"After the civil rights era, we gained more rights. I think the communities realized, ‘Hey the Chinese are really making a contribution.’”
I find the naivete of this immigrant's thinking astonishing. The Chinese gained more rights not because the whites of Mississippi suddenly woke up one day and said, "Hey, the Chinese are making a contribution to our society" but because blacks rose up against segregation and fought for their rights. Whites were forced (against their will or indifference) to pay more respect to all people of color through a show of resistance and protests, not because they came to a certain "enlightenment" on their own.
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@Jamie
Anyone who is familiar with the history of the Chinese in Mississippi knows this article doesn't tell the whole story. Actually, before the Civil Rights Movement the Chinese were generally treated much better than the blacks. Because the Chinese opened grocery stores, their merchant status gave them a slightly higher status than blacks. After 1950 their children were allowed to attend white schools whereas black children were continued to be excluded. By the way, the woman whom you quoted is not an immigrant. She is born in this country a descendant of Chinese immigrants. To know more about this interesting history you can go to this link http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/86/mississippi-chinese-an-...
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While the angle of this piece was fascinating, I most enjoyed the images captured by Kung and Hahn that showed, through the style of the clothing and nuanced mannerisms, the intermixing of Southern and Chinese traditions.
As a fifth generation Chinese American, whom my father and grandmother are from Greenville, Mississippi it is good to see the struggle and heritage of Southern Chinese Americans is not forgotten. Thank you for the piece.
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Beautiful photos.
I first learned about this community from a "Parts Unknown" episode about the Mississippi Delta. Thank you for more depth and detail to this community.
Thanks for sharing this story! Besides Chang and Eng, I’ve never learned about any Asian-American Southerners.
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For more on this subject, see Quan, Robert Seto, Lotus Among the Magnolias: The Mississippi Chinese (1982, University Press of Mississippi).
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Please also consult John JUNG's Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Ms Delta Chinese Grocers (2008) & other works .... thanks for the piece