Item Detail
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11598
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2
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0
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English
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The Images of the Chinese in the Rocky Mountain Region : 1855-1882
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Brigham Young University
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Ph.D. diss.
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"The Chinese came to the Rocky Mountain region after 1855 because they saw it as a land of opportunities. Their settlement was affected primarily by three factors: geographic distance from the West Coast, economic opportunities, and Euro-American reactions. Both China and the Chinese were perceived mainly negatively in the Rocky Mountain region in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The negative images were the most important factor contributing to the denial to the Chinese their civil rights, their right to naturalization, and eventually to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Although some of the criticism arose from real conditions, many negative stereotypes about China and the Chinese came from racial prejudice. In the Rocky Mountain region, the newspapers and journals affiliated with the Mormon Church were consistently sympathetic with the Chinese. The more friendly attitudes of the Mormon publications toward the Chinese came from both their religious beliefs and the persecution they also suffered during this period." [Author's abstract]