Minnesota's first Chinese settlers, fleeing racial violence in California, established scores of small businesses after they arrived in the late 1870s. Newspapers eagerly published reports of the small Chinese community's activities, including New Year's festivities, marriages, and restaurant openings--as well as allegations of tong activity and of their political ties to China. Beginning in 1882 federal laws stopping Chinese immigration and denying citizenship put particular pressure on the community, which was also accused of resisting Americanization. By the 1960s, a new wave of...
Minnesota's first Chinese settlers, fleeing racial violence in California, established scores of small businesses after they arrived in the late 1870s...