星火英语15篇文章贯通5-6级词汇 Unit8-Part1

[00:00.00]UNIT 8
[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 Act passed
[01:42.59]in 1882, officially testified
[01:46.09]to blatant discrimination against
[01:48.49]Chinese people. The latter felt
[01:52.11]forced to congregate 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
[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 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 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
[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 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 by
[04:30.68]the United States, conferred on
[04:32.76]all countries, equal and impartial trade
[04:36.04]with all parts of China, while
[04:38.66]preserving the territorial and administrative
[04:42.06]integrity of the country.
[04:43.92]The American approach did little
[04:47.42]to respect China's customary opposition
[04:50.48]to foreign intrusion. To China,
[04:53.87]the United States was only
[04:55.62]one more country to bully 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
[05:29.21]far from this economic
[05:31.14]policy toward China, until
[05:33.22]the communist take over in 1949.