淘金高阶英语六级巅峰阅读快速阅读01：美籍华人的历史_大学英语阅读

淘金高阶英语六级巅峰阅读快速阅读01：美籍华人的历史

　　In the early 1860s many more Chincse arrived in California.This time the men were imported as work crews to construct the first transcontinental railroad.They were sorely needed because the work was so strenuous and dangerous, and it was carried on in such a remote part of the country that the railroad company could not find other laborers for the job. As in the case of their predecessors,these Chinese were almost all males; and like them, too, they encountered a great deal of prejudice. The hostility grew especially strong afrer the railroad project was complete, and the imported laborers returned to California-thousands of them, all out of work. Because there were so many more of them this time,these Chinese drew even more attention than the earlier group did. They were so very different in every respect: in their physical appearance, including a long pigtail at the back of their otherwise shaved heads; in the strange, non-Western clothes they wore; in their speech ; and in their religion. They were contemptuously called heathen Chinese because there were many sacred images in their houses of worship.

　　When times were hard. they were blamed for working for lower wages and taking jobs away from white men. who were in many cases recent immigrants themselves. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in several cities. culminating in arson and bloodshed. Chinese were barred from using the courts and also from becoming American citizens. Californians began to demand that no more Chinese be permitted to enter their state. Finally. in 1882. they persuaded Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers. Many Chinese rerurned to their homeland, and their numbers declined sharply in the early part of this century. However. during the World War II,when China was an ally of the United States. the Exclusion laws were ended; a small number of Chinese were allowed to immigrate each year, and Chinese could become American citizens. In 1965, in a general revision of our immigration laws,may more Chinese were permitted to settle here,as discrimination against Asian immigration was abolished.