Anonymity and Self-Laceration in Early Twentieth Century Chinese Immigrant Writing

Abstract

am ashamed to be curled up like a worm on Island. I grieve for my native land but what else can I say?(1) Marion K. Hom's award-winning Songs of Gold Mountain (1987) and revised edition of Lai, Lim and Yung's Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island (1991) offer important perspectives by Asians who, suppressed on America's west coast in first half of twentieth century, had much to say about their experiences. Written mostly during time of active anti-Chinese laws, anonymous works presented in both texts give voice to sense of Asian persecution and imposed self-effacement that also incorrectly confirmed white American view of their authors as members of an inscrutable and silent minority.(2) The authors probably never intended their writing to showcase literary merit; rather, their concerns included expressing directly pain of immigration and unlikely acceptance in new country and, in this way, their writing documented personal knowledge of what happened to them. The lament in much of the-writing depicts hopelessness to which so many succumbed during this period; their shame and despair sometimes culminated in suicide or other acts of self-destruction. The physical conditions described in writing correspond to a growing emotional anguish of authors' exilic state, and their revelations offer a glimpse into formidable self-laceration which characterized their experiences. Importantly, act of writing compelled authors to note their helplessness and, at same time, urged towards self-reliance and dignity. Ironically, then, Chinese immigrants of this period embraced attributes, such as fierce independence and tenacity of spirit, also valued by same white community which espoused exclusion of the yellows. The recovery of both sets of writings is worth noting, since translation and publication of anonymous pieces reveal interesting tensions which authors probably had not intended. In other words, not wishing to disclose their pain to a public audience out of shame or pride, authors nevertheless produced important historical knowledge of their lives as immigrants. Not intending to identify themselves in writing, they managed to speak their private anguish to an immediate audience, as well as a future one they never anticipated. The Angel Island poems were, literally, writings made on walls by immigrants who recorded the impressions of their voyage to America, their longing for families back home, and their outrage and humiliation at treatment America accorded them (8). Held in wooden barracks at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, newly arrived immigrants were detained for unspecified periods of time ranging from a few weeks to months until their immigration papers and medical examinations yielded either a favorable outcome or their deportation.(3) In this period of waiting, detainees marked walls with their thoughts, yearnings, and anguish. Interspersed with interviews of survivors conducted and presented by editors under condition of anonymity, Island also provides explanatory footnotes for colloquial expression and culturally specific references; such additional information affirms connection with homeland that immigrants expressed in their writing, as well as suspended uncertainty each must have felt about his particular case in new land. The poetry from Angel Island and Cantonese rhymes from Chinatown represent varying emotional states, given differences in authors' actual experiences. While writings express hopefulness at times and, in case of Cantonese rhymes a playful spirit, their descriptions of real living conditions in America more often revealed frustration and despair instead. There are other important distinctions--such as writing style and medium between two groups of writing--which reveal experiences faced by both Chinese who arrived and those who eventually remained in America. …