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17 I Have Always Been a Republican (1888–89) Writing for the American audience was important to Wong, because public attitudes toward the Chinese would have to soften before meaningful change could be effected in exclusion policies. But as he began to turn his attention to politics, he realized that addressing the Chinese was also critical. In 1888, therefore, he decided to try his hand at publishing again. On June 9, he put out the first edition of the New York Chinese Weekly News (Niu Yue Xin Bao). Like the Chinese American, it sold for a nickel, but the Weekly News differed in that it was illustrated—in fact, he touted it as the world’s first pictorial Chinese paper. Backed by a syndicate, Wong teamed up on the four-page journal with Hong Yeng, former editor of the Hong Kong Weekly who had recently arrived from San Francisco, and a Chinese artist named Wan Lung. The paper, with offices at 10 Chatham Square, purported to give some brief lessons in American politics. Wong hoped to make it satirical and humorous, and planned to run a cartoon in each issue.1 Although no copies of this publication apparently survive, contemporary press reports make it clear that Wong used it to advance a political agenda. The leading editorial in the first edition dealt with the “Chinese question,”2 as did the cartoon: The first cartoon represents the young Emperor of China sitting in judgment on several of his former subjects who have become naturalized Americans. Though barred from this country by the recently enacted law, the celestial monarch refuses to receive them back because they have sworn against his Government by giving allegiance to another. When told that they cannot return to America, his Majesty orders his mandarins to make of the men without a country food for the fishes.3 170 The First Chinese American Wong used the pulpit of the Weekly News to push for the election of Benjamin Harrison, the Republican who was running against Grover Cleveland for president. In an editorial in the June 29 edition, he stated that Harrison was independent and just, and that he had been a key force in the Senate committed to resisting efforts to prohibit Chinese from coming to America. What purported to be Wong’s own translation of the editorial was reprinted the same day in the New York Herald. In reality, however, it was a somewhat different composition , aimed more at the American audience than the Chinese. In the English version, Wong wrote, in part: The Chinese Weekly News believes in principle always. It dares to advocate it. Therefore it is heart and soul for Ben Harrison. He believes, as does the Weekly News, that this is a country not only intended for the white and black sons of Ham, Shem and Japhet, but also for the yellow sons of Adam as well. Otherwise this would not be the America we know of.4 More than a year before the 1888 election, it was already clear that the vote was likely to be close. The Democrats hoped to shore up their position in the Western states, several of which, like California, had been lost by close margins in the previous election.5 Playing up their anti-Chinese bona fides seemed a good strategy, and the Chinese government provided them with an opportunity to do just that. The wave of anti-Chinese violence in the West that took place in 1885–86 in the wake of the Rock Springs massacre—the same wave that had caused President Cleveland to intervene on behalf of the Chinese of Tacoma, earning him commendation from the Chinese of New York—was of concern not only to Chinese in America, but also to the Chinese government. The Manchus pressed for justice and reparations, but even as they demanded better treatment for Chinese in America, they also concluded that they would have to act on their own accord to limit emigration to America.6 The chosen vehicle was to be a new treaty with the United States; in 1887, China dispatched Zhang Yinhuan, a close ally of Li Hongzhang, to negotiate it. The Cleveland administration was receptive to a new treaty, because in spite of the Exclusion Act, Chinese laborers continued to enter the United States: choking off this flow would endear the Democrats to anti-Chinese voters, especially in the West. The initial positions of the two countries were far apart, however, so negotiations were...

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