Excluded Americans

[NZBC]

www.excludedamericans.com/BookExcerpt_01.htm

Excluded Americans uncovers an important segment of American history that has long been missing. It is the story of an entire generation of Americans whose birthplace, rights, and even their existence could be denied by excluding them from the nation’s history. They were the children of Chinese immigrant parents and formed the first generation of American-born Chinese (ABCs). They are called the Silent Generation because mainstream historians ignored them and failed to record any aspect of their existence. Until now, the story of the Silent Generation of American-born Chinese has been absent from the fabric of American history.

[kiejan]

Although I am the 4th generation of my family in America, my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all born in China, while I was born in Chicago. This was due to the legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a racist law that targeted a specific nationality, and only repealed in 1944. My grandfather was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941, and it ironically provided him the path to citizenship, and his wife, son (my father) and daughter in Taishan, China, were able to reunite with him in Chicago after a 14-year separation in 1947.

[kiejan]

My friend, Professor John Jung (Emeritus), who retired after teaching psychology, wrote a book about his experiences of growing up as a first-generation Chinese American in the deep South; his family was the only Chinese family in a small town in Georgia, and they operated a hand laundry. His successful book, Southern Fried Rice, led to further book projects, including "Sweet & Sour", a chronicle of 10 small family operated Chinese restaurants in North America. I wrote one of the chapters in his book, about our family restaurant, Tong's Tea Garden, which operated from 1954 to 1984.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/7765759-sweet-and-sour