History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
Now that the traffic is developed, we have established friendly diplomatic relations with many countries, and many Chinese people even choose to immigrate to live abroad because they like the living environment of foreign countries. In fact, in this era, immigration is not a rare thing, but do you know who the first Chinese immigrants to the United States were? Today we will tell her story.
According to records, the first person to immigrate to the United States was a very ordinary Chinese woman, her name was Mei Afang. But the matter of immigration has to start with the Qing government's closed country, when China was strong and rich, so the Qing rulers believed that even if China did not have too much contact with foreign countries, the Chinese people could be self-sufficient.
It is true that the self-sufficiency of the Chinese people is indeed not a problem, but this has left China's scientific and technological development backward, information is blocked, and it is impossible to know what is happening in the outside world in time. In the eyes of the people at that time, the appearance of the Chinese people was the most normal appearance, so when they occasionally saw foreigners, they would think that foreigners looked strange.
Because China has been closed to the country for a long time, in the eyes of foreigners, China is a magical and distant country. From the late 18th century onwards, foreigners would import some objects with Chinese characteristics to China and then bring them back to China for sale, perhaps the original objects were not very valuable, but because they were shrouded in a layer of mystery, they could also sell at high prices, so that there were many people who made a lot of money.
In 1832, a pair of American Carney brothers came to China, and they first settled in Guangzhou to do business, often running around. But every time they go out, they will be watched by many people, and everyone will look at them and point at them, as if they are a strange species, which makes the Carney brothers very unhappy.
But their thinking is more peculiar, they think about it, Chinese are so curious about foreigners, then will foreigners also be curious about what Chinese look like? So they made a bold decision to buy a Chinese woman and bring her back to the United States for exhibition, and if they succeeded, they would no longer have to live a life of travel.
Eventually, the Carney brothers bought a 19-year-old girl from a poor family, and they gave her a name called Afong Moy, Chinese her name translates to Mei Afang. In October 1834, the Carney brothers took Mei Afang on a ship returning to New York from Guangzhou. After careful planning, the brothers arranged an identity for Mei Afang - the daughter of the Qing Dynasty prince.
Foreigners are also full of curiosity about the mysterious Chinese, as soon as they heard that Mei Afang was the daughter of the Qing Dynasty prince, they wanted to see it, although they had to pay 50 cents of tickets for each time they saw it, but it was a very good deal for them, and Mei Afang was forced to show them how to eat with chopsticks and perform Chinese to them.
For those who bid high, they can also have the privilege of seeing Mei Afang's three-inch golden lotus, Mei Afang's golden lotus is only about 10cm, as big as a child's foot. But foreigners do not understand China's foot-binding culture, they think that Mei Afang was abused by the Carney brothers, and have condemned the Carney brothers' abuse of the disabled is inhumane, but the Carney brothers do not care, their purpose is only to make money.
In order to get a large audience, they even put Mei Afang in a cage, then pulled her to the street to exhibit, and forced her to perform in the cage, and the Carney brothers made a lot of money through Mei Afang. Later, after China lifted the lockdown, people came into contact with more and more foreigners, and they were no longer curious about Mei Afang.
Originally, Mei Planned to return to China, but no one saw her in China, and it is said that after leaving the Carney brothers, she first lived in New York for a while and then moved to Boston. So in this way, Mei Afang is indeed the first Chinese to immigrate to the United States.