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Birthday
I was born and raised in Hong Kong, China.My family and I stayed for a couple of years after I was born. My parents always said to me that life wasn't easy, and that is why we moved to America. My parents weren't getting paid enough to raise me and my brother. We moved so we could experience new things and so my parents could get jobs. We were told that there were jobs all over America that we could do. this autobiography is to show you what life is like for an average immigrant. -
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Events
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Arriving at Ellis Island
When we arrived at Ellis Island, we were excited to finally be there, but scared too. Me, my dad, and my 2 little brothers had to split up with my mother to be medically examined. It was a little uncomfortable for all of us but we wanted to live in America. After we went through everything, we all met up at the other side of the building. I also met someone named Chi Chang who was there alone. We talked for a while and ended up taking him with us on our journey. -
Trying to Find Gold
After a month, we heard about a gold rush in California which is where we were living. We didn't know much about the whole things but we decided to try and make some money by getting gold. Luckily, on the way we met some people who gave us some supplies. As we kept looking, we ran into some obstacles. The supplies we needed were super expensive and we couldn't afford them. That is why we stopped our search for gold after about 2 months. -
Working on Railroads
RailroadsMe and Chi went heard about working on railroads and decided to participate, even though we wouldn't get much money in return. We worked on railroads in our area of California for about 3 years. We had to dig wide enough to put train tracks and then build the train tracks. I nailed in so many tracks a day that I wouldn't even be able to count them. It was really boring and tiring but we needed the money to keep our family going. -
Blowing up Mountains.
After a year of laying down tracks every day, Chi and I decided to do something more thrilling. We used explosives to blow inside mountains so trains could go through them. Every day was blood rushing and so exciting but was really dangerous. That was the bad part about this job. We risked our lives so many times and probably should have died. I experienced so many people get blown up because they didn't escape one time. Even Chi died on one of our last days at work. I was devistated. -
Chinese Exlusion Act
Chinese Exclusion ActAfter living in America for over 30 years, I was being forced to leave which was caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act. More and more Americans were getting scared that Chinese immigrants would end up taking all of the jobs, which seems stupid to me. I was confused why the other immigrants got to stay, but i had no say in anything. I was no longer allowed in the country and I knew that I would not be coming back. I was mad and din't agree but I had to leave. It wasn't my choice.
