California Cantonese

California Cantonese people

Gāazāu Gwóngdūng jān (加州 廣東人) Gāmsāan jān (金山人)
Painting of Chinatown, San Francisco, 1881
Regions with significant populations
California (San Francisco, Los Angeles), Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana
Languages
California Cantonese, English
Religion
Confucian, Taoist, Christian, Buddhist
Related ethnic groups
Cantonese people, Chinese Americans

California Cantonese people (Cantonese: Gāazāu Gwóngdūng jān, 加州 廣東人) descend from historic Cantonese settlers who came from Southern China, particularly Guangdong Province (Historically known as Canton) of Late Qing Dynasty China. These original Cantonese settled in California during the 1800s and early 1900s; in more recent times, Cantonese people from Modern China have immigrated from Macau, Guangzhou (Canton City), and especially Hong Kong.^[1]

The California Cantonese call their home state "Gold Mountain" (Cantonese: Gāmsāan, 金山), and differentiate themselves as Gāmsāan jān (金山人) "Gold Mountain people", from foreign Chinese immigrants who they refer to as "Gold Mountain guests" (Cantonese: Gāmsāan hāak, 金山客).^[2][3]

California was annexed by the United States from Mexico after the Mexican–American War in 1848. At the same time the California Gold Rush brought hundreds of thousands of settlers from the Eastern U.S. in search of gold, allowing California to become a state in 1850. The United States saw its first major wave of Chinese immigrants as a result of the gold rush. Most of these immigrants entered the country through the port of San Francisco and by 1860 Cantonese immigrants had settled in all but 5 of California's counties.^[4]

The California gold rush (1848–1855) was a period of California history in which the most gold was discovered.^[5] The goldfields in California were in the public domain, so miners were operating on federal land. However, Congress passed no legislation regulating property rights for miners until 1866. Miners could hold their own assemblies and pass rules surrounding claims, this technicality paved the way for miners to operate on a claims system.^[6] Chinese immigrants participated in every facet of gold production in the later years of the gold rush. Within the claims system that grew in popularity, Chinese immigrants were contracted to find gold from 1849–1850. Starting in 1852 the Chinese population in the American West spiked and Chinese Gold miners made up 25% of miners at their highest and their impact was felt across California.^[7]

The first Chinese miners in California are thought to have been a group of around 60 contracted miners who arrived in Tuolumne County in 1849. They were hired by British people in Shanghai under a contract that gave them passage money in return for their money to be paid back via monthly wage deductions. In the preliminary two years of the gold rush contracted labor was the most common hiring method, but evidence shows contracts were not easily enforced as excerpts from sea captains show accounts of Chinese miners leaving their contractors once they arrived in America.^[5]

Chinese miners were not present in California in a substantial manner at the beginning of the Gold Rush. The population of Chinese miners in California did not break 1,000 people until 1851 with 2,700 miners being counted in the census. In the years proceeding 1852, Chinese miner populations developed rapidly, moving to 20,000 miners in 1852. Unlike the first Chinese prospectors, the immigrants in 1852 came on their own account using methods like credit tickets to fund their trip. While pull factors to America were present and prevalent a majority of Chinese miners hailed from Southern China, mainly in the Guangdong Province. Another influential push factor from China was shipping companies encouraging immigration to draw profits from people interested in mining in America.^[5]

As Chinese people initially showed up to California they and most other individually contracted workers practiced alluvial mining along stream beds. This method of mining was extremely cheap and accessible to all miners. The only material people needed for alluvial mining was a rocker box which was a cheaply made piece of equipment that sifted gold out from stream beds. Some miners would take claims along streams individually but jointly registering claims proved to be an effective method of efficiently profiting, and Chinese miners actively participated in this. From 1854-1857 44% of 61 claims made by Chinese miners accounted for parties of two or three miners. This method of joint claims proved to work as well for Chinese miners as white miners, making around 75$ per month per person on claims that were valued at $500-$600. Individual mining quickly became more organized and sophisticated, and as mining developed so did companies pertaining to mining. Many companies emerged from groups that took claims together consistently and Chinese miners were not excluded from this.^[5]

Chinese mining companies such as John China Placer Mining Company and the Hong Kong China Wing Dam Company emerged in the 1850s. They are described to have hired anywhere from 12 to 20 workers and provided industrial equipment taking larger-scale claims as well. Most Chinese companies unlike American mining companies operated on the basis of a share in order to spread risk between miners rather than a wage system which was orthodox at the time. Smaller-scale workers’ cooperatives among Chinese miners also emerged in the 1850s which operated similarly to larger-scale companies in that they used shares to spread risk among workers, but unlike merchant-investor corporations, these cooperatives used equal shares for profits and expenses. Cooperatives and companies took the forefront of miners as by the 1880s claims were largely taken by groups of around a dozen miners using industrial equipment rather than rockers.^[5]

Chinese miners also worked for wages from white employers. In the early 1850s miners white and Chinese miners worked side-by-side as labor became more sophisticated and specialized wages became more egalitarian. By the 1850s Chinese miners were earning between $39 and $50 per month which was around the average monthly wage for white miners. Chinese laborers also had a significant presence in unskilled labor as well in quartz mining mills, feeding the machines that crushed rocks and revealed gold from the California granite. Chinese miners were more commonly hired by water companies in order to transport water to hydraulic presses.^[5]

After the gold rush wound down in the 1860s, the majority of the work force found jobs in the railroad industry. Cantonese labor was integral to the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, which linked the railway network of the Eastern United States with California on the Pacific coast. Construction began in 1863 at the terminal points of Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California, and the two sections were merged and ceremonially completed on May 10, 1869, at the famous "golden spike" event at Promontory Summit, Utah. It created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West.

In 1865 a large number of Cantonese workers were recruited from the silver mines, as well as later contract workers from China. The idea for the use of Cantonese labor came from the manager of the Central Pacific Railroad, Charles Crocker, who at first had trouble persuading his business partners of the fact that the slender Cantonese workers were suitable for the strong physical work.^[8]

The well organized Cantonese teams still turned out to be highly industrious and exceedingly efficient; at the peak of the construction work, shortly before completion of the railroad, more than 11,000 Chinese were involved with the project. As the Cantonese railroad workers lived and worked tirelessly, they also managed the finances associated with their employment, and Central Pacific officials responsible for employing the Cantonese, even those at first opposed to the hiring policy, came to appreciate the cleanliness and reliability of this group of laborers.^[9]

After 1869, the Southern Pacific Railroad and Northwestern Pacific Railroad led the expansion of the railway network further into the American West, and many of the Cantonese who had built the transcontinental railroad remained active in building the railways.^[10] After several projects were completed, many of the Chinese workers relocated and looked for employment elsewhere, such as in farming, manufacturing firms, garment industries, and paper mills.

Early on, American and Cantonese miners were rivals, as mining was a highly individualized and competitive industry. While supporters for their rival's exclusion grew to outnumber those who opposed it, the first exclusionary policy in mining was not passed until the late 1850s, because Cantonese miners contributed to California state tax revenues considerably.^[6] Over time however, emphasis on exclusion changed from mining competition to protecting California's financial feasibility for native citizens. On May 6, 1882, the US Federal Government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting all further immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats.^[11][12]

To circumvent the Federal Exclusion Act for Chinese menial labor, Hong Kong Cantonese companies known as "Gold Mountain firms" (Cantonese: Gāmsāan jōng, 金山莊) appeared. Several of them came into existance in the 1880s, and their goal was to expedite their client's entry into the United States by any pratical means: e.g. hiding stow aways on ships, arranging smugglers to bring people through the Canada or Mexico borders. They also made family immigration schemes where a family member who gave birth in America would claim immigrating family members from China as naturally born children in America. ^[13]

The California Cantonese speak a variety of Cantonese that has evolved to reflect California and American culture. Its vocabulary is influenced by American English and American societal concepts foreign to Cantonese speakers in Modern China, either through direct English translations such as "Alpine" (borrowed from Alpine County, California), or neologisms such as "Yellow Eagle" (Gold dollar), "Emancipated Woman" (Feminist), and "Telephone". It also maintains older Qing Dynasty Cantonese vocabulary that has fallen out of use in Cantonese spoken in Modern China. ^[14]

San Francisco Chinatown restaurants are considered to be the birthplace of American Chinese cuisine, inventing new foods like Chop Suey, adopting fortune cookies, and popularizing Dim Sum to American tastes, as its Dim Sum tea houses are a major tourist attraction.

Cantonese restaurants in the United States began during the California Gold Rush (1848–1855), which brought 20,000–30,000 immigrants across from the Canton (Guangdong) region of China. The first Chinese restaurant in America is debated. Some say it was Macau and Woosung, while others cite Canton Restaurant.^[15][16] Both unphotographed establishments were founded in 1849 in San Francisco. Either way, these and other such restaurants were central features in the daily lives of immigrants. They provided a connection to home, particularly for the many bachelors who did not have the resources or knowledge to cook for themselves.^[17]