In The Land of the Free
In the story "In the Land of the Free", Sui Sin Far describes the sadness and melancholy of a young mother, Lea Choo, when she had to be separated from her son when they entered the U.S because her son did not have a necessary certificate entitling him to admission to this country. This story traced back to the time after 1870 when a huge number of immigrants from China arrived in the U.S. The U.S government, terrified by an allegedly economic depression and misperception causing by immigrants, enacted many racially discriminated laws to limit their employment and immigration. Especially, in 1882, the government passed the federal Exclusion Act which required Chinese immigrants to be routinely detained for questioning. The examination process took a long time and divided many family members. Lea Choo was a directly miserable victim of this unfair law. Her son was took away from her arms and was prohibited to reunite with Choo until she and her husband, Hom Hing, supplied enough identification paper to the government to prove that this baby was their son.
Grant Ave. in Chinatown, San Francisco.
Chinese immigrants on board the steam ship Alaska,...
Choo choo!Because this process took a long time, Lea Choo sank in her misery and hopeless.
Hom Hing was a merchant doing business in San Francisco. Like many other Chinese immigrants, he struggled to come to the U.S. hoping he could find have a better life and prosperity. Unfortunately, his wife, Lea Choo could not come with him because she had to stay to take care of Hing's sick parents. After they died, Choo took a long journey to America to reunite with her husband. She always dreamed of the U.S as a wonderland. However, when she first stepped in this marvelous country, she knew that all her dreams were broken. Her son could not come...