Photo © Currier & Ives, Library of Congress (LOC)

1st Chinese immigrants in NYC

1st recorded Chinese immigrants in NY

Description

During Mid-1800’s the cities first Chinese immigrants were recorded. In a census taken in 1855, there were recorded 38 Chinese in New York, all males. The general occupation of these Chinese immigrants was sailors, boarding house owners, proprietors of small businesses, peddlers, and cigar makers.

Surprisingly some of the Chinese immigrants married Irish women and became American citizens. By 1873, the New York Times reported around 500 Chinese Immigrants, most of them men, half of which moved to what we now call Chinatown.

1st wave of Immigrants, ca 1830

Among the earliest documented arrivals of Chinese immigrants in New York City were of "sailors and peddlers" in the 1830s.

Immigrated, 1847

Three students who came to continue their education in the United States. One of these scholars, Yung Wing, soon became the first Chinese American to graduate from a U.S. college in 1854, when Wing graduated from Yale University.

Conducted, 1855

Immigrated, 1858

1st Cantonese immigrants settled in the area known as Chinatown, working as "cigar men" carrying billboards near City Hall and begin the wave of Chinese Immigration.

Immigrated, ca 1870

Wave of Chinese immigrants searching for "gold.

Related Sites

The Chinese Exclusion Act-The Chinese Exclusion Act, which went into effect in 1882, caused an abrupt decline in the number of Chinese who emigrated to New York and the rest of the United States

Burlingame-Seward Treaty

Map View