Spin Control: Debate on Chinese American month asks, ‘What’s in a name?’

The contributions of Chinese immigrants to the state and the country are many, although the recognition of those contributions is often meager.

But while Shakespeare was right that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, the same apparently can’t be said of the naming of a month for Washington schools to recognize those contributions.

For the last four years, the Legislature has considered setting aside a month to recognize – or at least have Washington school children learn something about – what Chinese immigrants and their descendants have done since the late 1840s.

That they provided most of the labor for the Northern Pacific, the first transcontinental railroad into Washington, is not in doubt. That the state has had a series of influential persons of Chinese ancestry, from entrepreneur turned diplomatic counsel Goon Dip in the early 1900s to former state governor and U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, can’t be questioned.

But selecting a month and settling on a name, along with some political infighting, have thwarted what on paper should have been an easy lift.

The bill first introduced in February 2020 simply called for setting aside January as Chinese American History Month and encouraging public schools to “designate time for appropriate activities in commemoration” of that month.

The state already has Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, and Filipino American History Month in September, so the request wasn’t much of a stretch. But the bill was introduced so late in the session it didn’t get a hearing. The next year, the proposal was introduced in the Senate in January, passed out of committee in early February but didn’t get a vote in the full Senate until the next January, when it passed 48-0. Before that vote, however, an amendment changed the proposal to “Americans of Chinese Descent History Month.”

The change was prompted in part by the news of “an alarming uptick” of attacks on Asian Americans, said prime sponsor Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, and an effort to emphasize that they are Americans first.

“When Americans are attacked, Americans stick together,” he said. “I hope that our language can inform our minds.”

The change was backed by Washington Asians For Equality, which was a main driving force behind the bill. The newly renamed bill was approved by a House committee but before it came up to a vote of the full House, an amendment proposed moving the month to May “as the nation celebrates the national Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month.” While some groups within the diverse Chinese American community were OK with that, it didn’t sit well with the original proponents.

But some House Democrats weren’t inclined to cut Asians For Equality any slack, recalling how that conservative group led the effort to overturn a new state Affirmative Action law through a ballot referendum in 2019. Some also apparently wondered about the possible proliferation of requests for “heritage days” from other groups.

The bill never got a full House vote and died when the session ended. Proponents of the bill criticized the House Members of Color Caucus, which proposed the change, and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, for what a leader of the supporters called “allowing an anti-Chinese contingent … to kill the bill.” The shortness of the session could hardly be blamed, critics said, in a Legislature that found time to pass a bill making pickleball the official state sport.

This year, the Americans of Chinese Descent History Month was the first bill introduced in the Senate, weeks before the session started. A few days before the session started, however, it was drawn into a separate controversy over legislators possibly violating state disclosure laws by withholding or redacting parts of emails, texts or message between members.

Washington Asians For Equality had filed public record requests for any documents connected to discussions of the previous session’s Americans of Chinese Descent Heritage Month Bill. Some parts of the documents they got were blacked out with the claim of “legislative privilege,” a legally untested concept based on a section of the state constitution that says legislators can’t be liable for civil action or criminal prosecution for things spoken in debate. Litigation on such claims is pending.

Although it passed the Senate – again 48-0 – with Americans of Chinese Descent in the title and text, when the bill got to the House State Government Committee hearing this month, there was an effort by Chairman Bill Ramos to change that to Chinese American. The amendment also spelled out some of the history of notable Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Washington.

Members of Washington Asians 4 Equality and others argued Americans should come first as the key recognition, although many speakers referred to themselves as Chinese Americans.

Connie So, a professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, said groups of Chinese Americans she polled support having January as the designated month and recounting some of their accomplishments. But putting “Americans of Chinese Descent” is arguably not historically accurate, particularly for those early residents like the early Chinese railroad workers, she said.

Asian immigrants couldn’t become Americans prior to 1943 due to strict exclusions in federal law, she said.

“The Chinese American experience is not the Chinese experience and is not an American experience,” So said. But using Chinese American in the title at least follows the standard for other commemorative days, weeks or months, she added.

Some might suggest a lesson about excluding citizenship to the Chinese who built the railroad would be good for students to learn during a future heritage month.

Before the bill passed out of committee, it was amended to designate January as Chinese American/Americans of Chinese Descent History Month, and include both descriptions when referring to the accomplishments, experiences or perspectives of any immigrants from China or their descendants.

Whether this effort to please everybody will wind up pleasing nobody has yet to be seen. The amended bill will need to pass the full House by April 12, and the changes would need to pass the Senate before the session ends on April 23.