Saving Face for all : Confucius and Chinese Collective Action

More than 12,000 Chinese workers helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1850s, but little is known about the workers themselves. One of the most challenging parts of the Transcontinental Railroad was constructed through California's Sierra Nevada Mountains because the legal landscape was as treacherous for the Chinese workers as the work conditions. The California Supreme Court had stripped Chinese citizens of all civil rights. So when the Chinese workers were paid less than European workers and worked under harsher conditions, they had no formal recourse in court. Instead of court, the Chinese turned to the teachings of Confucious.In June 1867, coinciding with the Summer Solstice, the Chinese workers staged a large-scale, peaceful strike in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The characteristics of the strike as reported in the press were demonstrably Confucian. My research reviews the context that led to the strike of 1867 and the behaviors reported in the press, compared the three Confucian principles: improper behavior, a lack of trustworthiness, and neglect of responsibility. I relate these Confucian principles to the actions as reported by railroad management. The Chinese strikers' behavior during the strike in the Sierra Nevada may represent a much larger movement of a Confucian form of collective action emerging among Chinese workers globally