We have just returned from a tour of Machupicchu and other cities and sights in Peru in South America. Machupicchu is certainly one magnificent human creation that is worth of our admiration. Along the way, we also learned from our tour guide many fascinating facts about the history and geography of Peru. One interesting fact was the popularity of Chinese restaurants. They are identified as “Chifa” not restaurants. Chifa means “eat rice” or “have meal,” in Chinese – a most direct invitation to woo customers.

Our guide made mention of the historical import of Chinese laborers in the 19th century. The abolition of slavery in the Americas created a demand for cheap labor, men willing to do dirty, dangerous work for for very small rewards. According to Diana Lary in her book, Chinese Migrations, it was noted that “Chinese from Guangdong, Fujian and Shandong were recruited as laborers. Many of the workers were effectively indentured to their employers, as virtual slaves, or in debt bondage. They were not paid until the end of their contracts; in the meantime money were deducted from what they would eventually be paid to cover travel, food, accommodation and gambling debts. The men were referred to in English as “coolies,” from the Chinese “Kuli,” bitter strength.”

Diana Lary wrote: “The most disgusting job of all was harvesting guano, the droppings of sea birds, used as fertilizer. the guano’s scraped off cliffs and caves in Peru. When slaveryb ws abolished there in 1854, coolies were brought from Guongdong to do the dangerous, filthy work, hanging on ropes cliff tops, hacking away at the stinking, slippery guano.”

During 1860’s When Chinese laborers were employed in California for the construction of the transcontinental railroad and in various industries including salmon canning, they were mistaken as coolies. This mislabeling of the Chinese laborers, whether intentional or not, was the cause of much anti-Chinese rhetoric and violent actions during the Chinese Exclusion era. This mischaracterization was carried out by white labor movement leaders during the Chinese Exclusion era and remained to be a stigmatized word. In 1922, when Max Stern wrote his articles The Price of Salmon on the San Francisco Daily to expose the scandal of the west coast salmon canning industry, he wrote, “In the old gold rush days of California, the cheap labor of then foothill placer camps were all done by Chinese coolies. When in the 1870s the first salmon canneries were opened in the Sacramento River, it was a natural thing that the labor should redone by the Chinese…The Chinese went along to do the mucking and grilling work in the caneries. They became specialized, and the same coolies went in the holds of the salmon fleets year after year.” Of course, Stern, as an intelligent newsman, picked his word with the full knowledge of its implications. Whether the coolie system bears any economic realities or not, the idea of coolies as a transitional form of labor coming after the end of slavery did play a role in the imagination of the people and made a impact on the cause of history and the fate of many immigrants and migrants.

Image source: Chinese Coolies Crossing the Missouri River, by Leavitt Burnham, Harper’s Weekly, 1870. Wikimedia Commons. Note: This sketch depicting 250 Chinese railroad workers who had worked on the transcontinental railroad and were now crossing the Missouri River to reach Council Bluffs, Nebraska. According to the 3/4/2018 post on Chinese American Historian by Chance, their final destination was Texas — to work on railroad construction.