A guest post by Jefe:
A paper son (1898-1965) is a male offspring that exists only on paper. This was the most common method that Chinese used to enter the USA after the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and before the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which put an end to low quotas enacted after 1943 (105 a year for China).
The 1790 Naturalization Act provided a path to citizenship only for whites. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) granted US citizenship to all persons born in the USA, thereby extending citizenship to blacks. The Naturalization Act of 1870 allowed “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.” to become naturalized citizens. All others were “Aliens ineligible for citizenship”. Most Chinese were expelled or exterminated after the Exclusion Act and the remaining became a community of aging bachelors restricted mostly to Chinatowns.
Two events created a loophole:
- US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), in which the US Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment also applied to American-born Chinese (the principle of jus soli).
- The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, which burned down City Hall and Chinatown. Some 10,000 Chinese claimed their birth records were lost. The US government had no basis for disputing most of those claims.
These new US citizens could now transmit citizenship to their children born in China under the principle of jus sanguinis. With a distinct preference for males, tens of thousands of “paper sons” appeared by the 1910s.
Some used paper sons of friends or relatives to bring over family members. However, a secondary black market also developed. “Paper daughters” were also brought to be wives. Once a paper son established his US citizenship, he could later go back to China, have children (real or imaginary), and claim US citizenship for them, repeating the cycle. Men often could not bring over their Chinese-born wives, creating a system of serial immigration repeated over several generations.
US immigration knew about paper sons and devised a method to screen them. Would-be US citizens were subjected to a battery of interrogation. Questions could be as arcane as asking the full names of the children of the man living five houses to the left or how many steps it was to the village duck pond. Paper sons (many younger than 10) had to learn and memorize crib sheets to survive the interrogations.
Many entered through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the “Ellis Island of the West”. Some spent weeks, months, even years under detainment. Many were sent back (even genuine sons) and some even died there. Inscriptions and poems on the walls at Angel Island depict their despair and death.
After 1965, Chinese men could finally apply to reunite with their families after decades of separation. Many had already died or could not get their families out during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
About 150,000 Chinese entered the USA as paper sons and daughters, staving off a collapse in the Chinese American population. Over 1 million Americans today trace their origins to these paper sons and daughters. Many are unaware they carry their “paper names” as surnames.
See also:
- Video: “Paper Sons” (7:05) – MSNBC anchor and ex-CNN anchor Richard Lui discusses Paper Sons and Angel Island. Richard Lui’s grandfather was also a Paper Son. (2009)
- Chinese Americans in the Deep South after 1882
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Bhagat Singh Thind
- The term “illegal immigrant”
- Angel Island
A Chinese American stand-up comedian Bryon Yee has written and delivered a monologue called “Paper Son”.
(http://www.paperson.com/)
Maybe it would be good to include that in the external links.
He explained the history of paper sons in his FAQ.
(http://www.paperson.com/faqs.htm)
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Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940
by Him Mark Lai, Judy Yung, Genny Lim
(http://www.amazon.com/Island-Naomi-Pascal-Editors-Endowment/dp/0295971096)
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This was a really good read, Jefe! I’ve always heard a lot about “Paper Sons” here and there, but not much about “Paper Daughters”, though. For those who may have not been to Cali yet, I would highly recommend that they stop by Angel Island.
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Insightful never heard of “Paper Sons”
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This evil system in America has always found a way to destroy the family nucleus. Separating husbands from their Chinese wives much like during slavery husbands were separated from the wives and sold off. This country has done many evil acts and denied many people of color their humanity.
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@ Mary Burrell
But but but but… The Irish and Germans suffered too … lol…
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LmaOo @ T.B.S.! @ Mary-Yes, it seems to me that was always a sense of Jealousy towards POC and their (traditionally) tight-knit family structures by racist “supremacists” in this country, no? I mean,alot of them often tend to call their parent’s by their first names, a lot of the men from those days (and present) seem to despise their wives, and there is a lot of disrespect between the kids and their parents. What’cha think?
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@Abagond,
I found a better picture of the interviewed boy without the book crease.
Also found a better photo of the room of detainees without the book crease so that you can easily see the white examining officer. Will put the link in the Angel Island post.
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@ Jefe
I updated the post. Thanks!
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@Mz. Nakita: I am with you on that one. I have often wondered why they like to tear the families apart? Good to read you..
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Those white inspectors look like those Nazi gestapo in those uniforms. The hardness and coldness of the countenances shows us how heartless and evil they were.
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@ Mary Burrell
The way I look at it is like this. A family tends to be the closest and strongest support group and when that’s not in place, a person becomes even easier to victimize and manipulate. Abusive partners tend to utilize this tactic which is not so dissimilar to America’s racial dynamics.
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@Gen: Good points.
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What better tool of control and subjugation other than splitting families apart?
The type of serial immigration which resulted meant that families were split up like this on a multi-generational basis. Many of the Chinese (whose origins trace to the same region of Guangdong province) who were new immigrants in 1970s-1980s were actually 4th and 5th generation descendants of 19th century immigrants and entered on the basis of family reunion.
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