By the 1870s the easygoing cordiality that greeted the first Chinese in America had been r

eplaced by an ugly resentment that often boiled into violence. Racism and economic fear led many Westerners to believe that the Chinese, who were willing to work cheap, were stealing their jobs.

Legal persecution took the form. of taxes and statutes aimed at their livelihood, their customs and even their looks. Chinese families had to pay special taxes. Their children were barred from local public schools. A San Francisco ordinance, vetoed by the mayor at the last moment, would have required that the queues of Chinese jail inmates be cut off. Other harassments included laws making it illegal to carry baskets suspended from poles while walking on sidewalks, as Chinese laundrymen did, or to rent rooms with less than 500 cubic feet of space per person, as most Chinese had to do. The courts even prohibited Chinese from giving testimony in cases that involved whites.

By 1880 Chinese immigrants represented only 0. 002 percent of the population, yet the "Chinese Question" -- which boiled down to finding ways to keep them out -- had become a major national issue.

The Chinese responded to prejudice and persecution in two ways. First, they created an insulated society-within-a-society that needed little from the dominant culture. Second, they displayed a stoic willingness to persevere, and to take without complaint or resistance whatever America dished out.

The first Chinese immigrants to the US

A．were welcomed with hospitality.

B．far outnumbered other minorities.

C．arrived mostly in the 1870s.

D．were met with obvious hostility.