(East-West Question) Shelley Fisher Fisher King: How did "the people who built the Great Wall" create the miracle of the Pacific Railroad?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 9th: How did "the nation who built the Great Wall" cast the miracle of the Pacific Railway?
——Interview with Fisher King, Co-Executive Director of the North American Railway Chinese Engineering Research Project at Stanford University
Author Jin Xu
On May 10, 1869, the last golden nail was driven into the sleepers, and the six-year-old Pacific Railroad was finally completed.
This railway, known as "the greatest project in American history", gave the United States its wings in the 19th century and still plays an important role today.
This railway that has made modern America is inseparable from the efforts of countless Chinese railway workers.
However, their hard work was rewarded with violence and expulsion, and these anonymous builders were pushed to the fringes of society and buried in the long river of history.
On the occasion of the 153rd anniversary of the completion of the Pacific Railway, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, co-executive director of the North American Railway Chinese Engineering Research Project at Stanford University, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East-West Question", detailing the story of the Chinese railway workers.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: The construction plan of the railway across the North American continent requires a large number of Chinese workers to meet the labor demand. Why are Chinese people indispensable for the construction of this railway? How many Chinese workers went to the United States to participate in railway construction?
Fisher Gold:
With a "gold rush dream", most Chinese living in California work in mining, or open restaurants and laundries in mining areas to support themselves.
In early 1865, white workers were more willing to make money in the mining area, considering the difficult and dangerous conditions of railway construction.
Compared to them, the Chinese miners were taxed extra, and they found railroad work more attractive, so a large number of Chinese began to work for the Central Pacific Railroad.
The company is responsible for the construction of the entire western section of the project. The construction is very difficult. The starting point of Sacramento is roughly the same as the sea level, and the terrain of the Sierra Nevada is steep. It requires Chinese workers to blast and excavate in the hard granite.
As the construction plan progressed, a large number of Chinese laborers from China's Guangdong Province were recruited to meet the huge labor demand in the western United States.
They crossed the ocean and became the main force in building railways.
Due to the lack of complete and accurate records, we do not know the number of Chinese laborers who participated in the construction of the railway between 1864 and 1869. The names found in some surviving payroll books belong to the Chinese foreman or labor intermediary responsible for paying the Chinese laborers. The company's supervisor and the names and identities of thousands of Chinese workers could not be verified.
As of July 1865, there were nearly 4,000 Chinese laborers in the Central Pacific Railroad.
By February 1867, there were about 8,000 Chinese laborers digging tunnels and 3,000 laying sleepers and rails, accounting for 90 percent of the Central Pacific Railroad's entire workforce.
Historians estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese laborers were involved in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Considering the difficulty and danger of the work, there are even more Chinese workers.
On May 10, 2019, the "Golden Spike Festival" commemorating the 150th anniversary of the integration of the American Pacific Interstate Railroad was held in Salt Lake City, United States.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan
China News Agency reporter: What makes Chinese workers willing to stay away from home?
Fisher King:
Chinese workers are engaged in railway construction and can earn 30 US dollars a month.
This is an astronomical figure for the people of Siyi in Guangdong (in the 19th century, Siyi in Guangdong refers to Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui and Enping) who only rely on agricultural production and earn only 8 or 10 US dollars a year.
They need to earn money to support their families and cover other household expenses.
The Siyi area was close to the ocean, which provided the possibility of ocean navigation. In addition, the area was suffering from poverty and war at that time. Migrants migrating from the countryside took Hong Kong as their starting point and boarded ships to California and other areas in the United States. Some Chinese workers went to Peru to dig for bird droppings, and some went to Cuba to harvest sugar cane. New job opportunities became a common temptation.
China News Agency reporter: In the era of lack of modern machinery, what kind of work do Chinese workers do on this railway line? In daily life, do you keep the living habits of your hometown?
Fisher King:
The Central Pacific Railway needs to dig 15 tunnels, and the harsh working environment challenges the limits of human imagination at any time.
While enduring the scorching sun, grime, and avalanches and landslides that could take lives at any time, the Chinese railway workers could only use simple shovels, picks and wheelbarrows to level the undulating hills and mountains, fill the deep ravines, and use explosives. Blast rocks, conquer cliffs and steep valleys.
Chinese workers often work in small groups of about 12 to 30 people, each with a chef.
They work 6 days a week, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
They put the tea leaves into the cleaned powder barrels, and a Chinese worker who was in charge of the matter carried two pots of tea on a pole and distributed them to his compatriots.
Before dinner, they would take a hot bath and change into clean clothes.
The Chinese workers still kept the habit of eating Chinese food: rice, dehydrated vegetables, dried oysters, dried abalone, and some pork and poultry.
They drink tea, hot water, and occasionally drink.
In 2015, the North American premiere of the large-scale humanities documentary "Golden Mountain Dream-Searching for Road Spike Memories" was held in Los Angeles.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Mao Jianjun
China News Service reporter: Have Chinese workers been praised and recognized? Why did they end up being marginalized by American society?
Fisher King:
Central Pacific Railroad executive Charles Crocker has confirmed to the US Congress that Chinese are "more reliable and more stable" than whites, and have shown greater talent and ability in the work process.
"No matter how we arrange it, Chinese workers always work hard. Before that, we had white people as the first choice, but now, when faced with the test of time constraints and heavy engineering tasks, the first thing that comes to my mind is Chinese workers." Central Pacific The president of the railway company, Leland Stanford, also mentioned in a letter to the then US President Andrew Johnson that Chinese workers were the main labor force for the construction of the railway. Without them, the greatest project in American history would be. The project will not be completed within the stipulated time.
The hard work of the Chinese railway workers over the years has indeed won the attention and praise of others.
However, in the 1870s after the completion of the railroad, a severe economic crisis broke out in the United States, racism crept in, and agitators saw the Chinese as a threat.
In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, and anti-Chinese sentiment reached its climax.
China News Service: Some historians say that Chinese workers are a "silent group". Did they break the silence for their injustice? How did it end?
Fisher King:
On June 19, 1867, an accidental explosion occurred in a tunnel one kilometer north of Cisco, killing one white man and five Chinese laborers.
Five days later, 3,000 Chinese railway workers put down their tools collectively, and from Sisco to Truckee, Chinese workers belonging to hundreds of teams went on strike collectively on nearly 30 miles of road.
When Chinese railway workers were first hired in 1864, they worked six days a week for $26 a month, plus room and board.
Chinese workers were paid less than half that of white workers, and white workers did not need to pay for room and board.
In the spring of 1867, the Central Pacific Railroad raised wages from $31 to $35 a month in an attempt to attract more Chinese to the railroad.
In this strike, Chinese workers demanded equal treatment with whites, which means a monthly salary of $40, a reduction of open-air work from 11 hours to 10 hours, and an increase in the number of shifts in narrow and dangerous tunnels.
Working hours in the tunnels are generally eight hours, but Chinese workers are often forced to work longer.
The strike was organized and disciplined.
This meticulous plan allowed 3,000 Chinese workers to reach an agreement on goals, specific demands and action time, which is undoubtedly an amazing achievement.
Recognizing that labor shortages can make the company tough, Chinese workers have bargaining chips when the company most wants to make quick progress.
The strike undoubtedly poses a threat to the company, who are beginning to realize that this is a group that cannot be ignored.
After the strike ended, the company quietly raised the wages of Chinese railway workers, especially experienced and skilled Chinese workers, whose monthly wages were more than $35.
When the railroad was built to the Nevada desert, Charles Crocker also gave a bonus to all the workers who worked in the heat.
In 2016, the Golden Spike Preparatory Committee held a press conference in New York to introduce the preparations for the burial of the remains of Chinese workers.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
China News Service reporter: Although there is no more information left for future generations to restore this history, the descendants of Chinese workers and related scholars have been working hard to find the truth for many years. What is the significance of commemorating this history and remembering Chinese workers today?
Fisher King:
On May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad joined forces in Promontory, Utah, and together they laid the final nail in the world's first transcontinental railroad.
Although the Chinese laborers were overlooked at the 1869 ceremonies, 150 years later, Connie Young Yu, a descendant of Chinese railroad workers and a scholar of the history of the Chinese community in the United States, gave a speech at the 150th anniversary of the Pacific Railroad, and many The descendants of Chinese workers attended the event and continued to tell and inherit the experiences of their ancestors. The Chinese railway workers became the focus of the world for a while.
It is because of the hard work of Chinese workers that Leland Stanford has a lot of wealth to establish Stanford University.
However, little is known about this situation.
Today, through the oral histories of the descendants of Chinese railway workers and the joint efforts of scholars in related fields, people try to restore the contributions of Chinese workers to the geographical landscape and social and humanities of the American West, and reevaluate this forgotten history from a multidisciplinary perspective.
We hope that our efforts can recreate their experiences, reaffirm their meaning in life, and gradually reveal the dusty history to the world.
The story of the Chinese railroad workers is one that "helped shape America today" and "helped shape the lives of all of us."
(Finish)
In 2015, Stanford University held a photo exhibition "Chinese Workers and Railways".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Dan
Interviewee Profile:
Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the Joseph Asa Professor of Humanities at Stanford University, chair of the Department of American Studies, and co-executive director of the North American Railway Chinese Engineering Research Program at Stanford University.
Fisher King mainly studies literature and social justice. Most of her works focus on racism in the United States, and she is committed to restoring those silent, marginalized or ignored voices in the past. Her research works have been translated into Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, etc. Multiple texts.
He has published more than 150 papers, columns and reviews in English journals in China, Japan, Korea, Turkey and other countries.
He has participated in the writing of researches such as "From Angel City to Long Island: Chinese Railroad Work in the United States After the Completion of the Trans-American Railroad", "North American Railroad Workers: History, Literature and Visual Representation", "Why and How: Why Chinese Go Abroad and How to Enter the United States", etc. , editing and publishing.