance at the Department of Water and Power Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles listened to leaders of local Chinese American groups and politicians criticize today’s rising anti-immigrant sentiment in California, which they compared to the attitudes that led to Congress’ passage of the Exclusion Act 111 years ago.

Speakers also took the opportunity to note that the Exclusion Act, the first U.S. immigration act to discriminate against a particular ethnic group, was not repealed because of its racist nature. Rather, it was to improve relations with China, America’s ally during World War II. And the audience was reminded that until 1968, the United States still had a quota of 105 Chinese immigrants a year.

But it was the personal stories of relatives who had been affected by the Exclusion Act that captivated the listeners. Ben Fong-Torres, a former senior editor for Rolling Stone magazine, talked about how he got the surname Torres.

“My father bought the name of a diseased Filipino named Ricardo Torres for $1,200, and he used it to get into the U.S. in 1927. . . . For most of their existences here, (my parents) were scared of being discovered and deported,” he said.

According to Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Chinese Americans are in a unique position to help others.

“I think the Asian American experience has taught Asians a great deal about discrimination and immigration, and that experience should be brought into the current immigration debate,” he said.