'The Rice Room - A Conflict of Generations'

'The kindred mingled with Americans and Chinese immigrants in atomic number 20 is complex, to say the least. Chinese immigrants helped build a good deal of the infrastructure and introduced intensifier farming to the speak Area in the 1800s, but, despite these contributions, proceed to be viewed as unwanted laborers by the Americans. By the 1870s unemployment judge were rising in America, and the Chinese immigrants chop-chop became the scapegoat for American duress. There was a rise in Anti-Chinese (anti-coolie) movements that swept across California (24). These movements drag to the closure of some(prenominal) Chinese settlements and prompted sexual congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion exemplify and the 1924 Immigration Act. These congressional decisions only perpetuated the account of racism and qualm felt betwixt the Americans and Chinese in California, which would continue tumefy into the 20th century. In his novel The strain Room, Ben Fong-Torres traces his complex cross-cultural hereditary pattern as a mo generation Chinese American during the mid(prenominal) 1900s; torn between the alluring American lifestyle and the tralatitious cultural heritage his immigrant parents struggled to instill in him.\n resembling to the highest degree immigrants, Bens parents came to America in search of the American Dream. Referred to California as the Golden Mountains , the fall in States offered an opportunity to present more gold and provide for family defend in China. Ben notes that his give was encouraged by his family to seek a greater share and then fall in to fetch them  (11). His bewilder did as he was told, and came to America via the Philippines. Like most Chinese immigrants in the 1920s, Bens dumbfound entered the country illegally. Because there were strict limits on the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into America, Bens father added Torres to his get to convince immigration officials that he was of Philippine descent. Bens mother besides entered the country illegally, and both(prenominal) lived in precaution of being disc... '