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Expanding American History Beyond Chauvinism by Albert Yee

During the Bicentennial, Edwin 0. Reischauer (1976) expressed great concern that American students complete schooling understanding little about the history of their country and of other nations. He wrote: llHaving little understanding of non-Western lands especially, they are no better prepared to face today's world than was an earlier generation of students who in their time of leadership marched us into the quagmire of Vietnam!! (p, 20).

of the late 19601s, Reischauer's article argued that "history to be relevant today can- not be so parochial but must encompass as much as possible of the total experience of mankind" (p. 20). ing fathers gave (and we can say most Americans still do) to ancient Greek and Roman ideals and history.

had possessed a comparable knowledge of classical China, I daresay they could have drawn as many useful lessons from it. In fact, it i s possible that the record of Chinese history during 2,000 years of close social integration and intimate experience with bureaucratic government holds more that is relevant to our crowded, bureaucratic age than can be drawn from our own, less bureaucratic past (p. 20).

Stressing the tragic misjudgments of Americans in Southeast Asia and the radicalism

One example he gives is the predominant reference the American found-

However, he wrote that if the early American leaders:

Clearly documenting the intrigue and culpability of President James K. Polk and others in the U.S. annexation of Mexican territories, Glenn W. Price (1967) accused American historians of misrepresenting the true history of the nation's actions in the 1840's against Mexico. tells why historians may have been equivocal in their writings on the history of the acquisition of Texas and Alta California. He condemns the influence of chauvinistic bias and arrogance: "the national, the internal frame of reference, the provincial historical approach has tended to emphasize the national consequences of the acquisition and to depreciate both the international significance which it had and the importance of the diplomatic and military methods used" (p. 171). Price's most stinging indictment relates directly to Reischauerfs: dents of our War with Mexico remain largely uninstructed. American historians" (p. 172).

sion to write a study of the Japanese so that American leaders would be able to under- stand Japan, its culture and people and act accordingly to win the war. She had never been to Japan, studied Japanese culture before, nor could she read Japanese. Writing 20 years before Reischauer and Price, it does not seem to have crossed Benedictls mind, though her work is generally regarded as a classic, that the need for her study must be considered a tragic judgment on American leaders, scholars, and educators. Insensitive to that view, her first two sentences are as follows: "The Japanese were the most alien enemy the United States had ever fought in an all-out struggle. In no other war with a major foe had it been necessary to take into account such exceedingly different habits of acting and thinking" (p. 1). It took a war to bring leaders to acquaint themselves with one of the world's most ancient nations. Whose fault was it that the Japanese seemed so strange and necessitated Benedictls study?

of the Callfornia Department of Education, which reviews and approves all curricular materials, mostly textbooks, before they can be used in the State's classrooms, Grades K-8. not only by the narrow and distorted presentation of American history but by the ne- glect of cultural roots and world events of importance to all peoples today. In general, bias prevails, though lip service currently is pald to minorities, ethnic groups, and women for the sake of compliance.

In his final chapter titled, "The Misuse of American Experience," Price

!!One hundred years after the event, most American stu- That is a judgment upon

During W. W. 11, anthmpoligist Ruth Benedict (1946) received a government commis-

For several years, this author has been a member of the Legal Compliance Committee

Having reviewed several hundred textbooks in this service, I have been appalled

One yearns for a meaningfil and well-

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written series offer ing a t rue his tory of the t o t a l experience of human l i f e . I have seen only a few tex ts which deserve praise f o r providing comprehensive and meaningful history. such as covering up the genocide of the American Indian by al legat ions of Indian blood- th i r s t iness and emphasis upon the solution of p o l i t i c a l tension through warfare and conquest. When such books reach young readers, we perpetuate a contradiction tha t hinders the development of American ideals in the individual and society. The new textbooks continue t o neglect, misrepresent, and gloss over the r i c h her i tage of Asia in the his tory of the U.S. Americans and what his tor ians know and have written, not tha t the objec t iv i ty of his tor ians goes without c r i t i c i sm as noted above (Yee, 1973, 1975).

textbook wri ters leave it t o be assumed by the reader that the Chinese had a choice i n the matter? Might it be t h a t Leland Stanford and others who controlled the h i r ing and pay schedules of the ear ly West forced the Chinese in to l i fe-death choices? Why do such writers seem t o ignorant of the Chinese workers' s t r i k e s f o r more adequate pay, such as in the construction of the ra i l road over the Sierras when the Chinese struck t o get pay equal t o the I r i s h workers? Nothing is sa id about the massacres of Chinese f o r defending t h e i r r ights . What about the Supreme Court of California (People vs. Hall, 1854) which said tha t the Chinese were Indians (s ince Columbus was searching f o r China, e t c . ) and therefore had no r igh ts i n the courts and protection of the law? The tendency of text- book his tor ians t o b e l i t t l e the Chinese is akin t o aspersions upon the blacks f o r being slaves. According t o Lyman (1971), a scholar i n the study of f r o n t i e r society, the Chinese suffered one of the most outrageous at tacks on a whole people t h a t has ever been perpetrated by an aroused ci t izenry, which i s ver i f ied by Mark T w a i n ' s d i rec t observa- t ions as a reporter f o r the Ter r i to r ia l Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada (Clemens, 1880, p. 391).

Though of ten obscure and in highly limited circulat ion, abundant evidence e x i s t s t o document the actual role of the Chinese and other minorities in t h i s nation of which the public has not been made aware. There i s a tremendously r i c h and p l e n t i f u l his tory concerning the heritage of a l l Americans, not jus t minority groups, which the textbook his tor ians have omitted, misrepresented, and dis tor ted. A p l u r a l i s t i c society deserves a be t te r representation of i t s e l f than the garbled and misleading h is tory textbooks pro- vide youngsters i n general. One myth t h a t continues i s t h a t re la t ions between the East and the West had been so super f ic ia l tha t both developed a s separate e n t i t i e s . t o John Steadman, (1969, p. 43) there is "no objective bas i s f o r the dichotomy of Europe and Asia e i t h e r geographically o r cul tural ly .1f Steadman explains well how the f a l s e contrasting of East versus West developed such tha t the peoples of Asia and Europe have come t o believe in the myth and a r e not well acquainted with the t r u e his tory of East- West re la t ions. The riches of China and Asia brought about Europe's great explorations t o find sea routes t o the East and the unforeseen discovery of the New World. Polo had a greater h i s tor ica l influence than i s generally known, f o r h i s book r e l a t i n g 24 years i n China stimulated great ambitions and hopes. extensive notes i n h is copy of Polo's book, many of which attempted t o t i e h i s own discoveries in the New World with those Marco described i n China. East-West exchanges of a r t , inventions, and ideas over the centur ies have been f a r more than j u s t s i l k and tea (Edwards, 1971).

many explorers come t o mind -- Henry the Navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco da Gama, John and Sebastian Cabot, Henry Hudson, Vltus Bering, and Jacques Cart ler . Many more dared l i f e and fortunes i n the common quest. Yet the his tory books, especial ly f o r American youth, g lor i fy the Age of Discovery and Exploration i n and of i t s e l f with very l i t t l e a t ten t ion t o the explorers' primary goals and motivations. tury, Western nations were influenced f a r more by China than vice versa and t h i s inf lu- ence proved t o be beneficial to the discovery and settlement of North America. In con- t r a s t to the Europeans, the Chinese showed l i t t l e i n t e r e s t in explorations toward the West.

The simplicity and easy summary common t o textbooks lead t o f a l s e conclusions,

There is a great gulf between textbook h is tory f o r young

I f the Chinese immigrants worked f o r low wages and had t o l i v e frugal ly , why do

According

Marco

For example, Columbus wrote

Across the centuries-long search f o r a passage t o China and i ts c iv i l iza t ion ,

Through the 18th cen-

I f Westerners had not gone t o the Chinese and returned home t o r e l a t e the " p o d

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news," which eventually brought about conf l ic t and imperialism, China and the World would no doubt be qui te d i f fe ren t today.

might have been i f continued f o r long, began with t h e admission of Father Matteo Ricci, a Jesui t missionary, t o China i n 1583. Well-trained i n the language and cul ture of the country, Ricci and the over 900 se lec t Jesu i t s who went t o China between 1583-1720 were more successful than could have been hoped for . When Ricci died i n 1610, Jesu i t centers could be found i n three c i t i e s and Chris t iani ty was well-respected by many scholar- o f f i c i a l s . The Ming court u t i l i z e d Jesui t knowledge i n Euclidean geometry, armaments and other technology, i n world geography, and even had them serve as court tu tors and a r t i s t s . the l a t e Ming and ear ly Ching dynasties. They even b u i l t fountains i n the s t y l e of Versailles f o r the summer palace. In the period of over 125 years, Chinese leaders were exposed to the best of Western learning i f not i n conversation, then i n the several hundred publications of the Jesu i t s i n c lass ica l Chinese. t h e i r presence i n China, the Jesu i t s gave the West vast detai led information about China and i ts people, most of which was complimentary and strong enough t o stimulate t h e Age of Enlightenment.

The Jesui ts found no harm i n making the tenets of Chris t iani ty compatible t o the Chinese ceremonial rites, but Dominicans and Franciscans arr iving i n China i n the 1630's disagreed with tha t accommodation between East and West. After a long series of fact- finding missions sent t o China, the Pope made a f i n a l statement in 1720 condemning the use of Chinese r i t u a l s . A t t h a t point, the K'ang-hsi emperor regre t fu l ly countered by ordering the missionaries away. Thus, the grea tes t opportunity of the West to convert China ended. Pope Pius reversed the ed ic t i n 1939, but modern China was no longer receptive.

and diverse missionaries, the less the Chinese l iked the foreigners, and t h e i r xenophobia was reinforced. center of the world, and everyone and everything foreign was stereotyped "barbarian," especially the things they wanted most from the West, such as firearms. Unlike foreigners of the past , the imperial is ts wanted t h e i r way and could not be assimilated as o ther "barbarians.11 found i n China, as Marco Polo had been s i x centuries ear l ie r . Contrary to what Polo and the Jesu i t wrote e a r l i e r , the archaic socio-pol i t ics of the C'hing Dynasty appalled them so, the foreigners ra t ional ized t h e i r intervention as somehow improving the s i tuat ion. Thus, many d i f fe ren t powers competed with each other f o r a greater portion of China, and i n so doing, together as locusts, they began to destroy the very substance of old China. This confrontation of East and West permanently affected the l ives of a l l peoples, not jus t the Chinese, and s t i l l does today.

Wanting to boost its t rade balance, the Br i t i sh East India Company began the ship- ping of opium to China i n 1819. opium addiction and the great loss of s i l v e r , dispatched a stout-hearted o f f i c i a l t o Canton t o Itcut off the fountain of e v i l . . .I1 Commissioner Lin Tse-Hsu quickly took charge of the s i tua t ion and dumped more than 20,000 chests of about $10 million worth of Br i t i sh opium into the Pearl River. That ga l lan t moment of victory, however, was followed by a shameful military defeat i n 1842 and the signing of t h e t rea ty conceded Hong Kong and many t rading r igh ts to England, which the Americans were quick t o secure f o r themselves i n 1844.

It i s of i n t e r e s t t o note tha t e a r l i e r i n 1773 the tea dumped a t the Boston Tea Party was Chinese tea or iginat ing from Canton where Lin was t o dump Br i t i sh opium 66 years l a t e r . By granting the very same Br i t i sh East India Company a monopoly i n the trade of tea, which the Company obtained through Canton, Parliament caused Americans t o think ser iously of independence. Free trade, especial ly f o r China's s i l k and tea, con- cerned the revolutionaries before and during the War of Independence. During the war i n 1779, Benjamin Franklin c r i t i c i z e d American foreign trade, 500,000 pounds Ster l ing, each year, which he said went mainly f o r luxuries, "more than half of it f o r tea," (Fleming, 1972).

Perhaps the most in te res t ing East/West contact, one t h a t evokes speculation of what

Jesu i t astronomers ran the bureau in charge of the imperial calendar through

In l e t t e r s and reports spanning

Into the 19th century, the more they saw of Western t raders and then t h e i r so ld ie rs

For thousands of years, the Chinese believed t h a t t h e i r nation was the

In fac t , the modern invaders were def in i te ly not enthral led with what they

By 1839, the Chinese court, alarmed by the increasing

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Unfortunately, school textbooks do neglect such his tory. Besides the general public, it is pathet ic tha t many Chinese Americans a r e not aware of the t r u e h is tory underlying t h e i r American and Chinese roots . a t the Boston Tea Party is not what is so important. East/West re la t ions, meaningful. Surely, i t would show tha t patriotism and gal lantry against tyranny i s not limited to one s ide of humanity. of cargo t o the waters i n 1773 and 1839 by the Br i t i sh East India Company and the socio- p o l i t i c a l consequences afterwards would give pause t o a l l peoples.

When the War f o r Independence was o f f i c i a l l y concluded, U.S.-China t rade began i n earnest (Crossman, 1972). The f i r s t American vessel landing i n Canton was named the Empress of China. Arriving i n 1784 with a cargo of New England ginseng root , the ship returned t o New York loaded with t e a and s i l k more than a year l a t e r . American ships traded hundreds of thousands of do l la rs i n cash and goods, such as furs and sea l skins, sandalwood, dried sea slugs, cotton, lead and quicksilver. Repet tab ly , a f t e r 1844 about ten percent of the opium trade involved American shipping. Countless American ships sa i led t o China hoping t o have f a i r s a i l i n g and the chance to capi ta l ize on speed and t h e i r choice of goods and qual i ty . In the 1850ts, t e a c l ippers , majestic in f u l l s a i l and b u i l t especial ly f o r the China trade, shipped huge cargoes of s i l k s and tea as speedily as possible t o the U.S. and Europe -- the market f o r t e a and s i l k s r i s i n g and f a l l i n g according t o the timing and number of voyages. The chances of making o r losing furtunes were great. American cl ippers raced against each other and those of the Bri t ish, especially t o bring t o market t h e f i r s t consignment of China's annual season's tea , which brought the highest pr ices and a r ich bonus a t the Boston and London markets.

Besides t e a and s i l k , the China t rade brought feather dusters , kitchen u tens i l s , wallpaper, carpeting, furni ture , porcelains, lacquerware, silverware, and pewter, most of which were made t o order. Each morning, George Washington would have h i s porridge only from h i s bowl of Canton ware. In f a c t , President Washington thought so highly of U.S.-China re la t ions t h a t i n 1786 he sent the f i r s t U.S. diplomat, Major Samuel Shaw, a Boston merchant, t o represent the young nation's i n t e r e s t in China.

Perhaps the most in te res t ing imports t o note i n re la t ionship t o t h e Bicentennial e ra were the p o r t r a i t s and paintings tha t came of or ig ina l design and copies of popular ar t isans, such a s the Battle of Lexington and Plymouth Landing. t r a i t s of George Washington became so popular, the a r t i s t took lega l act ion i n 1800 against the import of fur ther copies from Canton. On a recent v i s i t t o Monticello, I was most interested t o f ind a set of China displayed there t h a t Thomas Jefferson had ordered from Canton f o r the White House, as well as brass handles on the dresser drawers i n the Chinese bat design. Technology displayed the wide use of Chinese porcelain i n ear ly America, as ear ly a s the Jamestown colony.

It would be hard t o imagine genteel Western scoei ty i n the 18th century without the s i l k and fabr ics i t made great use of f o r clothing, furni ture , and draperies. Even American homes and communities contained so many items from China t h a t they may have taken the source more o r less f o r granted, perhaps a s we do with foreign o i l , autos, and wines. n i f ican t in t h e 18th and 19th centuries, although it was f a r more advantageous t o the West than t o China. West and vice versa increased great ly . Although his tor ians and p o l i t i c a l s c i e n t i s t s tend t o t race the seeds of W. W. I1 t o U.S. refusal t o j o i n the League of Nations and Japan's unhindered conquest of Manchuria in 1931, the Chinese could make a case t h a t some seeds of Pearl Harbor were planted i n the decision of the Versai l les conferees set- t l i n g W. W. I t o give the German-held t e r r i t o r i e s in China t o the Japanese instead of t h e i r Chinese a l l i e s . Sad t o say, even though over 200,000 Chinese went t o help t h e Allied cause i n W. W. I, very few Americans know about t h a t decision, o r even the conse- quent Movement of May 4, 1919. The May 4th Movement in China became a turning point and foreboder of other c r i t i c a l outcomes tha t educated people must know i f they a r e t o understand the People's Republic of China.

Americans should r e f l e c t seriously on the f a c t t h a t i n less than four decades t h e i r

Knowing about the presence of Chinese tea The fu l l telling of his tory, of

and i f developed, would be a l l t h a t more fascinat ing and

Comparing and contrasting the two h i s t o r i c a l losses

In Canton,

Gilbert S t u a r t ' s por-

In 1976, exhibi ts in the Smithsonian Museum of History and

The commercial and ideological contact between East and West was r e a l and s ig-

In the 20th century, the influence of China upon the U.S. and the

nation has fought three wars in Asia. less time with far less loss of life and destruction. of knowledge and insight concerning Asian history and cultures, and a chauvinistic view of the world, neglectful not only of Asia but of the grand history of the entire world made Americans vulnerable. Indicative of the misunderstandings and misperceptions sur- rounding the Vietnam War, strong bigotry and resistance were openly expressed in 1975 when the Southeast Asian refugees arrived in the U.S. The extreme manifestation of all of this is shown in apathy to famine and human suffering in Asia and firepower and carnage in Asian wars beyond other enemies. W. W. 11's Executive Order 9066, which removed 112,000 Japanese from their homes and relocated them in concentration camps but did not affect or have a companion order for German- and Italian-Americans, demonstrated America's contradictory actions and attitudes toward Asian and European adversaries.

textbooks that American schools commonly use to teach youngsters about Asia. carefully, the experts were appalled by the inaccuracies, distortions, and omissions found. Their greatest criticism fell on the books' misrepresentation of Asian life through Western ethnocentric standards and value judgments and the pervasive emphasis upon the West as it encountered the East, thereby dichotomizing the world in terms of favorability, i.e., Asia is different and bad (Asia Society, 1976).

Americans to reflect not only on the little-known heritage of black Americans but of all Americans. Americans have roots which have not been heralded and generalized in the true concept of an open and pluralistic society. nial celebration of Columbus' landing in the New World, will we view that historic event in the most meaningful and fullest manner possible? cation should portray the man as he was, his true quest in the Westward Movement, why he was so captivated by China and Asia, and the evidence which challenges the view that Columbus and the West Igdiscoveredf1 the Americas.

migrations across the land-locked Bering Straits tens of thousands of years ago. Also, Chinese history indicates explorations of the west coast o f America a thousand years before Columbus, and archaeologists have found fascinating cultural and inventive slmi- larities between the Chinese and many Indian groups in the Americas, especially the Olmecs in Central America. their dead with jade as the Chinese did. nent to develop writing, a calendar, use of tree fibers for clothing, life-like sculptures, quadratic pyramids with staircases, and elaborate ceramics with symbols and figures re- sembling those in China. The extensive civilization of the Olmecs and the cultural simi- larities, which are not easily explained by coincidence, could not have sprung from the neighboring aborigines who were quite primitive in comparison. (1970, p. 275):

Each might have been averted or concluded in But serious misjudgments, lack

One hundred Asian experts were recently asked by the Asia Society to examine 306 Analyzing

Alex Haley's Boots and its televised dramatization in 1977 caused millions of

As we look toward the quincenten-

By 1992, textbooks and American edu-

It has been well established that the American llnativesll or Indians stem from Asian

The Olmecs were highly skilled in working jade and buried The Olmecs were the first on the American conti-

According to Hans Breuer

Thus it was not Columbus who was the first to steer towards America. Nevertheless, in the meanwhile, his name has become a synonym for the discoverer of America. Anyone who finds the foregoing hypotheses con- vincing, then, should have no qualms about asserting that "Columbus was Chinese. 'I

The purpose of this essay has been to emphasize the tragic error of historians and textbook publishers in promulgating a history of America that seems guided more by attitudes and biases than accurate representation of the actual themes, events, persons, motivations, and circumstances that took place. The primary example given here concerns the influence upon the formation of this nation by China and its people. problems of omission, neglect, and misrepresentation of history, there are consequences which befall a people which obtains gross miseducation concerning the world, its nation's development and past role in respect to other societies, and the objectives and motiva- tions of its heroes.

A prominent academic and State Department official, Willard L. Thorp (1962, p. 21, wrote that:

Besides the

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(Americans did not) make any great effort to learn about the Far East. scholars was concentrated upon our immediate society and its origins. This enterprise carried us across the Atlantic, and we studied European history and culture. ancestry back to the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews. But the usual college graduate knew more about the moon than he did abut Korea, more about the early Romans than he did about contemporary China.

The attention of our educational system and most of our

We pursued our cultural

This paper's concerns should become more important as the U.S. and the People's Republic of China increase relations after many years of hostility and infrequent contact. Trade and cultural activities are expanding, Chinese students are being sent to the U.S., wre and more Americans are touring China, and the major newspapers pro- vide increasing coverage of what takes place in China and in her relations with other countries. and some accommodation for Taiwan may occur before President Carter's first term ends. Therefore, a fuller and more accurate history, representing the past with greater mean- ing and detail, will hopefully come about not only in the U.S. but in the P.R.C. as well.

Given these prospects, normalization of U.S.-P.R.C. diplomatic relations

NOTES

1. Asia Society, Asia in American Textbooks (New York: 2. Ruth Benedict, Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (Cleveland:

3. Hans Breuer, Columbus Was Chinese, trans. Salvator Attanasio (New York: McGraw Hill,

4. S. Clemens (Twain), Roughing It (Hartford: American Publishing, 1880). 5. Carl L. Crossman, The China Trade (Princeton: 6. Michael Edwardes, East-West Passage: The Travel of Ideas, Arts, and Inventions

between Asia and the Western World (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1971). 7. Thomas Fleming, ed.,

Harper and Row, 1972). 8. S. M. Lyman, The Asian in the West (Reno: Western Studies Center, Desert Research

Institute, University of Nevada, 1971). 9. Glenn W. Price, Origins of the War with Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press,

Asia Society, Inc., 1976).

World Publishers, 1946).

1970).

Pyne Press, 1972).

Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in His Own Words (New York:

1967). 10. Edwin 0. Reischauer,IlExpanding the Limits of History," Saturday Review 3 (19761,

11. John Steadman, The Myth of Asia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969). 12. Willard L. Thorp, The United States and the Far East, 2nd ed. (Gnglewood Cliffs,

13. Albert H. Yee, "Myopic Perceptions and Textbooks: Chinese Americans' Search for

pp. 20-25.

N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962).

Identity, 14. Albert H. Yee, "Ethnocentric Textbooks and Perceptions of Culture: The Case of the

Chinese Americans,!' in L. C. Beckum, ed. School Desegregation of Cultural Pluralism (San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1975)

Journal of Social- Issues 29 (1973), pp. 99-113.