The Wasp — 1878 — page 24: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon depicts Chinese laborers as grotesque caricatures pulling an enormous wheel labeled "DEGRADED CHINA" and marked with references to "IMMORALITY" and "CORRUPTION." A white figure (appearing to represent American authority or labor) uses a whip to drive them forward toward "South San Francisco." The satire expresses anti-Chinese sentiment common in 1870s California. It portrays Chinese workers as both subhuman and as agents importing moral decay into America. The "hard job" appears to reference the difficult task of managing or controlling Chinese immigration and labor, reflecting widespread nativist anxieties of the era. This represents the xenophobic attitudes that would culminate in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.