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• • • • • • CHAPTER 3 Toward a New Chinese Self-image The Beginning of Modern Chinese Nationalism in California, 1860s The young, impulsive, progressive civilization of America comes in direct contact with the ancient, venerable and peculiar civilization of Asia. Events, some of which are, perhaps, not culminated in unlocking the Chinese mind from the fetters in which it has been bound by centuries of exclusion from Caucasian progress; until we see the remarkable spectacle of a citizen of our young republic selected as the bearer of offers of commerce and amity between the Eastern and Western World. I will not attempt, at this time, to picture the grand results which I trust will flow from this auspicious event, not merely to America and to Europe, but to China and mankind. —“Grand Dinner for the Chinese Embassy” Why and for what purpose have the Chinese “Six Companies” been formed, exactly what are their powers and duties, how they conduct their various transactions wherein the welfare and, very often, the lives of their members are at stake, is a matter of wonderment to most people. —“The Six Companies” In late April 1868 the Gangzhou huiguan, dressed in its holiday best, displayed the following poetic couplets inside its building: “Wandering aimlessly in a strange land, under the canopy of the moon and the stars, we were without the blessing of the throne; Meeting [the Qing officials] in a foreign country, why not present wine with all respect to share the affection for our mother country.”1 The Chinese had special reason to be excited—the year was witnessing the first Qing mission to the United States, a great change in Sino-American relations. After Anson Burlingame resigned as American minister to China in 1868, he was appointed by the Qing court to serve as the Chinese minister to the Toward a New Chinese Self-image 39 United States. As such, he paid a state visit to his native country. In San Francisco , the Chinese mission’s first station in America, the leading citizens of California gave a grand banquet to honor Burlingame and the other members of the Chinese embassy. This took place at the Lick House, “the finest dininghall in the United States,” on April 28, 1868. “All the arrangements were in excellent taste, and the gathering was one of the most strictly representative ones convened in the State.” California Gov. H. H. Haight spoke of the mission ’s arrival in glowing terms: It marked “a step forward in human progress,” introducing “an Empire, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of all that exist on the globe, into the great family of nations.” As Burlingame proposed the next toast, the entire company stood up and greeted him with three cheers, “which made the banquet tremble.” Zhigang (Chih Tajen) also responded.2 He read from a Chinese manuscript, while the interpreter of the embassy provided a translation. At the end of his address, he communicated to the Six Companies the Qing emperor’s special interest in the welfare of the Chinese in California : “I would, with permission, say a word to my own countrymen resident in California. Gentlemen, Directors of the Six Companies—I address you, and through you all our fellow countrymen in the state.”3 Why did the Qing government choose an American as the Chinese minister for a mission that looked like the dawn of a new era in China’s foreign relations ? What was the Six Companies, which seemed to represent all the Chinese in California? Before delving into these questions, we should first look briefly at Chinese immigration in the 1860s. Chinese Immigration in the 1860s Strong evidence of the role the new American market economy played in Chinese immigration is that the Chinese migration mirrored the economic development of California. In order to develop a general picture of the occupational distribution of the Chinese in California, Sucheng Chan has drawn on data from the United States Census.4 In her statistical analysis of these materials , she demonstrates that Chinese immigration and occupation coincided with changes in the California economy, which was based first on mining, followed by railroad construction, and then by agriculture and manufacturing. This suggests not only “that economic factors exerted the most important influence on Chinese settlement patterns in the state,” but also that the geographic shifts of the Chinese population also “followed so closely the developments in California ’s economy.”5 We need to emphasize especially the building of the transcontinental railroad and...

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