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Chapter 5. The Wartime Transformation of Student Visitors into Refugee Citizens, 1943–1955

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The Good Immigrants
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CHAPTER 5The Wartime Transformation of Student Visitors into Refugee Citizens, 1943–1955In 1948 the author C. Y. Lee (Li Jinyang, b. 1917) was renting a single room over a Filipino nightclub in San Francisco, eking out a living working under the table as a writer and editor for hire at two Chinatown newspapers. He had arrived in 1943 to study literature at Columbia University but switched to the MFA program at Yale. When he received his degree in 1947, the Chi-nese Civil War (1945–1949) prevented his return to China, and he had no choice but to overstay his student visa and work illegally. He had been liable for deportation when one of his stories won first prize in a Reader’s Digestcontest. Lee presented this honor at his next immigration interview in hopes of gaining another deferral of deportation. To his surprise, the officer offered him permanent residency instead. Lee remained in the United States legally, gained citizenship, and continued a prolific literary career cul-minating in publication of the best-selling novel Flower Drum Song in 1957, which became the basis for the popular and colorful tale of Chinese Ameri-can integration featured in the successful Rogers and Hammerstein Broad-way musical (1958) and Universal Studios movie (1961).1Lee’s route to citizenship reveals how World War II and the Cold War had dramatically improved the possibilities for Chinese students to resettle permanently and become Americans. Most likely, Lee’s specific change of status became legally feasible through the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which gave the attorney general powers to adjust the status of a nonimmi-grant present in the United States before April 1, 1948, to that of permanent immigrant if found to be “a worthy applicant” showing “long presence in the United States and a good moral character.”2 Along with Chinese Ameri-can residents who through military service and employment in wartime industries gained access to mainstream jobs, higher education, residential dispersion, family reunification through the War Brides Act, and citizen-ship, students also gained better options for lawful employment, family reunification, and extended legal residency. Lee was among the thousands of Chinese who continued to arrive in the United States during World War II as students and through other forms of cultural, educational, and now

CHAPTER 5The Wartime Transformation of Student Visitors into Refugee Citizens, 1943–1955In 1948 the author C. Y. Lee (Li Jinyang, b. 1917) was renting a single room over a Filipino nightclub in San Francisco, eking out a living working under the table as a writer and editor for hire at two Chinatown newspapers. He had arrived in 1943 to study literature at Columbia University but switched to the MFA program at Yale. When he received his degree in 1947, the Chi-nese Civil War (1945–1949) prevented his return to China, and he had no choice but to overstay his student visa and work illegally. He had been liable for deportation when one of his stories won first prize in a Reader’s Digestcontest. Lee presented this honor at his next immigration interview in hopes of gaining another deferral of deportation. To his surprise, the officer offered him permanent residency instead. Lee remained in the United States legally, gained citizenship, and continued a prolific literary career cul-minating in publication of the best-selling novel Flower Drum Song in 1957, which became the basis for the popular and colorful tale of Chinese Ameri-can integration featured in the successful Rogers and Hammerstein Broad-way musical (1958) and Universal Studios movie (1961).1Lee’s route to citizenship reveals how World War II and the Cold War had dramatically improved the possibilities for Chinese students to resettle permanently and become Americans. Most likely, Lee’s specific change of status became legally feasible through the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which gave the attorney general powers to adjust the status of a nonimmi-grant present in the United States before April 1, 1948, to that of permanent immigrant if found to be “a worthy applicant” showing “long presence in the United States and a good moral character.”2 Along with Chinese Ameri-can residents who through military service and employment in wartime industries gained access to mainstream jobs, higher education, residential dispersion, family reunification through the War Brides Act, and citizen-ship, students also gained better options for lawful employment, family reunification, and extended legal residency. Lee was among the thousands of Chinese who continued to arrive in the United States during World War II as students and through other forms of cultural, educational, and now
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