Chinese Coaching Book (1938)

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented all but a few Chinese to enter the United States legally. In 1906, a major earthquake and resulting fire in San Francisco destroyed public records, allowing many Chinese to claim that they had been born in San Francisco. These men, with newly established citizenship status, periodically returned to China and claimed citizenship for their children (overwhelmingly boys) who could then immigrate into the United States as citizens. As U.S. officials became aware of this practice, they created extensive “traps” to uncover these “paper sons.” At the Angel Island immigration station (1910-1940) located off the coast of San Francisco, officials detained immigrants for weeks, months, and sometimes years, before admitting or rejecting them.

Elaborate “coaching books” were studied by would-be immigrants in order to tell the same stories put forth by the alleged U.S. citizen who was waiting for his “paper son” on the American shores of Gold Mountain. Questions included minute details of the immigrant’s home and village as well as specific knowledge of their ancestors.

This artifact is such a coaching book: it was studied by Choi Tsia who arrived on Angel Island in 1938. Approximately 175,000 Chinese immigrants came through Angel Island.

Gift of Ted Gong.

Comments 7 Comments
Categories Chinese American, Collection
Author Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

7 Responses to “Chinese Coaching Book (1938)”

David Jones January 7, 2013 at 3:53 pm #

Fascinating story; I had never heard of this. Mind if my son uses the informatio in his Chinese Culture class?

Reply
SEO Barcelona November 9, 2010 at 5:20 am #

Over the past few years Barcelona has seen it’s Chinese population grow, my daughter even studies Chinese on Saturdays as we think it’s important for the future.

Reply
Coaching Barcelona Guy September 15, 2010 at 1:29 pm #

Early on the California government did not wish to exclude Chinese migrant workers because they provided essential tax revenue which helped fill the fiscal gap of California.
What you refer as Coaching Book also happened in Barcelona many centuries ago.

Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Angel Island: Immigrating through Closed Doors « Untapped Travel - September 26, 2012
[...] Coaching books were necessary for Chinese immigrants subsequent to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred people of Chinese descent from entering the United States. A common workaround was to become a “paper son”: a Chinese man residing in the U.S. (most at the time were male) would report having borne a child. True or not, that report reserved the ability to bring over a relative, friend or even strangers in later years. To match stories for officials, paper sons immigrating under assumed identities memorized coaching books packed with excruciating detail, which they tossed in the sea before disembarking. Upon arrival at Angel Island, immigrants faced grueling inspection and an indefinite detention period, ranging from a matter of days to weeks or years. [...]
Angel Island: Immigrating through Closed Doors | Untapped SF - September 13, 2012
[...] Coaching books were necessary for Chinese immigrants subsequent to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred people of Chinese descent from entering the United States. A common workaround was to become a “paper son”: a Chinese man residing in the U.S. (most at the time were male) would report having borne a child. True or not, that report reserved the ability to bring over a relative, friend or even strangers in later years. To match stories for officials, paper sons immigrating under assumed identities memorized coaching books packed with excruciating detail, which they tossed in the sea before disembarking. Upon arrival at Angel Island, immigrants faced grueling inspection and an indefinite detention period, ranging from a matter of days to weeks or years. [...]
Angel Island Event Recap « - November 22, 2010
[...] Island processed a diversity of immigrants, not just those from Asia and the Pacific like the Chinese paper sons. With immigrants from Russia, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, China, Japan and many other [...]
Angel Island Event Recap « News and Events Blog « Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program - September 28, 2010
[...] Angel Island processed a diversity of immigrants, not just those from Asia and the Pacific like the Chinese paper sons. With immigrants from Russia, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, China, Japan and many other [...]