What kind of place is Rocktown?

Locke is a small town covering an area of about 65,438+00 mu, located 30 miles south of Sacramento, the capital of California. It is located behind the big river mud dam in Sacramento, and it is the only existing town in the United States founded by Chinese.

Rocktown was formed when Californians felt threatened by immigrants from China. Gabriel J. Qing, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati, said: "What happened in Locke Town is part of the nationwide wave of Chinese exclusion in the19th century, which began with the coolie law in 1860. At that time, the law assumed that all Asian women were prostitutes. "

/kloc-In the mid-9th century, a large number of immigrants from China came to the United States to look for gold. By the beginning of the 20th century, most people in China gave up mining and turned to agriculture. Delta is a fertile land between San Francisco and Sacramento, where China laborers are needed to drain swamps, build dams and grow grains, so Chinese Americans are allowed to build their homes in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. They have built many dams here, but they are forced to live where no one wants to live. As long as the owner of the land wants to take back the land, they have to leave at any time.

19 15, the walnut forest in the delta town suffered a fire, and a group of immigrants from Zhongshan, China decided to rebuild their residential area. They swam about a quarter of a mile along the winding flood dike and reached the present location of Locke Town, where a merchant descendant named George Locke inherited hundreds of acres of orchards. At that time, there was a pier and a porcelain shop and bar. With the consent of the Luo family, they set aside a piece of land to build a China settlement.

Over the years, Locke Town has been famous for its casinos, underground opium dens and numerous brothels in the Delta. China laborers came here for the first time to build flood control dikes in the delta, but by the time Locke Town was built, most people in China had turned to agriculture. There are many industries in Rocktown that serve farm workers and local residents in China. In the 1940s, there were restaurants, bakeries, Chinese medicine shops, fish markets, casinos, hotels, brothels, grocery stores, schools, clothing stores and "Star Theater" beside the busy streets in the town. At the peak, there were 600 residents, including 1500 migrants.

In the early 1970s, the American government confirmed the historical value of Rocktown and listed 50 houses in the town as national historical sites. However, because China people can't own the ownership of the land where they live, those early pioneers have moved away, leaving only a small town devastated by years. At present, the population has dropped to less than 100, leaving only about100 in the whole country. Most of the buildings in the town are wooden houses, which have fallen into disrepair and become a crumbling desolate scene.

Tomorrow in leju town

The people of China who founded Luoke Town in those days also called this place "Leju Town" with its homonym, but the hard and wandering life here is really not "Leju", and the so-called Leju is just a pleasure in suffering. Recently, however, all this will be greatly improved. Sacramento County will allocate funds to buy the land in Quanluoke Town from the local Locke Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., and then resell it to local residents who are interested in buying land without profit, so that the Chinese descendants of the pioneers can finally rebuild their homes here.

Locke Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. was founded by a group of Hong Kong people who came to Locke Town in the 1970s. They bought the land in Locke Town and hundreds of acres of orchards around the town at 1977. Faced with the financial pressure to repair the abandoned sewer system in the town, they sold 65,438+00 mu of land in the town to the county government for $250,000 last year. Therefore, the land under the ruins will be sold to the public for the first time since China immigrants established the town of Locke 90 years ago. The chairman of Locke Real Estate Company said: "We need rich people to help protect Locke's history, which is far more important than pursuing the dream of letting China people live again."

In the next few months, county government officials will make a plan to divide Locke Town into 50 private plots. This plan will eventually cancel the real estate lease agreement implemented under the influence of California 19 13 Alien Land Law, which is part of the wave of legal discrimination against Asian immigrants that swept across the country 50 years ago, but it is now outdated. As part of the division plan, the Sacramento County Counselor's Committee requested to draw up a list of local residents during the restricted period, and will also summon those residents who have settled here for a long time, such as Mrs. Jin.

The Council also set up a non-profit organization to manage the town, so as to inform the early residents and their relatives of Locke Town in time when selling local houses. Existing owners of houses have the priority to purchase land, and descendants of China people have the priority to purchase land. The goal of the county government is to encourage Asian Americans who are related to the residents of Rocktown to come and buy. Nevertheless, some 90-odd residents living in Locke Town strongly expressed their wish to maintain the status quo. Most of these people have low incomes, and they are worried about starting to pay local taxes. Some people are afraid that the old house will lose its original unique charm after being decorated by those rich foreigners.

Li Ping, 85, said: "I want to see this town protected, but it is more like a living monument than a place for people to live." . He is a businessman and moved to nearby Walnut Forest Town 12 years ago. His father is one of the founders of Locke.

Supporters of the land division plan also admit that this compensation came too late. Many people who want to own Locke's land most have died, or have moved away and are no longer interested in coming back. But even if the indigenous people don't come back, the upcoming changes will make people pay attention to the racism in the past and the great contribution of Chinese workers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "Without them, the delta region would still be a swamp, and California's agriculture would not be as developed as it is now." A supporter said.

When describing Chinese Americans, people often only pay attention to those cities in China, but ignore rural Chinese settlements like Locktown, which is not without regret and prejudice for understanding the history of early Chinese Americans. It is this history that inspires residents like Mrs. Jin, known as "Luo Mama", to stick to their ideals. The courage to correct historical mistakes and give an account to the living not only reflects the progress of society, but also shows that we face up to and respect history. (Washington Watch Weekly, No.34, by Yu Miao)