On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. The act banned the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years and denied Chinese immigrants the right to become naturalized citizens. It was fueled by economic anxieties and racial prejudice on the West Coast, particularly in California, where Chinese immigrants had come to work in gold mines, agriculture, and the railroad industry. The act was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902, profoundly shaping the Asian American experience.

The Chinese Exclusion Act is a pivotal subject in Asian American literature, representing a moment of legalized discrimination and the struggle for belonging. It is a key theme in works like Maxine Hong Kingston's 'China Men' and in the poetry of the Angel Island immigrants, who carved poems into the walls of the detention barracks expressing their pain and hope. The act's legacy is explored in contemporary poetry and fiction as a foundational moment of racial exclusion in American history.