An Excerpt from “Detention in the Wooden Barracks”

Background: A Chinese detainee described the conditions on Angel Island in a poem that was published in China in the Xinning Magazine in 1911.

When we bade farewell to our village home,
We were in tears because of survival’s desperation.
When we arrived in the American territory,
We stared in vain at the vast ocean.
Our ship docked
And we were transferred to a solitary island.
Ten li [about ten miles] from the city,
My feet stand on this lonely hill.
The muk-uk [wooden building] is three stories high,
Built as firmly as the Great Wall.
Room after room are but jails,
And the North Gate firmly locked.

Here—
Several hundreds of my countrymen are like fish caught in a net;
Half a thousand Yellow Race are like birds trapped in a mesh.
As we lift our heads and look afar,
The barbarian reed pipes all the more add to our anguish and grief.
As we cock our ear and try to listen,
The horses’ neighing further worsens our solitude and sorrow.

During the day, we endure a meal of crackers and cheese,
Just like Yan Hui eating rice and water;
At night, we wrap ourselves in a single blanket,
Just like Min Qian wearing clothes made of rush.
We wash in the morning in salty tidal water;
We drink murky water to quench our thirst.
In this newly open facility
Neither land nor water is in harmony with us.
Drinking the water makes many cough;
Eating the meal causes many to have sore throats.
A hundred ailments come about;
Our pain and sufferings are beyond words!

Source: "Detention in the Wooden Building," in Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present Judy Yung (Editor), Gordon Chang (Editor), Him Mark Lai (Editor). Publisher: University of California Press © 2006 by the Regents of the University of California. Pages 120-121.