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Angel Island station, stopping point for Chinese immigrants, marks 100 years

I’m a little late writing about the Centennial of the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. But the Jan. 21 event in San Francisco - which featured my aunt, poet Nellie Wong - is noteworthy on many fronts.

Angel Island served as a stopping point for scores of immigrants, many Chinese and including my relatives, from 1910 to 1940.

Keep in mind that the Chinese Exclusion Acts – which limited the Chinese who could enter the United States to certain categories – existed from the 1880s until the 1940s, just before after World War II started.

Some immigrants were sent back home. Others received the green light from federal immigration officials to move to the U.S. mainland. Many spent long periods of time on Angel Island, not knowing their fate.

Historians Judy Yung and Erika Lee – who are working on a forthcoming book about Angel Island – wrote in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times:

Built to enforce laws that specifically excluded Chinese and other Asian immigrants from the country, the Angel Island Immigration Station turned away countless newcomers and deported thousands of U.S. residents who were considered risks to the nation or had entered the country with fraudulent papers. For those who were denied entry because of race and class-biased exclusion laws, Angel Island showed America at its worst as a gate-keeping nation.

They also pointed out this:

But that wasn’t the only Angel Island story. The immigration station was also the first stop for thousands of Chinese, Japanese, South Asians and Filipinos who were admitted into the country and made homes here, working as farmhands, small-business owners and laborers. Koreans, Russians and Mexicans passed through the station and found refuge from political persecution and revolutionary chaos in their homelands.

I should note that many people call Angel Island the Ellis Island of the West. 

The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation sponsored the 100-year event.

The organization has noted that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had “limited immigration on the basis of nationality or race for the first time, and it would not be the last.”

More from the group:

On arrival at San Francisco, passengers would be separated by nationality. Europeans or travelers holding first or second class tickets would have their papers processed on board the ship and allowed to disembark. Asians and other immigrants, including Russians, Mexicans, and others, as well as those who needed to be quarantined for health reasons, would be ferried to Angel Island for processing.

In a sense, as many of us are aware, this demonstrates that a country’s founding ideas and the implementation of them can change depending on the context of the times.

I’d argue this also shows the importance of free speech for any society.

As my aunt notes in her talk, had her parents – my grandparents – not arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, she might not be on the planet.

Likewise, I would not be here.

Does the country benefit from immigration?

Well, that is a controversial topic these days and depends on the circumstances that are before you.

In many cases, though, yes, the United States has benefitted from immigration.

While Chinese Americans have their share of challenges to overcome – just as any group – many have made gains in business, technology, government and academia, among many areas.

Yes, I’m biased on this topic. But I think my parents – and other Chinese Americans – have done a spectacular job contributing to this country.

And I should note that people often don’t like to leave their own countries. But war, food shortages and instability can motivate people to pursue this undertaking.

I like the bare starkness of the video clips of this event – one person behind a podium.

My aunt read poems from Island, which was written by Him Mark Lai, Yung and Genny Lim.

The books features poems that were carved in the Immigration Station’s wooden walls by Chinese immigrants waiting to go to the mainland – or be sent back home.

If anything, though, the reading of the poems carved into the walls of the Immigration Station proves one thing:

That words, meaning and messages can last for decades.

In today’s online ecosystem, it is easy to dismiss words as just something a search engine will capture and categorize.

Back then, though, the Chinese immigrants who carved their thoughts into the wooden walls in the barracks had no idea how online technology would change the world.

They were doing what all people – and particularly writers of all sorts do – try to do:

Sort out their thoughts of the moment, articulate them the best they can and have a go at the next day.

As I recall – I think my dad, who was a docent at the Immigration Station, told me this – there was the perception during those decades that the Chinese immigrants who were coming to the United States lacked education.

But the poetry and ability to write Chinese characters demonstrated that the educated also were coming through the Station’s doors.

If you’re interested, the Foundation is building the Immigration Station Centennial Wall to raise awareness and money and offers many online videos.

If you’ve never visited Angel Island, drop by the next time you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and have time.

I think it’s easy for newcomers to the United States, especially some from China, to overlook this country’s history of immigration.

It’s worth it to have more ideas and experiences floating around in your head.

UPDATE: Aunt Nell tells me that she read the poems after my other aunt, Li Keng, who is an author and stayed on Angel Island, asked her to do so. As Aunt Nell just told me, Aunt Li Keng attended the event.

Also, Aunt Nell would like to say that she is not a Poet Laureate of San Francisco – even though that title appears on the video and right after her name when she takes the podium.

While I’m noting this, I should say that my mom, Flo, had an art show on Angel Island and much of her work has honored the people who stayed at the Immigration Station. My uncle, Bill, is an author and journalist. He’s also written about the Angel Island legacy.

What’s that phrase?

All in the family.