Today the House made history when both chambers of Congress officially and formally acknowledged the ugly and un-American nature of laws that targeted Chinese immigrants. The Chinese Exclusion Act enshrined injustice into our legal code – it stopped the Chinese, and the Chinese alone, from immigrating, from ever becoming naturalized citizens and ever having the right to vote. The last generation of people personally affected by these laws is leaving us, and finally Congress has expressed the sincere regret that Chinese Americans deserve and reaffirmed our commitment to the civil rights of all people. This is only the fourth time that Congress has passed such a resolution of regret in the last 25 years. This makes today a rare moment in history for the Chinese American Community.
Rep. Chu's parents were from Xinhui (新会), one of the Four Counties. She visited her ancestral home last year. On the right is her autograph presented to her ancestral town during the visit: Old trees have deep roots; Well water with sweet taste of my ancestral village. Note the first characters of the two verse lines make up 古井, meaning old wells, the name of her ancestral town of Gujing in Chinese. She demonstrated her mastery of the Chinese language by not only playing tricks with the town's name but also including puns in her autograph. Incidentally, I have a couple of cousins from the same village as one of my aunts married into the Chu clan of Gujing. The Chu's of Gujing are descendants of the remnants of the royal family who survived the Sea Battle of Yamen.
The resolutions were pushed forward by the 1882 Project, a nonpartisan, grassroots effort focused on educating the public the Chinese Exclusion Laws and the impact such legislation had on our history.
For those who are interested in learning more about these laws' effect on the lives of the Taishanese immigrants of the period, I highly recommend the book Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home by Madeline Y. Hsu.