A Year “2” Remember: A Journey Through Asian American History of the Years that End in “2”

By Raymond Chang

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s we round out the year 2022, I thought it would be good to reflect on 2022 in light of some of the major events in Asian American history that end in the number “2.” Following the waves of prior years, 2022 remained impacted by COVID-19 and saw a rise in RSV. Due to a variety of factors, Asian Americans continue to be the target of anti-Asian hate and violence, despite the waning media coverage.

In the first two months of 2022, we experienced the shooting of Woom Sing Tse, an elderly Chinese American man in the Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago who was shot multiple times by an assailant while getting the newspaper. He was one of four Asians to be killed in the span of two months in Chicago. Michelle Go, a Chinese American woman was shoved to her death by a homeless man onto the subway tracks. Christina Lee, a Korean American woman was followed into her apartment in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York to be stabbed to death. These were followed by shootings in the Dallas area that targeted Asian owned businesses. These are just a few of many stories that have impacted the Asian American community in the early months of 2022. This falls on the backdrop of the reporting of Stop AAPI Hate, who has documented over 10,000 cases of anti-Asian hate having taken place between March of 2020 to September of 2021.

These incidents continue to weigh down on the Asian American community. If they don’t weigh on the broader American community, or if these stories aren’t known by the broader community, it is worth asking why.

We are closing out 2022 with news of the Chancellor of Purdue Northwest University, who during a commencement speech made a mockery of Asian languages, a type of “Ching Chonging” far too many of us have heard before in our own institutions - Christian or not. Sadly, this was followed up by an all too familiar laughter by those who were around him. This is troubling because of the nature of the institution and the powerful role of Chancellor Keon within an institution of higher learning. 

Many of us hoped that 2022 would be different. We hoped that we would have seen a shift in 2022, especially as for the first time in decades, the challenges that Asian America was facing were being broadcast for the broader society to see. These acts of hate and violence aren’t new, but they do seem to be either getting the attention that for long we have not been able to draw attention for, or occurring at a rate so severe that it is impossible to ignore.

2022 marks a notable pattern in Asian American history. Decades ending in the number “2” hold significance for the Asian American community as a whole. Not all are gloomy, but as the Asian American identity is one that was forged through struggle and resistance in the midst of invisibility and exclusion, most of the decades ending in “2” hold a sadness, grief, and even anger for the community to bear.

But not everything was sad. Ten years ago, in 2012, Jeremy Lin captured the hearts and imaginations of people all over the world through #Linsanity. It was the first time people saw an Asian American dominate in the NBA and break through the barriers held by the collective imagination. Yao Ming was a phenom from China. Jeremy Lin was home grown in the US of A. During #Linsanity, it felt like everyone wanted to watch the Knicks play because everyone wanted to say they witnessed it firsthand. For many Asian Americans, it was the first time they saw an Asian American being portrayed as the main character in a stereotype defying manner. In addition to this, he openly shared about his faith in Jesus. His Christian faith marked him on and off the court, which for Asian American Christians like me, was deeply encouraging to see. 

When I talk of key moments in Asian American history, I do my best to weave in the story of #Linsanity. Linsanity for me was the first time Asian Americans were portrayed as more than a side-kick in the broader society. I grew up with KPop and KDramas, but they hadn’t gone mainstream like they are today – and often drew ridicule from people if they happened to pick up my Walkman or Discman (if you don’t know what these are, you can google it). In fact, there is a great short documentary about Linsanity called “38 at the Garden.” If you haven’t watched it, take 38 minutes to do so. You’ll watch reflections by Jeremy Lin himself, along with others including Hasan Minhaj and Lisa Ling.

The high of Linsanity was followed by a profound low due to a mass shooting at a Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek Wisconsin later in 2012 (August), where a white supremacist army veteran murdered six people and wounded four others with a legally purchased firearm. This act was consistent with the longstanding xenophobia, racism, and religious discrimination that Sikhs had endured throughout their existence in the US. 

On April 29, 1992, Koreatown in LA was burned down after the brutalization of Rodney King was broadcast, confirming what many African Americans had been saying for years around police brutality. Police officers, ordered by the police chief, essentially set up a perimeter, protecting wealthy white neighborhoods from the rioting that was taking place while neglecting racialized minority communities (Koreatown experienced nearly $40 billion of destruction and loss – which was only made worse by the fact that many of these businesses were not insured). Sixty three people died, the majority being African American and then Latinos. This wholesale neglect by the police, demonstrated the ways that racism and racialization set minoritized communities against each other. What should’ve drawn attention to a pattern of police brutality that had harmed and traumatized racialized minority communities – especially the African American community – was distracted by the narrative of Black-Korean tensions. The interminority tensions between Koreans and African Americans became the story instead of all the forces that undergirded the tensions.

In 1982, at his bachelor party, Vincent Chin (Chinese) was harassed by two white auto workers, who were frustrated with the rise of the Japanese auto industry. As the Japanese auto industry was capturing a greater portion of the market share, the American auto industry, concentrated in Detroit, was on the decline. Longstanding attitudes of Yellow Peril were directed at the Japanese, which was applied to Asian Americans more broadly. These auto workers hurled racial slurs at Chin, which escalated to his brutalization by these autoworkers, leading to his death. The men served no time in jail.

In 1962, Daniel K. Inouye became a US Senator and Spark Matsunaga became a US congressman from Hawaii. This was the first time an Asian American held public office in such a manner.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War to be able to designate military areas “from which any and all persons may be excluded,” placing around 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (most of whom were American citizens) into mass incarceration camps all over the country. This was a civil rights violation that was later deemed unconstitutional.

In 1922, the Cable Act declared that any female citizen of the US who married “an alien ineligible to citizenship,” especially if they were married to Asian immigrant men. This act somewhat reversed the Expatriation Act of 1907, which on the heels of the women’s suffrage movement sought to give women citizenship in their own right. However, while it made efforts to allow women (namely white women) to retain their citizenship despite their marriages to foreigners, it was not extended to women who married “aliens ineligible for citizenship” in equal measure, which primarily targeted Asian immigrant men.

On May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to prevent Chinese laborers from entering the US to preserve "racial purity" in the United States. Chinese were .002% of the population, but "yellow peril" fears led to laws that would eventually ban most of Asia from migrating – known as the Asiatic Barred Zone. The Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed twice over the next twenty years through the Geary Law, leading to nearly eighty years of exclusion for Chinese and Asians of other ethnicities and nationalities.

In 1872, the ruling of People v. George W. Hall, which prevented Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants from testifying against white citizens in the court of law, was overturned. In 1854, after George Hall, a white man, murdered a Chinese miner named Ling Sing (according to Chinese witnesses). Hall argued that Chinese witnesses should not be accepted in conjunction with Section 394 of the Act Concerning Civil cases, which barred the testimony of blacks, mulattoes, and Indians against whites. The California Supreme court, through an opinion by Chief Justice Hugh Murray with the concurrence of Justice Solomon Heydenfeldt, sided with George Hall. It was ruled that the testimony of Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants should be deemed inadmissible because the Chinese were “a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior, and who are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point.” Thus, they had no right “to swear away the life of a citizen” or participate “with us in administering the affairs of our Government.” 

In 1862, a police tax of $2.50 was instituted against Chinese laborers in order to “protect free white labor against competition with Chinese coolie labor, and to discourage the immigration of the Chinese into the state of California.” This law was deemed unconstitutional later in the year.

In 1852, a Foreign Miners’ License Tax was instituted, requiring miners ineligible for citizenship (namely Chinese), to pay a $3 monthly license.

In the same year of 1852, William Spear, a minister, opened a mission for Chinese people in San Francisco, which led to the founding of the first and oldest (recorded) Chinese/Asian American Church, The Presbyterian Church in Chinatown. You can visit the church, along with several other 100+ year old churches in the San Francisco Chinatown area.

When you look at the decades ending with “2” throughout the history of the United States, there is much to consider and lament. There is a lot that the Asian American community, or communities, had to endure and overcome. There are certainly many moments of joy, especially considering the ways our communities and its members have found ways to overcome significant obstacles and hardships. What is clear however, is that we must not forget. We must do the good work of remembering and remembering actively. When we do this, we are able to better anticipate and address the issues that impact Asian American communities across the US and to work towards a justice for all that falls in line with the heart of God for healing and wholeness driven by the church. This is the work that we seek to do at the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC). This is the work we are committed to at AACC. 

As we close out the year, we encourage you to join the work by sharing your time, talent, and treasure with us. You can do so by submitting a volunteer interest letter through the link here https://www.asianamericanchristiancollaborative.com/join-our-team, or contribute to AACC (monthly gifts are the most helpful!) through the link here https://funraise.org/give/Asian-American-Christian-Collaborative/d9871794-5537-41a2-9c38-927644795337/.

As 2022 comes to a close, we pray that our efforts together will shift the landscape and the narrative of Asian American Christians to be on the forefront of God’s justice issues. 

Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash

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Pastor Raymond Chang is the president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative, a pastor, and writer. He regularly preaches God’s Word and speaks throughout the country on issues pertaining to Christianity and culture, race and faith. He has lived throughout the world (Korea, Guatemala, Panama, Spain, China), traveled to nearly 50 countries, and currently lives in Chicagoland, serving as the Executive Director of the TENx10 Collaboration (an initiative of the Fuller Youth Institute at Fuller Seminary), which is a collaborative movement that is geared towards reaching 10 million young people over 10 years with the gospel). Prior to his role at Fuller, Raymond served for 7+ years as the Associate Chaplain for Discipleship at Wheaton College. He also worked in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, and served in the Peace Corps in Panama. He is currently pursuing his PhD on the intersection of Spirituality and Campus/Organizational Racial Climates. He is married to Jessica Chang.