This module explores how World War II brought sweeping changes to the Chinese American community. China became a vital ally to the United States, which resulted in the US government lifting immigration restrictions on Chinese entry. Also, the overall American attitudes about Chinese people began to shift. A New York Chinatown resident named Harold Liu remarked that in the 1940s, “for the first time Chinese were accepted by Americans as being friends because at that time, Chinese and Americans were fighting against Japanese and the Germans and the Nazis.” Because they shared a common enemy, Liu explained, “[All] of a sudden, we became part of an American dream.” ¹

This change in American perceptions of Chinese people happened in politics and media. In 1943, the United States welcomed Soong Mayling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, on a speaking tour in the United States. She was the wife of China’s Nationalist leader and spoke to crowds of up to 30,000 people, encouraging them to support the war effort. In cooperation with the US government, Hollywood filmmakers created wartime films with positive portrayals of Chinese people as valiant allies and deserving of American support.

Chinese Americans found work in the military industry, and the population grew with relaxed immigration laws. Despite these major shifts during World War II, these international relations were conditional and tenuous. Old stereotypes of Chinese Americans as dangerous and untrustworthy emerged again as the Cold War era began, and as China became a Communist rival of the United States.