America 1869: A Doppelganger Every Day

1870, April 1.

In major cities across the eastern and western United States, a newspaper suddenly appeared.

This newspaper is completely different from previous newspapers.

In the past, newspapers were all in English, but this newspaper was bilingual in Chinese and English.

At the top, the words "Hua Mei Weekly" are written in both Chinese and English.

The newspaper begins by introducing a person.

Anson Burlingame was born in 1820 into a devout Protestant family in New Berlin, New York.

He graduated from the University of Michigan, Detroit in 1841.

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1846 and practiced law in Boston.

In 1853, Anson Burlingame served as a Massachusetts senator.

In 1854, Anson Burlingame and a group of abolitionists founded the Republican Party in Massachusetts.

In 1855, he became a member of the United States House of Representatives.

In 1861, Lincoln appointed Anson Burlingame as the first American Minister to China.

He arrived in the Qing Dynasty in July 1862 to take up his post, which lasted for six years.

In November 1867, Anson Burlingame stepped down as the U.S. ambassador to China.

On February 25, 1868, the first diplomatic mission of the Qing Dynasty, headed by Anson Burlingame, set off to visit the United States.

On July 28, 1868, Anson Burlingame, representing China, signed the eight articles of the Supplementary Treaty to the Treaty of Tianjin between China and the United States with Seward, also known as the Burlingame Treaty.

The treaty stipulates.

1. People of both countries may travel, trade, or reside freely at any time.

2. People of both countries may enroll in each other's official schools and receive preferential treatment; both sides may establish schools in each other's countries.

3. Nationals of both countries shall not be discriminated against because of differences in religious beliefs.

4. The Chinese emperor had the right to station consuls in American ports, and their consular privileges and immunities were the same as those of the British and Russian consuls in the United States.

5. The U.S. government has neither the right nor the intention to interfere in the management of China's internal affairs. In the case of railway, telegraph, and other construction projects, if China decides to undertake such projects and wishes to utilize Western technology, the U.S. government will designate engineers to be employed by China.

At the end of the article, Li Changsheng clarified his identity.

"Mr. Anson Burlingame has made significant contributions to promoting China-US relations."

"At the same time, it has also secured more rights for Chinese people living in the United States."

"Every Chinese American here is grateful to Mr. Anson Burlingame."

"Because of the contributions the Republican Party has made to Chinese Americans."

"Every Chinese person here is a staunch supporter of the Republican Party."

"My dream has always been to become an American citizen."

"Because as a railroad worker, after I came off the railroad, I heard that in the American West, as long as you had American citizenship, you could buy 160 acres of land for $10."

"Everyone in the world knows that the Chinese people, besides being hardworking and resilient, are best known for cultivating the land and raising livestock."

"This is a quality deeply rooted in the bones of the Chinese people."

"So we want to contribute to the development of America and take root in this land."

"But before this treaty was signed, we couldn't obtain citizenship."

"Even after the treaty was signed, we still couldn't obtain citizenship."

"Because we don't have American citizenship, every Chinese American has to accept lower wages and harder jobs."

"This is not because we have low standards, nor because we love hardship."

"It's simply because we had no other choice."

"We came all the way to America, and if we can't make money, we have no way to go back."

"Many of us even incurred huge debts to come to America."

"If we had a choice, we could contribute even more to the development of America."

"If we had a choice, we could have accelerated the development of the western region."

"If given a choice, we would prefer to do easier work and earn more money."

"But we really have no choice."

"I am just an ordinary person from China."

"I can't change any of this, so I can only hope that the United States will abide by the agreement between the two countries, allow Chinese people like me to become citizens, and give me equal rights."

"At the same time, I heard that the Chinese Consulate in the United States has been established, so I hope that the consuls of the consulate can represent China and fight for the rights that Chinese people in the United States deserve."

Finally, Li Changsheng left his name.

Changsheng Li, author of "The Little Dwarfs" and developer of fountain pens.

This was decided by Li Changsheng after repeated consideration and long discussions with Wang Qingfu.

This article is certainly not intended to introduce Anson Burlingame.

After their research, the two found that the most serious anti-Chinese sentiment among white Americans today is in the western region.

Anti-China sentiment in the eastern region is not yet high.

The reason why the western region is so high is largely due to the fact that Chinese people in the United States are considered outsiders.

All citizens of the United States have the right to vote and to be elected.

Even the Irish and Italians, who are at the very bottom of the American social ladder, have the same rights as citizens.

Because they possess civil rights, they have value in being courted.

For the politicians above, what they need is votes, not the efforts of the Chinese people.

No matter how hard Chinese people work to bring tax revenue to politicians, if they can't get them into power, they're not worth trying to win over.

Therefore, in California today, some people who want to compete for power always bring up the issue of Chinese people.

Because Chinese people have no citizenship, and are hardworking and resilient, they can accept long-term jobs and lower wages than others.

This greatly displeased the Irish, who also lived at the bottom of society and did the hardest jobs.

Therefore, for politicians, if they want to win over the Irish and get them to vote for them, all they need to do is suppress the Chinese.

This is far too easy for politicians.

For a long time, Chinese Americans have simply not understood these things.

All they knew was that the Irish were oppressing them, and they wanted to fight back.

As for the deeper reasons, they never even considered them.

Perhaps some people have thought about it but have no way to solve it.

Li Changsheng's newspaper appears to be introducing Anson Burlingame while also bringing up the Sino-US contract.

In reality, it was within the team.

Anson Burlingame, one of the founders of the Republican Party.

In addition, he was a founder of friendly relations between China and the United States.

At the same time, Li Changsheng made it clear that he was grateful not only to Anson Burlingame, but also to the Republican Party he represented.

And they firmly stand on the side of the Republican Party.

Wang Qingfu had refused this offer, but Li Changsheng made it a promise.

Because Li Changsheng knew from his memory that the Republican Party would be in power for at least the next ten years.

If we can seize this opportunity over the past decade or so to establish a firm foothold, then the Chinese Exclusion Act will be impossible to enact later.

Of course, that alone is not enough.

There is much to be done to solve the problem of discrimination against Chinese people.