Becoming American: The Chinese Experience : Gold Mountain Dreams (2003)
Genres - Historical Film |
Sub-Genres - Race & Ethnicity, Social History, Biography |
Run Time - 90 min. |
Countries - United States |
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Synopsis
"Gold Mountain Dreams" (Part 1) begins amid strife and famine in mid-19th-century China. But in California there was gold, which lured some 20,000 adventurers. Many vowed to return to their families as "heroes," but, as historians and descendants of immigrants detail, few did. One reason, as host Bill Moyers puts it, was "economic and racial hysteria," leading the U.S. Government to enact the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Characteristics
Themes
Keywords
Chinese-American, immigration, assimilation, cultural-identity, dreams-of-success, opportunity, China, civil-war, family, famine, gold-rush, poverty, racism, railroad, sexual-discrimination, slavery, westward-expansion
