15篇文章贯通六级词汇Unit08-Part1

[00:15.08]Chinese-American Relations: A History(Ⅰ)

[00:20.23]The Nineteenth Century to World WarⅡ

[00:24.80]The Nineteenth Century

[00:27.87]In the 19th century,

[00:30.93]the United States was

[00:32.46]a relative newcomer to

[00:34.21]the area of international affairs.

[00:36.84]Relations with China really began,

[00:40.44]not so subtly, in the 19th century

[00:43.51]with its discriminatory immigration

[00:46.46]policy against China. The Gold Rush

[00:50.18]of 1849 in California, the building

[00:54.67]of railroads, and the American industrial

[00:56.96]revolution of the second half

[00:59.59]of the 19th century, attracted

[01:01.56]many Chinese immigrants with dreams

[01:04.52]of the good life in America.

[01:07.36]At that time, it was perceived

[01:11.08]by most of the world, that

[01:13.27]America was the land of opportunity,

[01:15.45]success, and wealth.

[01:18.08]As the Chinese population

[01:21.80]in the United States grew in size,

[01:24.76]pressures to limit the number

[01:27.16]of these coming into the United States

[01:29.68]became strong. Laws, such as

[01:33.62]placing a police tax on

[01:35.59]Chinese people in California in 1862

[01:39.30]and The Chinese Exclusion 1 Act passed

[01:42.59]in 1882, officially testified

[01:46.09]to blatant 2 discrimination against

[01:48.49]Chinese people. The latter felt

[01:52.11]forced to congregate 3 in areas

[01:54.51]of big cities, such as San Francisco,

[01:58.01]New York, and Boston. Chinatown

[02:01.95]soon became part of American

[02:04.25]urban vocabulary. It seemed that

[02:07.97]the timid Chinese were susceptible 4

[02:10.38]to being pushed around. It appeared

[02:14.10]that Chinese and other Oriental immigrants

[02:17.60]were not welcome with open arms,

[02:20.33]but were welcome only when

[02:21.87]hard labour was needed to do

[02:23.94]the toughest jobs, especially

[02:26.13]in railroad construction and

[02:28.65]in the new industries that were

[02:31.05]fast developing at the time.

[02:33.68]It would be well into

[02:35.98]the 20th century before such discriminatory

[02:38.50]laws would be suspended.

[02:42.11]The Early Twentieth Century

[02:45.94]During the second half of

[02:48.89]the 19th century, the United States

[02:51.18]was preoccupied 5 with a civil war

[02:53.70]and a post civil war

[02:56.11]industrial revolution. American

[02:58.95]foreign policy with China did not

[03:01.91]really take form until 1899

[03:05.30]and 1900. By the turn

[03:08.19]of the century, the United States

[03:10.71]was ascending 6 as a major player

[03:13.55]in international affairs, especially

[03:16.50]in the western hemisphere.

[03:19.02]American foreign policy, at the time,

[03:22.30]focused mostly on Latin America.

[03:25.36]However, in 1899, the Americans

[03:30.18]saw economic opportunities in

[03:32.58]an already politically suppressed China.

[03:36.20]For decades, European countries

[03:39.37]had been reaping the economic benefits

[03:42.10]by exploiting of the country's resources

[03:45.17]and markets while claiming chunks 7

[03:47.46]of territory as their own.

[03:49.65]It had become a closed club

[03:52.50]of the countries already established there.

[03:56.22]The United States, fearing that

[04:00.16]China was about to officially partitioned,

[04:03.22]wanted access to those lucrative 8 assets

[04:06.06]as well. American Secretary of State,

[04:09.78]John Hay, perhaps using some

[04:12.30]Big Stick and gunboat tactics,

[04:14.81]popular American strategies at the time,

[04:17.66]was well positioned to get

[04:19.63]the established foreign nations

[04:21.38]in China to conform to an agreement

[04:24.00]called the Open Door policy for China.

[04:27.29]This benchmark intervention 9 by

[04:30.68]the United States, conferred on

[04:32.76]all countries, equal and impartial 10 trade

[04:36.04]with all parts of China, while

[04:38.66]preserving the territorial 11 and administrative 12

[04:42.06]integrity of the country.

[04:43.92]The American approach did little

[04:47.42]to respect China's customary opposition 13

[04:50.48]to foreign intrusion. To China,

[04:53.87]the United States was only

[04:55.62]one more country to bully 14 it,

[04:58.03]to exploit its resources and

[05:00.33]sovereignty and, further, to deny

[05:02.84]it of its autonomy, integrity,

[05:05.91]and dignity. This collective foreign presence,

[05:10.62]boosted by American interests,

[05:13.13]diffused any hope for China

[05:15.65]to break the chains of humiliating

[05:17.83]foreign occupation. The Chinese were

[05:21.66]virtually captives or prisoners

[05:23.74]in their own country.

[05:25.82]The United States did not deviate 15

[05:29.21]far from this economic

[05:31.14]policy toward China, until

[05:33.22]the communist take over in 1949.