100 years ago, where did most of the Chinese immigrants to the United States come from? What jobs do most of them do after coming to the United States?

History of Chinese Americans

■Before the Opium War in 1840, a small number of Chinese went to the United States for trade reasons, and shipped porcelain, silk, etc. to the United States in exchange for Mexican silver.

■After the discovery of "Golden Mountain" in the western United States in 1849, a large number of Chinese began to immigrate to San Francisco to pan for gold. Later, when the United States developed the western region and built the Central Pacific Railway, Chinese laborers became the main force in road construction. Many people sacrificed their precious lives in the dangerous and arduous labor. By the 1870s and 1880s, there were 100,000 overseas Chinese in the United States, the vast majority of whom were from Guangdong.

■In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act for the first time, which included 15 clauses such as stopping the entry of Chinese workers and prohibiting the naturalization of overseas Chinese (the act became a permanent act in 1904). The number of Chinese allowed to immigrate to the United States is extremely small.

■After the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States participated in the World Anti-Fascist War. Tens of thousands of overseas Chinese in the United States enlisted in the army, and overseas Chinese women also entered factories to work. In view of the outstanding performance of overseas Chinese and the importance of Sino-US relations during the war, President Roosevelt repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act and symbolically allowed 105 Chinese from all over the world to immigrate to the United States each year.

■After 1965, the United States promulgated a new immigration policy, giving each country, including China, an annual immigration quota of 20,000 people. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979 and before the return of Hong Kong in 1997, the number of overseas Chinese in the United States increased significantly. By 2002, it had reached 2.5 million, of which more than 70% were first generation. The cultural knowledge structure has also undergone great changes. According to statistics, among the approximately 3 million overseas Chinese in the United States, those with a college degree or above currently account for more than one-third. In some areas, the proportion of overseas Chinese with high academic qualifications has even exceeded that of other ethnic groups.

San Francisco, a famous city on the West Coast, is the city with the greatest Chinese influence.