The Oriental in America GEORGE WARREN HINMAN The Oriental in America George Warren Hinman Pacific District Secretary American Missionary Association ' NEW YORK MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATRS AND CANADA 1913 By of the General Outline . Social and Economic Conditions 3 L. Numbers and Distribution of Orientals ... 3 I. History of Oriental Immigration 4 • (1) Free and Restricted Immigration... 4 (2) Causes and Sources 4 3 Occupations of Orientals 5 \. Immorality and Crime 6 5. Physical Life of the Oriental Community 7 (1) Sanitation and Health 7 (2) Family Life 8 (3) Dress and Food 8 (4) Appearance of a Typical Community.. 8 (5) Agricultural Laborers 9 6. Education and Amusements 10 U. The New Environment 11 1. Difficulties oj Assimilation 11 (1) Isolation and Prejudice 11 (2) Working of the Exclusion Law 11 (3) Materialistic Motives 12 2. Gradual Improvement of Conditions 13 3. Transitory Character of the Immigration... 14 III. Religious Conditions of Orientals in America ...... . 15 1. Chinese Temples and Forms of Worship .. 15 2. Japanese Buddhist Missionary Activity .. 16 3. Hindus and Koreans 17 IV. Christian Missions for Orientals 18 1. History 18 2. Methods 18 (1) Night Schools for Teaching English.. 18 (2) Organization of Churches 19 (3) Social Settlements 20 (4) Work for Women and Children 20 (5) Work for Students 21 3. The Oriental Christian Community 22 (1) Energy and Adaptability of Japanese. 22 (2) Activities of Chinese Christians 23 (3) Influences upon Home Countries 24 4. Need of American Support of Oriental Work 2.6 5. Unmet Needs - 26 (1) Supply of Workers and Buildings 26 (2) Neglect of Hindus 27 6. Signifigance of Work for Orientals 28 Appendix 30 The Oriental in America GENERATION or two ago most men be- lieved that "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." An easy generalization made every Oriental country "Topsy Turvey Land." It was an axiom that Mongolians could never be assimilated in America and that Americans could never under- stand the Oriental. Meanwhile, Americans in the Orient were looked upon with curiosity, suspicion, and contempt, as were Orientals in America. Nevertheless, in spite of such conditions, Ameri- cans in the Orient and Orientals in America have been the points of vital contact for influences which have accomplished a marvelous transforma- tion in the spirit of Eastern nations and in the attitude of Americans toward those nations. Rep- resentatives of peoples capable of such wonderful progress as that shown by Japan and China in recent years should no longer be neglected or disregarded in the thought of any Christian. I. Social and Economic Conditions. 1. N.umbers and Distribution While twenty-eight millions of immigrants from Europe have come to us since the [beginning of the nineteenth century, somewhat less than 450,000 have come from Asia. One hundred and forty-five in a thousand of the population of the United States were born in foreign countries; two of the one hundred and forty-five are immigrants from China, Japan, and India. The census of 1910 gives 71,531 Chinese and 72,- 157 Japanese* in continental United States. The Chinese have decreased 18,332 and the Japanese have increased 47,831 since 1900. In 1870 there were 63,199 Chinese and only 55 Japanese in the United States. About 75 per cent, of the Chinese and 95 per cent, of the Japanese are in the Pacific Coast and Mountain states.f Other Asiatics in the United States are some 500 Koreans, 500 Fili- *Tlie Japanese themselves estimate a much larger number, 93,359. tHalf of the Chinese and nearly three fifths of the 3 pinos and 3,500 Hindus, practically all on the Pacific Coast. 2. History of Oriental Immigration (1) Periods of Free and Restricted Immigra- tion. Since 1882, when Chinese immigration was restricted, the Chinese population has decreased steadily, at the rate of about 2 per cent, a year since the census of 1900. There are now in the United States less than a quarter of the number who have come since 1851, when the vision of the "Golden Hills" (Chinese name for California) and the insistent call for laborers began to lure the impover- ished peasants living near the open ports of Hongkong and Canton. Japanese began coming in large numbers in 1900, about the time that the application to Hawaii of the Chinese exclusion law compelled Hawaiian planters to seek a new supply of labor. During the years from 1900 to 1908 more than 37,000 of the Japanese who had been brought to Hawaii came to the mainland and about 47,000 directly from Japan. Since 1908 the number in the United States has been decreasing and is now less than two thirds of the total reported as arriving. The number of Hindus has increased only slightly since 1910. About six thousand have come to this country since 1907, but many have returned. Large numbers have come across the border from Canada. (2) Causes and Sources. Orientals come to America mainly for economic reasons, in this not differing from European immigrants. They first came in response to the demand for labor to build our transcontinental railroads and to develop the resources of Hawaii and the Pacific Coast. They Japanese are in California. In the San Francisco Bay District there are 15,170 Chinese, 21 per cent, of the entire Chinese population. In and ahout Portland, Oregon, there are 5,699. New York City is third as a center of Chinese population, with 4,588. Thore are 1,2.37 in the vicinity of Boston, and 997 in Philadelphia. Chicago has- a Chinese population of 1.782. There are 991 Japanese in New York, and ICO in Philadelphia. Over four hundred are reported in Chicago, and 585 in Denver. The census reports 7,784 Japanese in the San Francisco Bay District. 8.461 in the neighborhood of Dos Angeles, and 9,437 in and around Seattle and Tacoma 4 have provided a fairly dependable supply of labor easily moved and controlled to meet the needs of large contractors or the temporary demands of farm work. Those who come have usually a distinct purpose to return as soon as they have secured the basis for economic independence, and the sum required is surprisingly small judged by American standards. It will surprise many to know that there never has been any general movement of emigration to America from either China, Japan, or India, such as we have seen from various countries of Europe. Those who have come are from small districts where poverty and overcrowding have forced the more enterprising young men to break the strong traditions which bind them to the family home. They should not be regarded as types of their countrymen, though they represent an av- erage of the people , of their districts. The Chinese in America are Cantonese, from three or four counties between Hongkong and Canton city. Japanese laborers come mostly from the south- west coast provinces of Japan. Hindus are from the plains of northern India. In each case the inhabitants of these districts are especially en- terprising or venturesome, being distinguished as traders, fishermen, or soldiers. 3. Occupations of Orientals. Fully one third of the Chinese in America are engaged in farm- ing and gardening, half to two thirds of the Japanese and a large part of the Hindus. Chinese and. Japanese are organized into very effective labor unions, which contract to supply any num- ber of men. at places where there is a temporary demand for labor. Chinese immigrants have gen- erally found their way into more settled indus- tries and have assumed individual responsibility as renters of land. Japanese also are beginning to lease land for themselves, and they take large contracts for harvesting the crops on extensive farms and orchards. One of them, George Shima, has made a fortune raising and dealing in pota- toes in central California. Recent agitation against Japanese ownership of land, resulting in the enactment of alien land laws in Washington, 5 California, and Arizona, seems hardly warranted by the actual present holdings of the Japanese, which amount to only one third of one per cent, of the arable land of California. Chinese have opened laundries all over the United States not be- cause they are especially adapted to the laundry business, but because they found larger opportuni- ties by becoming proprietors instead of laborers in a field where there was a, good demand and little prejudice against them. In the early days of California so many Chinese engaged in mining that it was thought necessary to limit their num- ber by a special tax. Chinese are extensively employed as makers of cigars, cheap clothing, underwear, and shoes, often in sweat-shops owned by Chinese capitalists, and numbers go to the Alaska salmon canneries or engage in commer- cial fishing. Several large business blocks in cities of the Coast and Mountain states are owned by Chinese. Nearly a third of the Chinese and a quarter of the Japanese in America are engaged in trade or manufactures. Japanese shops are clean and attractive. Bookstores are common and well pat- ronized. Laundries and cleaning and dyeing establishments have been extensively opened by Japanese. Many groups of them go out from a central office for house-cleaning or other day work. 4. Immorality and Grime. Chinese merchants often make a great deal from gambling with their country customers. In many places the little Chinese store is only a cover for a gambling den in the back room where the shrewd merchant may secure the hard-won earnings of the farmers who have no other resort than these counterparts of the American saloon. In the congested centers of Chinese population, the gamblers, opium smokers, and keepers of slave girls are organized into "tongs" and employ hired assassins called "highbinders" to enforce their bargains. But they form only a very small element in the gen- erally peaceful and industrious Chinese commun- ity, though they figure so largely in the news- papers. 6 The Chinese submit to these predatory ele- ments, while the Japanese are more apt to organ- ize for the suppression of such evils. In Fresno, California, the Japanese community protested against the Chinese gambling dens and secured municipal action closing them.. The same moral spirit of the better class of Japanese caused the temporary closing of the Japanese houses of pros- titution, but could not secure permanent support from the police authorities. Immoral conditions in Oriental communities are due much more to the connivance of the police than to the desires of the Orientals. The Oriental quarter in New York and San Francisco is made a dumping- ground for the moral filth of the city and then exploited to draw crowds of sensation lovers. The San Francisco chief of police justified the loca- tion of the city's red light district in Chinatown by saying that the Chinese were less affected by the demoralizing influence than others. . Neither Chinese nor Japanese immigrants pro- vide an excessive proportion of the criminal classes, in spite of the lack of restraints of re- ligion and home life and the general indifference of American communities to their moral condi- tions. In tbe worst days of San Francisco's China- town the arrests of Chinese were only 10.5 per cent, of the total, though they composed 17 per cent, of the population. In the seven years from 1900 to 1907, when Japanese were coming to America in largest numbers, there were less than 100 commitments of Japanese in San Francisco. 5. Physical Life of the Oriental Community ( 1 ) Sanitation and Health. The proportion of the Orientals in almshouses is only a quarter of that for the whole country for there are very few dependents among the Orientals and such are generally cared for by their own benevolent or- ganizations. Japanese in America have estab- lished several hospitals. In the crowded Orien- tal quarters of large cities the death-rate is high. One third of the deaths in San Francisco's China- town are from tuberculosis. Before the fire this quarter was densely packed with people, crowding in small, dark rooms, and even underground. 7 Secret passageways connected the cellars. The rebuilt Chinatown is comparatively clean and sanitary. High rents, however, still force the people into narrow quarters and the children into the streets. Japanese are not so apt to form dis- tinct quarters, though often they become isolated by the removal of Americans from the sections where they occur in numbers. (2) Family Life. Almost all of the early Oriental immigrants were men. But many recent Japanese immigrants have been the wives of men who had come earlier. When he is able to do so, the Japanese sends home for a wife, the Chinese goes back to be married and often leaves his wife to care for his parents in the ancestral village. The proportion of women to men among the Chinese in the United States is one to fourteen, among Japanese one to seven. There is little in- termarriage between Orientals and Americans, Chinese and Japanese generally looking upon it with as much disfavor as do Westerners. (3) Dress and Food. Japanese immigrants readily adopt American dress, food and manners; Hindus and Chinese to a limited extent. The Chinese cue is rarely seen since the revolution in China. Chinese women in America prefer their national costume and are fond of bright-colored silk garments for themselves and their children. Japanese women as well as men conform closely to American styles. Japanese purchase four fifths of their supplies in America while Chinese import more than half of what they use from their own country. (4) Appearance of a Typical Community. The Chinese in their communities adapt American buildings to their distinctive types of architecture, with gayly ornamented balconies and pagoda-like towers. There are few separate houses. Every- body lives above, behind or below the shop. Some- times in dark cellars whole families are found in a single room with earth floor, board beds, and open clay cooking pots, just as in China. The open fronts of the food shops display taro, lotus roots and sugarcane, bamboo sprouts and bean curds, dried pressed ducks and strange shellfish. 8 The jewelers can be seen polishing bits of jade which they set in hand-wrought ornaments of gold and silver. The cobbler plies his trade on the street, putting rough patches on the cheap Chinese shoes. The drug stores are full of strange herbs and powdered bones, and are patronized not only by Chinese but by credulous Americans. The "joss house" and the club room of the Six Com- panies are like bits of old China transported bodily, but in many ways the Chinese quarter is becoming gradually Americanized. In Japanese communities one finds very little to distinguish the buildings except the artistic signboards with Japanese . characters and an oc- casional archway patterned after the Japanese torii. Fortunately there is little occasion for tourists to go there sight-seeing. (5) Living Conditions of Agricultural Labor- ers. There is little family life in country com- munities of Orientals, though recently the number of Japanese families living on farms has rapidly increased. Often gangs of men lodge together in a common bunkhouse and are boarded by the boss or share in the expense of food. Japanese live about as well as unskilled laborers of other nationalities when engaged under similar conditions in railroad or lumber camps. Chinese farmers are apt to live in small groups in very poor shacks and spend little for food or f\ir- nishings till their periodic visit to the city. Hindu agricultural laborers are generally very poorly housed, owing to the temporary character of their employment. The gang usually sleep together in one room wrapped in their blankets on the bare iloor. Cooking is done over a hole in the ground, and the men squat on the ground or stand as they eat. They have little furniture and few cooking utensils. Their food consists largely of vegetables and large, flat cakes of unleavened bread in which the other food is rolled and thus eaten. Meat is occasionally used, but the Sikhs will not eat beef nor the Mohammedans pork. The caste system often breaks up a gang into separate eating- groups, no one of which will touch food prepared by the others. East Indian prisoners in county 9 jails have gone for days without food rather than eat anything prepared hy one not of their caste. Neither Chinese nor Japanese are large users of intoxicants, but Hindus drink freely. Opium is still used by older Chinese, though it is now exceedingly difficult to obtain. 6. Education and Amusement. The Japanese are keen observers and show real eagerness to learn American ways and ideas. Probably no class of immigrants has exhibited greater desire and capacity for adaptation or has accomplished more in proportion to obstacles encountered. No adult immigrants, unless it is the Hebrews, show so great desire to learn the English language as the Japanese. Very few of the Hindus can speak English and 70 per cent, are illiterate in their own language. Many of the Chinese and Japanese agricultural laborers do not speak Eng- lish, as the nature of their work in gangs of their own countrymen does not require that any but the foreman be able to deal directly with Americans. In towns and cities almost all Japan- ese are able to speak some English, and this is true of a smaller proportion of Chinese. Many of the older Chinese are indifferent about learning the customs and language of their temporary home. Eighty-five per cent, of Chinese agricultural labor- ers are able to read the difficult Chinese characters. The total illiteracy for Japanese immigrants is only 22 per cent., a very favorable comparison with the 68 per cent, of illiteracy among Portuguese and 54 per cent, among South Italians. Nearly all Japanese families in the larger cen- ters and three-quarters of those living in the country take a Japanese newspaper, and many of them an American paper. Four Chinese dailies are published in San Francisco and have a wide circulation. They give large attention to affairs in China, and study less carefully than the Japan- ese papers the conditions of their nationals in America. Generally, the Japanese take a keen interest in public questions in America. Their organizations often exercise considerable influence on relations between Japanese and Americans. 10 A considerable number of Chinese and Japanese immigrants have been of the student class, who are admitted to the United States without restric- tion on proper certificates. The Japanese "school- boy" in domestic service is found in considerable numbers in the cities of the Pacific Coast, and a few Chinese are also doing some work while studying. Public schools are generally open to Oriental children. In a few places they have been segregated in separate rooms or buildings. Oriental students are welcomed in most, of our colleges and universities. Japanese spend in this country more than eighty per cent, of their earnings. They dress well, spend liberally on amusements, being particularly fond of the pool table. In Fresno they have built a fine theater for moving pictures and vaudeville. Though specially thrifty races, both Chinese and Japanese are free with their money for feasting and celebrations. Outdoor athletic sports have little attraction for them, though the children of both races show evidence of assimilation to Ameri- can life by their interest in baseball. II. The New Environment 1. Difficulties of Assimilation (1) Isolation and Prejudice. The Oriental im- migrant does not readily adapt himself to his new environment. His strong race feeling and the prejudice of his white neighbors tends to keep him isolated and distinct. His scale of living ad- vances much more slowly than his scale of wages. Unsanitary and vicious conditions of life, which were the natural order of things under the old civilization, are too easily tolerated under the new, and instead of pressure to conform to the moral and material standards of America, he is left to perpetuate the conditions of his former life in distinct communities which prejudice and interest separate as far as possible from the com- mon life of the American people. (2) Working of the Exclusion Law. The tra- ditional shrewdness and trickiness of the Oriental in America is due largely to the atmosphere of suspicion and jealousy in which he lives. The 11 cbmpetition of his labor aroused bitter prejudice among white laborers, a prejudice carefully stimu- lated by professional agitators. Sober, thrifty, indifferent to politics, accustomed to avoid trouble by yielding, the Oriental has come to be re- garded by many as an interloper, without rights before the law, preying upon the natural wealth of the country which belongs to its citizens. His service in the development of the natural resources of a new land is forgotten in grudging him a proper recompense for his labor. Special taxes Have been imposed upon him, he bus been denied naturalization, restrictions have been placed upon his coming, and finally all classes except students, merchants, and the wives and children of those in America have been excluded. Though our exclusion law forbids tbe importa- tion of Chinese laborers, and Japanese laborers' are prevented from coming by the voluntary re- striction of passports undertaken by the Japanese government, and the admission of Hindus is largely restricted by careful enforcement of our general immigration laws, yet, in spite of the elaborate and expensive machinery to prevent others from coming, the Orientals actually in America are often treated as though they had no light to be here, are subjected to sudden in- spections, and are liable to deportation if not pro- vided with proper passports. The detention sta- tion for immigrants at Angel Island, in con- trast with that other gateway at Ellis Island, seems to exist for the purpose of hindering rather than helping those who seek entrance to our country. Inspectors are also constantly on the watch for Orientals who have escaped the close net of the exclusion laws, and mission schools sometimes lose their pupils through fear of a visit from the immigration officer. (3) Materialistic Motives. It must be ad- mitted that the early Oriental immigrants were not pilgrims, seeking a new home with larger political and religious freedom. They were ad- venturers seeking gold. The few women immi- grants were in too many cases the slaves of men's greed and lust, imported as a luxury or as an- 12 other means of amassing wealth. The desire for money and the ease of acquiring it led to an abnormal development of the gambling habit. The presence of large bodies of men deprived of the restraints of normal domestic life and unbeliev- ably crowded together resulted as always in an abandonment to social vice, which many have thought characteristic of the Oriental, though it is largely the consequence of the unnatural condi- tions in which he has lived. 2. Gradual Im,provem,ent of Conditions. These conditions of the early Oriental immigration to America have, however, considerably changed. The importation and sale of opium by the Chinese has been largely stopped, the gambling dens tempt men less flagrantly, the importation of women, Chinese and Japanese, for immoral purposes, is very closely restricted, and the barrack-like "cribs" of Oriental prostitutes are less common, particu- larly where public sentiment has recognized the Oriental as a moral being, not merely a laborer or a panderer to vice. The number of families is increasing in the Oriental .communities, the power of the gambling and fighting "tongs" is waning, and the influence of family life, religion, schools, reputable business, newspapers and books locally printed and imported, is slowly dominating the Oriental communities in America. The Oriental immigrant, hitherto the slave of tradition, finds here no precedent to bind him. Brought up under a social system which prescribes early marriage and continuous life at home, un- der subjection to parents, he lives free from all restraints except those of his guild. Accustomed to pinching poverty and a subsistence gained only by intense and continuous labor, he finds himself able to indulge in luxury. Instead of rigorous exactions of a tax-gatherer he finds a lenient or venal police supervision. Is it not, under the circumstances, noteworthy that the obligations of filial piety and the habits of thrift and industry control him still, and that in general he conducts himself with such admirable self-restraint, that there are so few real prodigals when the Oriental goes into a far country? 13 3. Transitory Character of the Immigration. The Oriental in America is nearly always a trans- ient visitor. Questions of Oriental immigration and the proper treatment of Orientals should al- ways be considered in the light of this fact. Cen- sus Director Durand writes: "The question of the desirability or undesirability of any given class of immigrants depends less upon the char- acteristics of the immigrants themselves than upon the characteristics of their children born in this country, chiefly upon the degree to which they become assimilated to the older stock in respect to language, customs, and ideas." A large proportion of the Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus in America are of foreign birth. The Japanese report only 6,400 children born in Amer- ica out of a total population of 93,000 and many of these will return with their parents to Japan. Twenty-one per cent, of the Chinese in America were born here, but the influences of the Orient are still strong upon these native Americans. Children of Orientals born in the United States become voting citizens on reaching twenty-one years of age. Where Chinese and Japanese children are brought into close contact with American life through the public schools, and the barriers of race prejudice do not shut off the Oriental from helpful contact with American neighbors, he will be found not much more difficult of assimilation than the immigrant from southern and eastern Europe. But such favorable conditions are rarely obtainable. The influence of the second generation, the native born children of immigrants to Amer- ica, so potent in the assimilation of European immigrants, accomplishes comparatively little in the Americanizing of our Oriental population. The real significance of Oriental immigra- tion to America is found in its influence on the great Eastern nations across the Pacific. It is noteworthy that Canton province, from which the Chinese in America have come, has been the center of revolutionary propaganda which has now secured republican institutions for China. It was under American influence in Honolulu 14 that Dr. Sun Yat-sen, first president of the provisional government of the new republic, gained those political and religious ideals which made him a Christian and a patriotic reformer. III. Religious Conditions of Orientals in America Non-Christian religions do not bear transplant- ing. Buddhism has long ceased to be a mission- ary religion in China. Chinese immigrants are not followed by any religious efforts on the part of their home communities, and are often quite indifferent to religious ideas. Many are like the Chinese miner who had lived twenty-five or thirty years in California and said: "No got religion; all same white man, no believe anything." 1. Chinese Temples and Forms of Worship. Chinese temples, often called "joss houses" by Americans, represent no distinct ecclesiastical or- ganization. They have no priests, no missionaries, no relief agencies, and no registry of members. No sermon is preached, no sacred day is kept, and no religious instruction given. The temples are simply places where individual Chinese wor- shipers may consult the gods and patron saints when about to enter on a new enterprise or to take a journey, or when in doubt about a particu- lar course of conduct. In 1906, 62 temples were reported in the United States, 32 in California and 15 in New York City. The prevailing forms of worship among Chinese in America are Buddhist and Taoist. Much of the religious feeling and ceremony center about the reverence for ancestors and the fear of the spirits whicn inhabit the family shrine and note the actions of the household. The larger part of the worship by tne Chinese is at the shrines in the homes, where the women light incense sticks and perform the required ceremonies. Good luck characters, on bright red paper, are often posted conspicuously. Often the men of Chinatown dis- claim faith in these ceremonies, in which they say only women believe. They object, however, to the removal of the shrines and appear willing to have the worship kept up, lest the spirits aiight be offended. 15 In their funeral ceremonies the Chinese in America show most conspicuously their, religious customs. When possible, a platform is erected in some open space, and an awning with banners spread over it. On the platform are piled the sacrifices to the spirit of the dead, pyramids of fruit, bowls of vegetables, a pig roasted whole, often a live rooster. The spirit tablet, or fre- quently the enlarged photograph of the dead person, is put in the place of honor, and the coffin is set at the end of the platform. The director of ceremonies, dressed in the picturesque garments of a Taoist priest, marches round the platform, clanging his cymbals and repeating his incantations, while the relatives, clad in coarse white cloth or sacking and bent nearly double, follow him, occasionally stopping to knock their heads on the stones of the pavement as they wail for the dead relative. Often they join with this strange ceremony the. familiar accompaniments of an American funeral, flowers and carriages in abundance. An American band is sometimes called in, and all unconsciously suggests the pain- ful contrast between this dark superstition and the spirit of Christianity, by rendering such ap- propriate funeral music as "Come ye disconsolate," and "Nearer, my God, to Thee." 2. Japanese Buddhist Missionary Activity. Japanese Buddhism, both at home and abroad, is a more active force in the lives of the people than Chinese Buddhism. In the new Japan the native religion was compelled either to adapt itself or to be cast aside. Patriotism and a certain moral earnestness have led to an active Buddhist mis- sionary effort in Oriental countries neighboring to Japan and in Japanese communities in America. The center of Buddhist missionary administration is in Kyoto, Japan, and there are ten missionary districts in the United States. In 1906, $3,861 was contributed from Japan for missionary work in America. Thirteen Buddhist temples are re- ported in California, with nineteen ministers, each temple a center for a number of missions. Port- land, Seattle, and Vancouver, British Columbia, have each a temple and a minister serving a 16 circle of outstations. The temples in Seattle and in Fresno, California, possess an image of Buddha. Membership in the Buddhist temples is given as 5,440. This includes only those actually enrolled and contributing to the support of the temple. Most of the Japanese not connected with Christian missions might be classed as nominal Buddhists, and are easily led to join themselves to the organized work here. With that ready adaptation so characteristic of the Japanese, these Buddhist missionaries have modeled their religious work along the lines of up-to-date Christian activities, doing things un- thought of under the old religious systems. The Japanese Buddhist organizations in America have preachers, with regular services on the Sabbath, and teach the children in Sunday-schools and mis- sion day-schools. Three Buddhist magazines are published: in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los An- geles. A few Americans have joined the Buddhist temples, but the work of the Japanese mission- aries, unlike that of the Indian swamis, is almost exclusively for their own people. Japanese in America are being organized in Young Men's Buddhist Associations, which have their athletic departments, lectures, and social occasions after the plan of the Young Men's Chris- tion Association. There are twelve organizations of the Young Men's Buddhist Association, with 2,538 members, and ten organizations of the Young Women's Buddhist Association, with 571 mem- bers. Many Buddhist temples are well equipped for institutional work, and have children's schools connected with them. 3. Hindus and Koreans. The Hindus, like the Chinese, have shown little power to transport their religious practises to a new land, though some of them recently in California, and others in Oregon, burned the dead body of a comrade and scattered the ashes on the river, as they used to do beside the Ganges. The Hindus in America are most of them Sikhs in religious faith, perhaps one in five is a Mohammedan. They have been neglected by their co-religionists in India, just as they have been neglected by the churches in 17 America. There is a Hindu temple in San Francisco but it has no message for the friendless people from India. It is an American religious fad. Seventy-five to ninety-five per cent, of the Koreans who come to America are professing Christians, and the mission work for them is largely the fostering of organized Christian life. IV. Christian Missions for Orientals 1. History. Christian work for the Chinese in America began soon after the coming of the first immigrants and was cordially supported by the community until the economic competition of the Chinese with other laborers developed' a bitter race prejudice which has sought to deny not only industrial opportunity but religion as well to the Oriental. In 1850, Mayor Geary and a committee of the citizens of San Francisco presented to the Chinese residents religious tracts, papers, and books printed in Chinese, and the principal daily of the city said editorially: "The China boys will yet vote at the same polls, study in the same schools, and bow at the same altars as our own countrymen." A school and mission was begun in 1852 by William Speer for the Presby- terians, but not until 1868, when Otis Gibson began work under the Methodist Episcopal Church, was there a general organization of missionary work. Soon after, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians began missions, and there are now nine denominations carrying on about sev- enty-five regularly organized missions, fifty-four on the Pacific Coast besides many Sunday-schools. The first mission work for Japanese was begun by the Methodists in 1877, but the great develop- ment of the work has been since 1900. Seventy- six churches and missions are reported, all but four on the Pacific Coast. 2. Methods (1) Night Schools for Teaching English. The first need of the Oriental immigrant to which the missionary can appeal is his need of the English language. The mission work has usually started with the night school or the Sunday-school, in which secular as well as religious instruction 18 is given. Undisciplined adult pupils require a considerable amount of individual instruction, and the Chinese missions have gained much of their attraction and influence by providing a large num- ber of teachers in proportion to pupils. The many consecrated women who have been mothers to the Chinese "boys" have found thousands of them as responsive to spiritual appeals as they were grateful for instruction in English. On the Pa- cific Coast it has not been so easy to secure teachers, but large and successful schools have been carried on with one or two paid American workers in charge and a Chinese or Japanese helper to translate. The efficiency of these schools would be greatly increased if they could command the services of many volunteer teachers. (2) Organization of Churches. But the night school or Sunday-school for teaching English has not now the importance it once had as an agency for reaching Orientals with spiritual truth. Both the Chinese and the Japanese reached by these schools are seeking for advanced instruction and are ready for religious responsibilities. One pioneer superintendent of Oriental work has re- corded more than three thousand conversions of pupils in the night schools under his charge. Now he is able to report the organization of churches and the missionary giving of Oriental Christians. Many Orientals have been received into Ameri- can churches, but where there are sufficient num- bers, experience has shown that better results are secured by the organization of separate churches or branch churches. The Census of Re- ligious Bodies ( 1906 ) mentions 26 churches in which the Chinese language is used.* There are probably about two thousand Chinese resident members of churches in America, about two thirds of them on the Pacific Coast. The number who have returned to China as Christians is very much larger. In San Francisco one in twenty- five of the Chinese population is a member of a Protestant church. ♦Recent estimates of Chinese membership are: Presbyterians, 800; Methodists, 400; Congregational- ists, 350; Baptists, about 150. 19 From the beginning, missionary work for the Japanese has placed emphasis on preaching and institutional work, partly because trained Japan- ese preachers were obtainable and because the Japanese could be appealed to by other means than the English class. The present membership of Japanese churches in America is given as 2,600, with 200 other Christians not yet baptized. About 4,500 are reported as having been con- nected with such churches during the past twelve years. There are fifty Japanese churches and forty-one ministers reported.* (3) Social Settlements. Many mission build- ings for Chinese and Japanese contain rooms rented to pupils in the night schools or members of the churches and their families. In many cases the mission serves as a reading-room, an employment bureau, a home, as well as a school and a church, and affords opportunity for insti- tutional work of very special value to those just becoming assimilated to our Christian civilization. The Chinese or Japanese pastor often lives in the building. Each mission building might' be made a very effective social settlement if it were possible to employ trained resident workers, as is done in a few cases. Andrew Carnegie gave $10,000 for the building of the Congregational mission in San Francisco, in recognition of its important opportunity for social work. There is great need for such large gifts to equip and endow many similar social centers. Some of the buildings erected by Japanese Buddhists in Amer- ica are much better equipped and much more attractive than the Christian missions. (4) Work for Women and Children. In re- cent years a most beautiful and effective work has been done in supplementary schools for the re- ligious instruction of the Chinese and Japanese children who attend the public schools. These schools are increasingly popular and are generally *Of these, 24 churches with 1,298 members are hi northern California, 16 churches with 681 members in southern California, and 12 churches with 510 members in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Methodists have 19 churches with 1,100 members; Presbyterians, 9 churches with 729 members, and Congregati'onalists, 9 churches with 483 members. 20 crowded. The instruction is entirely in the Eng- lish language, and the results are exceedingly satisfactory. An important type of work is that of the mis- sionary who visits the homes, teaching the women cleanliness, the proper care of their babies, Ameri- can domestic methods, and most of all the folly of superstition and the necessity of education for girls and women as well as boys and men. The district visitor soon makes for herself a unique place in the hearts of the Oriental women and children. The husband may find missionary teach- ing distasteful while he tries to make money in doubtful ways, but the citadel of superstition is battered down when the mother is persuaded to give up the household shrine and learn the story of Jesus' love. The name of Donaldina Cameron will always be associated with the heroic rescue work for Chinese slave girls. Presbyterian and Methodist women's missionary boards have erected in San Francisco homes where these girls are cared for and edu- cated. Many of them become the wives of Chris- tian Chinese. One of them is matron at the Oriental immigration station at Angel Island. Methodists have also established three homes for Japanese women and children. (5) Work for Students. Christian work for Oriental students in America is very efficiently done through Bible classes, summer conferences, and the Chinese Student's Christian Association of North America, under the auspices of the In- ternational Committee of the Y. M. C. A. About three hundred of the nine hundred Chinese students in America are Christians. Most Chin- ese students in higher institutions are supported by government funds. They cannot be admitted to this country without a guaranty that their support is provided. Many Japanese students, however, are earning their own way through higher schools. A much smaller number than formerly come to America, as their own universi- ties provide exceptional educational advantages. Those in American schools are apt' to identify themselves closely with regular student organiza- tions. 21 3. The Oriental Christian Community ( 1 ) Energy and Adaptability of Japanese. Mission work for the Japanese in America is helped by the fact that a considerable number of the Japanese immigrants have been somewhat affected by Christian influence before their ar- rival. Many immigrants have been members of churches in Japan and some have been trained in Christian work. They are ready to enter churches here and themselves feel a responsibility for work among their own people in America. The Japanese pastors show a genuinely mission- ary spirit, going out freely to visit the ranches and railroad camps where Japanese are working. They conduct special campaigns of pastoral evan- gelism and carefully study and plan for the evangelization of unreached Japanese communities. Few of them are widely known to Americans, but they are men of great influence and power among their own people and are recognized in the most important gatherings of the Japanese communi- ties. They are leaders in local reforms, scholarly in their reading and thinking, and adaptable in their methods. A Japanese is in charge of boys' work in the Pittsburgh Y. M. ('. A., and aiwiii-er has been appointed Railroad Secretary for tin 2 Japanese laborers on the Union Pacific lines. Re- cently a Japanese Y. W. C. A. has been organized in San Francisco. The Japanese of all denominations unite in the publication of a Christian magazine called The New Heaven and lire New Earth. There is a strong and efficient union evangelistic association supported and administered entirely by the Japan- ese which employs several traveling evangelists. The quick acceptance of the methods of organ- ized church work by the Japanese is very en- couraging. American workers are surprised to find how soon the Japanese Christians are anxious and able to administer their church work quite independently. No great social or religious move- ment touches the life of the places where they live without stirring their keen interest. Japanese asso- ciations, including in their membership all those in a certain district, gladly call together great 22 mass meetings when speakers of prominence from Japan are available. Japanese churches fre- quently command the attention of an entire com- munity when they can introduce men like the late Bishop Honda, President Harada, or Ameri- cans who have spent years in Japan. (2) Activities of Chinese Christians. In this the Japanese have a distinct advantage over the Chinese in America, whose dialect is spoken by only a very few of the missionaries returning to America. Chinese Christians have been active sympathizers with the reform movements in China leading up to the recent revolution, but it' has not been possible to bring before large audiences the leaders of the movement who were visiting America, even though many of them, like Sun Yat-sen, were favorable to Christianity. A serious hindrance to the development of Chinese missions beyond the night school stage is the lack of strong, well-trained Chinese leaders. Opportunities so great, both in America and China, come to the men who grow up Under the mission influence, that few can be held for the service of the small Chinese churches in the United States. Many Japanese pastors are graduates of American theological schools, while only a very few Chinese workers have had special training for religious work. Chinese helpers in the night schools have done splendid evangelistic work, but few have been equal to the task of developing strong, self-depend- ent churches. Trained preachers have, however, in recent years, been brought from both China and Japan for the work in America. The influence of mission work for the Chinese- is shown in many organized activities of their life in America. The leading Chinese "daily of San Francisco has several Christian men on its staff of editors, among them Ng Poon Chew, an or- dained Presbyterian minister and in great demand as a lecturer on present conditions in China. The Rev. Jee Gam, for many years pastor of the Con- gregational mission work in San Francisco, and widely known in the East, was for a long period a trusted interpreter in the municipal courts. The Rev. Eugene Sue in Chicago, and the Rev. 23 Huei Kim in New York, have been leaders of their countrymen in support of reform movements in China as well as in Christian work in America. The Chinese Christians in San Francisco not only accept a new religion, but themselves engage actively in religious work. Union street meetings are maintained under the lead of Chinese preach- ers from the different churches, a union pastors' meeting is held, and a union Christian magazine published. A regularly organized Chinese Y. M. C. A., with a Chinese secretary, classes in Eng- lish and Chinese, and a reading-room has recently been established by the Chinese independently of American help. Many Chinese who are not bap- tized Christians belong' to "Christian Associations" which look after their members as they travel on business or in search of employment. Few people are more generous than the Chinese, both in acknowledging the help of their teachers and in helping their fellow countrymen who may be in need. Thousands of dollars have gone from Chinese Christians in America for famine relief and Red Cross work as well as for preaching the gospel and building chapels in China. ( 3 ) Reflex Influences upon Home Countries. With full recognition of the influence of mission work upon the Chinese communities in America, it is yet true that the distinctive triumph of this work- has been the Christian influence exerted by those who have returned to China. One reason why so few of the Chinese churches in America have at- tained self-support is that the best members are continually leaving. The Chinese missions are a procession of those who come and go between different places in America and to and from China. They remain long enough, however, to become convinced of the truth and value of Chris- tianity, and not the least impressive of then- reports to the home village is the story of the good mission teacher and the faith in Christ she taught them. In the districts of Canton province, from which the Chinese come, American mission work began in response to the appeals of Chinese Christians in America, and in the earlier years most of the Chin- 24 ese preachers in the missions were those who had returned from America. The Rev. Joe Jet went back from San Francisco some years ago as the rep- resentative of the Chinese Congregational Mis- sionary Society, which supports him and several other workers. Chinese Methodists in America also carry on a mission in the region near Canton. The Rev. Ng Poon Chew went back to his native village after thirty years' absence and persuaded the people to take down all the images in their temples and clean up the buildings for schools. The villagers begged him to remain with them and teach them "Western science" and Christian- ity. Dr. Fong F; Sec, converted in a night school in California where he first learned English, go- ing on from high school to university till he re- ceived his degree at Columbia, is now preparing the new text-books which are sold by the million all over China. He is but one of many trained leaders for the new China who have been devel- oped by Christian missions in America out of unpromising Chinese cooks, farmers, and laundry- men. While Japanese Christians influence so strongly the life of their communities in America, the Japanese returning to their own country with a new-found faith have had a very large influence on missionary work and social reform in Japan. The Rev. H. Kehara, converted in a Methodist Cali- fornia mission, did splendid pioneer service in or- ganizing Japanese missions in Hawaii and Korea. Another product of California Japanese missions, Mr. Sho Namoto, has been the parliamentary leader of the temperance reform, and has secured the passage of a bill against the use of tobacco by minors. The story of American influence through the returned Oriental emigrant has never yet been adequately told. It concerns all classes, the humble farmer who comes back with new ideas to his native village and the great reformer who has learned a "divine discontent" with the old customs and superstitions. The marvelous awak- ening of China and Japan is not inexplicable to the Christian men and women through whom God 2.S has worked to form the thoughts and change the hearts of Orientals in America. 4. Need of American Support of Oriental Work. The question of support for Oriental mission work is one which must always be answered largely by the American Churches. While the Chinese give liberally to mission work in China and in response to special appeals for mission buildings and for the care of their own countrymen in need, they have not developed a strong sense of responsi- bility for the support of the work in America. Temporary residence of Chinese Christians and lack of leadership is the explanation. Presby- terian, Methodist, and Congregational Chinese missionary organizations have sent over a thousand dollars each annually to the support of Christian work in China, though there are very few self- supporting Chinese churches in America. Japanese more quickly and more readily come to self-support, as they apply their gifts almost exclusively to Christian work in the United States. They give generously for the erection of mission buildings. Members of the Pacific Japanese Meth- odist Conference gave over $20 per capita to home expenses for eight successive years. Yet the na- ture of the work for Orientals in America, widely scattered, temporary and uncertain in their resi- dence, and, even when evangelized, still with little understanding of Christian duties and responsi- bilities, requires a large and steady financial and moral support by American Christians. The mis- sions and churches for Orientals are largely train- ing schools for those who go back to their own lands. No one expects a college to be self-sup- porting, and the Oriental missions, like the colleges, should have steady support and adequate equipment. 5. Unmet Needs ( 1 ) Inadequate Supply of Workers and Build- ings. The inadequacy of our attempts hitherto to evangelize the Orientals is shown when we re- member that there is one Protestant church in the United States for every 431 persons, while in congested districts, like the Chinatowns of New York and San Francisco, there is one mis- 26 sion for every 950 Chinese. In some of the interior valleys of California and parts of Washington, there are in the aggregate thousands of Chinese and Japanese entirely without religious teaching. The average for the entire Pacific Coast is one mission to one thousand Chinese and one mission to twelve hundred Japanese. The proportion of missions or churches to population does not, how- ever, form any adequate basis of comparison when one considers the equipment and resources of our churches. Compare the splendid Christian or- ganizations of Greater New York and their mag- nificent buildings with the little missions in rented rooms in Chinatown, handicapped by in- sufficient support and lack of trained workers. And New York is the second city in Chinese population in America. On the Pacific Coast as well, many of the Oriental missions are in rented buildings and suffer from inadequate sup- port and inadequate supervision. (2) Neglect of Hindus. There remains, more- over, a great class of Oriental immigrants who have been almost entirely neglected by the Churches. Because our religious machinery is too slow to adjust itself to new situations and needs, six thousand Hindus have poured into California in the last five years and no denomination has so far undertaken missionary work among them. Five years in America, with scarcely a hint that this is a Christian country and that Christianity is for the whole world! How long will it take to evangelize India if it takes so long to begin evangelizing Hindus in America? Volunteers have organized a Sunday-school class for them in Claremont, California, and a few have been re- ceived into a local church. The Pacific Coast agency of the American Bible Society has sent out for a few months at a time colporteurs who can speak the language of these people and offer them Bibles. They bring back reports of the readiness of the Hindus to receive instruction, and their great need. Children of the child mothers of India, weak and illiterate, without adaptability and initiative, the Hindus are ex- ploited merely for their labor value and ignored 27 in every other aspect' of their life among us. The Chinese and Japanese can usually take care of themselves in business relations, but if any immigrant needs a friendly American adviser, it is the tall, awkward, turbaned stranger from the Punjab. The invasion of such a host, bringing with them the customs and superstitions of heathenism, cannot but be a serious menace to the Christian civilization of the districts where they work. Since no one Church has felt the responsibility for meeting this invasion with the power of the gospel, it is evident that only the federated missionary enterprise of all the Churches can do this work and similar emergency work, neglect of which at present is such a reproach to Christianity. A most encouraging feature of the mission work for Orientals on the Pacific Coast is the grow- ing recognition that only in federated activity can the best results be secured. Recently a Standing Committee of American Workers among Orientals has been organized, including representa- tives officially appointed by all the mission boards doing work among Orientals. The Home Mis- sions Council has asked this committee to submit plans for more effectively covering the field. 6. Significance of Work for Orientals. In these days of greatly increased missionary interest and activity, the mission work for Orientals in Amer- ica is both a test and a challenge. The mis- sionary volunteer may prove the sincerity of his purpose, the depth of his consecration, and the power of his conviction, in the laboratory of an Oriental mission in America. The generous mis- sionary giver may prove by personal interest in the laundryman, the gardener, the house boy, the vegetable dealer, and the ranch hand, whether he has faith in the gospel he is sending to other Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus across the sea. Will Christianity ultimately conquer the world? Not if it fails here. How long will it require to illumine the great dark masses of heathenism if the light shed from our thousands of churches fails to pentrate and heal the little Oriental communities next door to them? It is not the 28 number of missionaries sent, but the intensity of the missionary spirit at home that will con- quer heathenism. The envoys who come to our land from non-Christian nations should fina here a compelling spirit of Christian love which the work of missionaries in their own lands can only faintly suggest. The Christian churches of America must em- phasize and dignify the work of missions to Orientals, giving to it as careful supervision and as expert direction as they do to the work in foreign lands. Christian men and women must give a great deal more of personal service to the work of evangelizing the Orientals. How easy to win the Chinese or Japanese or Hindu to Christian faith, when a kind American "big brother" presents it mixed with human sympathy! Often the only American men these Orientals ever meet are those who exploit them for profit. It would be an easy task to present the gospel strongly and clearly to every Oriental in America within the next year, if but a few volunteer mis- sionary workers would go a little out of their way to preach the gospel to the heathen. And then the larger task, to which the Church must give increasing attention, is the training of these Oriental men and women for Christian service. It is entirely safe to say that every Oriental in America is a potential missionary to his own land. The problem of Oriental immigration is simply this: Shall the Oriental take back with him from America money or a message? 29 APPENDIX Distribution and Denominational Connection of Oriental Missions in the United States. Boston has twelve Christian schools for Chinese, three of them carrying on regular work in China- town with resident American or Chinese workers. One is maintained by the American Sunday-School Union and one is a Chinese Y. M. C. A. Home. Throughout New England there are forty-two Sun- day-schools, most of them connected with a Chinese Sunday-School Union. Philadelphia has a Chinese Baptist Church with a Chinese pastor. It has thirty members, with forty-five pupils in the Sunday-school and thirty- five teachers. There are five other active Chinese Sunday-schools in Philadelphia. Chicago has twelve schools for Chinese, maintained by Baptists, Congregationalists, Prebyterians, and Methodists, eight of them regular missions. There is one ordained pastor working in the Congregational mission. About two hundred Chinese attend regu- larly the different schools. There is a Chinese Mission Teachers' Association. The Y. M. C. A. has undertaken work for the Japanese in Chicago. New York has five missions for Chinese : three in Chinatown, Episcopal, Baptist, and Methodist; a Presbyterian mission in another part of the city; and another Baptist mission in Brooklyn. The Pres- byterian mission has an ordained pastor, an or- ganized church of forty-three members, a Sunday- school enrolment of 112, and contributions for vari- ous purposes amounting to $1,500. A few other churches have Chinese classes in connection with the Sunday-school. No Christian denomination owns property occupied as a Chinese mission. With . a Chinese population second only to San Francisco, Christian effort for the evangelization of the Chinese seems pitifully inadequate. There are four Japanese missions in and about New York, one carried on by the Methodists, 'one by the Reformed Church, one undenominational, and one under the Y. M. C. A. in Brooklyn. Some mission work is done for the Chinese in. St. Louis, New Orleans , El Paso, Kansas City. Denver, Salt Lake City, and at points in New Mexico and Arizona. On the Pacific Coast there are fifty-four missions for the Chinese in twenty-five towns and cities, carried on by seven denominations. Methodist, Bap- tist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopalian. Christian (Disciples), Cumberland Presbyterian, and three independent missions. For Japanese there are seventy-two missions in forty cities and towns, carried on by nine denominations, all the above except Cumberland Presbyterian, and in addition, Friends, German Reformed, and Methodist South. Two others are independent missions. Among Koreans there are eight missions, conducted by the 30 Methodists, Methodists South, and Presbyterians, in eight places in California. The Catholics have done almost nothing in mission work for Orientals on the Coast. With the largest Chinese population, San Francisco is naturally the center of Chinese missionary work, having eleven missions under seven denominations. Fine buildings have been erected for the work of the Baptist, Congregational, Episcopalian, Methodist, and Presbyterian missions. The cities across the bay from San Francisco — Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley, have eleven missions, carried on by seven denominations, twice as many in proportion to the population as in San Francisco, but with much less equipment for the work. Los Angeles has eight missions for the Chinese, carried on by six de- nominations, Sacramento four, Portland four, and Seattle two. The great centers of Japanese population on the Pacific Coast are Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. There are seven churches and missions in Los Angeles, and three more in suburban towns, conducted by seven denominations. There are five missions in Seattle, under as many denominations. Several of the Japanese missions in Seattle are well equipped with buildings. In San Francisco and the Bay District, sixteen churches and missions for Japanese are maintained by eight denominations. There is also a Japanese Y. M. C. A. and an inde- pendent mission. The Methodists have a fine build- ing for their Japanese church and school in San Francisco, but in general, much less has been done in the way of proper housing of the Japanese mis- sion work than of the Chinese. NOTE— Important sources of information concerning Ori- entals in America are Chinese Immigration, by Coob'dge : American Japanese Relations, by Kawakami ; Reports of the Immigration Commission, Reports of the Bureau of Immigra- tion, the Census of Religious Bodies and the 1910 Census Bul- letins, the September, 1910, number of the Annals of the Amer- ican Academy of Political and Social Science, and two books by early missionaries, The Chinaman as We See Him, By Condit, and Chinese in America, by Gibson. 31