Sounds ironic 
directly connecting the nations of Europe with those of Asia interesting to note the apposition of 'Europe' and 'Asia' as descriptions. Er--could you 'splain a bit, please? I can't hear you with my eyes closed.
Er--could you 'splain a bit, please? I can't hear you with my eyes closed.Maybe it's a reference to this (although you never know with mav, do you):
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=145866
> (although you never know with mav, do you):
mwah~hah~ha, my watched plot never boils...
and yes, the ASp is as perfickly orientatatated as usual :)
edit: to unpackage that a bit more, I thought it was interesting that this early on, they used the description of Asia as a natural 'opposite pole' to Europe, and also thought it was an ironic reference to a far-away place, given the huge numbers of Chinese labourers imported to slave on laying the railroad.
Thanks, Anna; I hadn't read that thread (or many others lately--my babies came home from college this weekend!).
As to the mention in the article, I took it as a parallel to the importance of a link between Europe and Asia, quite possibly the recently-opened Orient Express. Though I'll never know--I can hardly ask the writer!
Oh, and according to one piece I read, the Chinese laborers immigrated; they were not "imported".
> not "imported".
Really? I don't know much about this chapter of history, but thought I had read that large numbers of men had come from China and had not stayed beyond the construction years. Maybe my faulty memory though.
Pardon the thread derailment, but you did notice this, Jackie?
did someone crosstie this with another thread?
Chinese labour forces ebbed and flowed around the newer countries during the 19th century. The Chinese working on US railways weren't slaves, although they worked vey hard for very little pay. Many of them came directly from the failed goldfields of California or the Chinatown slums of San Francisco.
Although they were accepted on the west coast, the midwest and the east never really felt comfortable with Chinese neighbours, and they weren't encouraged to stay. Many of them made enough money to go back to China and live in some style, but many more remained or moved on to Australia and New Zealand as gold fields opened up in those two countries.
I read a book about this very subject some years ago, but I can't remember the title or the author, I'm afraid.
another reason they left US was, for many years, only men were allowed to enter US, and misseganation laws prevented them from marrying anyone but one of their own race. so life here in US was one of almost complete celebacy.
>>ebbed and flowed
A similar phenomenon is powerfully at work in the global economy today.
>>accepted on the west coast
Not entirely. One of the reasons for the opium prohibition (forestalling: I am aware that there are legitimate concerns for health and social welfare for seeking to minimize the use of opiates 'recreationally') in San Francisco and elsewhere, was the trafficking of white women with chinese men.
Thanks for the interesting information. So, not 'imported' but welcomed by entrepeneurs - not slave conditions, just denied all normal civil rights and status - immigrants, but only for around 20 years then excluded for over 60 years entirely.
The roots of Chinese exclusion were deeply buried in the soil of American racism.
mmmm, my memory was obviously seriously faulty... ;)