SOURCE: Yin, Xiao-huang. “Plea and Protest: The Voices of Early Chinese Immigrants.” In Chinese American Literature Since the 1850s, pp. 11-52. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois, 2000.

In the following excerpt, Yin describes the powerful literary responses of Chinese immigrants to the deplorable social conditions they endured in mid-nineteenth-century America.

This is to certify that we, the undersigned, are good Chinamen and have lived in California and other parts of the United States, and that we have at all times been willing to abide by all the laws of the United States, and the States and Territories in which we have lived. And are now willing to deport ourselves as good law abiding citizens of Montana Territory, and ask but that protection that the liberal and good government of this country permits us to enjoy. We pay all our taxes and assessments, and only ask that the good people...