CHINESE

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

CHINESEAuthored
The Law Mind • 888 words
Definition
As a legal term of art, "Chinese" appears primarily in the context of 19th- and early 20th-century U.S. immigration and civil rights law, where it functioned as a racial classification targeting persons of Chinese national origin or descent. The term was embedded in a series of federal and state statutes, municipal ordinances, and constitutional litigation that collectively formed the legal architecture of Chinese exclusion in the United States. In its operative legal usage, "Chinese" designated a category of persons subject to special disabilities, exclusions, and restrictions under law — including bars on naturalized citizenship, exclusion from entry into the United States, prohibitions on certain occupations and property ownership, and exposure to discriminatory local ordinances. The term was not used in these sources as a neutral demonym but as a legally operative classification carrying adverse legal consequences.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A citizen of China, particularly of the People's Republic of China; a person of Han Chinese descent; the Chinese language in its various forms including Mandarin and Cantonese. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Of or pertaining to China; peculiar to China." The gap between common and legal meaning here is not definitional but functional. In 19th-century American law, "Chinese" was not simply a descriptive demonym — it was a legal category of exclusion. Where ordinary usage described national or ethnic origin neutrally, legal usage in the exclusion era treated the same term as triggering a regime of targeted disabilities. Researchers must read the term in its statutory and judicial context, not as a neutral descriptor.
Why It Matters in Research
This term requires exceptional care in historical legal research for several reasons. First, the Bouvier's entry is fragmentary and mid-sentence, reflecting what was likely a longer treatment of Chinese exclusion legislation and constitutional challenges. The entry references California, Nevada, and Oregon anti-Chinese ordinances struck down on constitutional grounds, and alludes to the Fourteenth Amendment — pointing researchers toward a rich body of federal and state constitutional litigation from the 1870s through the 1890s. Researchers should treat Bouvier's entry as an index to that litigation rather than a complete account. Second, the Anderson's entry reproduced under this term is misattributed or misaligned — it discusses the legal meaning of "children" (legitimate offspring, grandchildren, Wild's Case, words of purchase), not "Chinese." Researchers using the Law Mind corpus should be alert to this indexing anomaly and disregard the Anderson's passage as responsive to this term. Third, the legal history of "Chinese" as a classification in U.S. law is dense and jurisdictionally layered. Federal exclusion statutes beginning with the Page Act of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 operated alongside state and municipal measures of varying constitutionality. Courts repeatedly had to distinguish between what federal law permitted, what states could do under the police power, and what the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited. Tracing the constitutional fate of any particular restriction requires navigating federal circuit court decisions, state supreme court rulings, and eventual U.S. Supreme Court treatment. Fourth, the term intersects with the development of equal protection doctrine. Several early equal protection cases arose from anti-Chinese ordinances, and some of those decisions shaped Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence well beyond the immigration context. Researchers working on equal protection history will encounter "Chinese" as a term of legal art in foundational cases. Fifth, the meaning and scope of "Chinese" as a legal category was itself contested — courts addressed whether the term encompassed persons of Chinese descent born in the United States, persons of mixed heritage, and persons holding citizenship of other nations. The citizenship question was definitively addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the late 19th century, with lasting consequences for birthright citizenship doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's treatment, though truncated in the available corpus text, situates "Chinese" within the exclusion framework and flags the constitutional invalidity of many state and local measures — a legally accurate summary of the period's litigation landscape. Bouvier correctly identifies the Fourteenth Amendment as the primary constitutional instrument used to challenge discriminatory ordinances, and specifically notes that hair-cutting requirements imposed on county jail inmates were struck down as cruel and unusual punishment and as violating the amendment. This is a reference to the line of cases challenging San Francisco's discriminatory jail regulations, which produced early judicial engagement with the amendment's scope. What historical dictionaries of this period characteristically omit is any treatment of Chinese persons as legal subjects with rights rather than as objects of restrictive legislation. The framing is entirely from the perspective of the regulating sovereign, not the regulated individual. Researchers should supplement dictionary sources with primary legal sources and secondary scholarship to recover the full legal picture.
Jurisdictional Note
Anti-Chinese legislation was concentrated in Pacific Coast states, particularly California, though similar measures appeared across the American West. Federal exclusion law preempted some state measures while leaving others intact. The constitutional validity of specific restrictions varied by court and by the particular right or disability at issue. Federal law governed exclusion from entry; state law governed property, occupation, and civil status; and the interplay between the two produced significant doctrinal complexity.
Related Terms
Chinese Exclusion Acts — Equal Protection — Fourteenth Amendment — Alienage — Naturalization — Immigration Law — Racial Classification — Civil Rights (Reconstruction Era) — Birthright Citizenship — Police Power
CHINESEmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
Stringent laws for the entire exclusion of Chinese from the United States have been passed in California, Nevada, and Oregon; many of these have been decided to be unconstitutional. An ordinance providing that every male per- son imprisoned in the county jail should have his hair cut short is unconstitutional, as inflicting cruel and unusual punishment, and as contrary to the XIV. amendment of the U. S. constitution; 5 Sawy. 552. A statute forbidding the employment of Chinamen on public works, etc., is void, as contravening the Burlingame treaty and the XIV. amendment; 5 Sawy. 566; 1 Fed. Rep. 481. So is an act forbidding China- men to fish for the purpose of sale; 2 Fed. Rep. 743. But a state law forbidding the exhumation of dead bodies and their re- moval, without a permit, is not invalid when applied to the removal of bodies of Chinamen who have been buried in Cali- fornia; it is a merely sanitary regulation; 2 Fed. Rep. 624. Under the XIV. amendment the laws ex- cluding immigrants who are Chinese labor- ers are inapplicable to a person born in the United States, though his parents were not citizens and could not become such under the naturalization laws; 49 Fed. Rep. 146, 148. The act of May 5, 1892, requiring the de- portation of all Chinese laborers who fail to get a certificate of residence, is in no sense a sentence for crime or a banish- ment, and the provision of the constitution against cruel and unusual punishment has no application; 149 U. S. 698. The failure of a Chinese laborer to reg- ister, as required by act of Congress, May 5, 1892, is held not to be excused by the fact that after the commencement of the time allowed for registration, but before its ex- piration, he was convicted and imprisoned for crime; 69 Fed. Rep. 972. Under the act of May 5, 1892, Chinese persons were prohibited from coming to the United States except under certain condi- tions, for which see U. S. Rev. Stat. 2 Supp. 13, also full notes on pp. 14 to 19, which contain the various decisions of the federal courts in relation thereto. Act of Nov. 3, 1893 (exclusion act), applies to Chinese per- sons who, having left the country before its passage, afterwards sought to return; 66 Fed. Rep. 953; 14 C. C. A. 281. A Chinaman, who during half his time is en- gaged in cutting and sewing garments for sale by a firm of which he is a member, is not a merchant within the exclusion act; 66 Fed. Rep. 955.
CHINESEmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
include illegitimate offspring, grandchildren, or stepchildren. But, ordinarily, the reference is to descendants in the first degree only.1 The word is generally a word of purchase; but not so in the case of a grant in the present tense to a man and his children, he having no child, as in Wild's Case.2 While the word "children" will include a grandchild, the presumption of law is against such construction.4 The word itself intends only legitimate children. Children become emancipated at twenty-one. Their duties to their parents arise out of natural justice, and compensation. At common law they are not bound to support an infirm or indigent parent; but otherwise, now, by statute. They may defend the parent's person, but may not commit crime at his command. In a contest for the possession of a child, the welfare of the child is the controlling consideration. The father will be given the custody of it, unless he is shown to be unfit or incompetent for that office, or unless the welfare of the child demands a different disposition." See further ADOPT, 3; AGE; AGENT; BASTARD; DESCENDANT; DIE, Without, etc.; FAMILY; HEIR; INFANT; ISSUE, 5; NAME, 1; NEGLIGENCE; ORPHAN; PARENT; PATER, Partus, etc.; PERPETUITY; RAISE; SHELLEY'S CASE; WITNESS. CHINA, DECORATED. See PAINTING. See BURIAL; CITIZEN; COMMERCE; LAUNDRIES; POLICY, 2; QUARANTINE, 2; RIGHT, Civil Rights Act; TREATY; apply to the case of any master whose vessel, being bound to a port not within the United States, shall come within the jurisdiction of the United States by reason of being in distress or in stress of weather, or touching at a port on its voyage to any foreign port or place: provided that all laborers brought on such vessel shall not be permitted to land except in case of absolute necessity, and must depart with the vessel on leaving port. Sec. 4. For the purpose of properly identifying Chinese laborers who were in the United States on the 17th of November, 1880, or who shall have come into the same before the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of the act to which this act is amendatory, and in order to furnish them with the proper evidence of their right to go from and come to the United States, [of their free will and accord,] as provided by the said act and the treaty between the United States and China dated November 17, 1880, the collector of customs of the district from which any such laborer shall depart from the United States shall, in person or by deputy, go on board each vessel having on board any such laborer, and cleared or about to sail from his district for a foreign port, and on such vessel make a list of all such laborers, which shall be entered in registry books kept for that purpose, in which shall be stated the individual, family, and tribal name in full, the age, occupation, when and where followed, last place of residence, physical marks or peculiarities, and all facts necessary for the identification of each of such laborers, which books shall be safely kept in the custom-house; and every such laborer so departing from the United States shall be entitled to, and shall receive, free of any charge or cost, upon application therefor, from the collector, or his deputy in the name of said collector, and attested by said collector's seal of office, at the time such list is taken, a certificate, signed by the collector or his deputy, and attested by his seal of office, in such form as the secretary of the treasury shall prescribe, which certificate shall contain a statement of the individual, family, and tribal name in full, age, осcupation, when and where followed, [last place of residence, personal description, and facts of identification,] of the laborer to whom the certificate is issued, corresponding with the said list and registry in all particulars. In case any laborer, after having received such certificate, shall leave such vessel before her departure, he shall deliver his certificate to the master of the vessel, and, if such laborer shall fail to return to such vessel before her departure from port, the certificate shall be delivered by the master to the collector of customs for cancellation. The certificate herein provided for shall entitle the laborer to whom the same is issued to return to and re-enter the United States upon producing and delivering the same to the collector of customs of the district at which such laborer shall seek to re-enter; and said certificate shall be the only evidence permissible to establish his right of re-entry; and upon [delivery] delivering of such certificate by such laborer to the collector of customs at the time of re-entry, said collector shall cause the same to be filed in the custom-house and duly canceled. Sec. 5. Any Chinese laborer mentioned in section four being in and desiring to depart from the United States by land, shall have the right to demand and receive, free of charge or cost, a certificate of identification similar to that provided for in section four to be issued to such laborers as may desire to leave the United States by water; and it is hereby made the duty of the collector of customs of the district next adjoining the foreign country to which said laborer desires to go to issue such certificate, free of charge or cost, upon application by such laborer, and to enter the same upon registry books kept as provided for in section four. Sec. 6. In order to the faithful execution of [articles one and two of the treaty in the provisions of this act, [before mentioned,] every Chinese person other than a laborer, who may be entitled by said treaty [and] or this act to come within the United States, and who shall be about to come to the United States, shall obtain the permission of and be identified as so entitled by the Chinese government, or of such other foreign government of which at the time such person shall be a subject, in each case, [such identity] to be evidenced by a certificate issued [under the authority of said] by such government, which certificate shall be in the English language, [or, if not, accompanied by a translation into English, stating such right to come,] and shall show such permission, with the name of the permitted person in his or her proper signature, and which certificate shall state the individual, family, and tribal name in full, title or official rank, if any, the age, height, and all phys to indorse the same. Such certificate, viséd as afore said, shall be prima facie evidence of the fact set forth therein, and shall be produced to the collector of customs [or his deputy] of the port at which the person shall arrive, and afterward produced to the proper authorities of the United States whenever lawfully demanded, and shall be the sole evidence permissible on the part of the person producing the same to establish a right of entry; but said certificate may be controverted, and the facts therein stated disproved, by the United States authorities. Sec. 7. Any person who shall knowingly and falsely alter or substitute any name for the name written in such certificate, or forge any such certificate, or knowingly utter any forged or fraudulent certificate, or falsely personate any person named in any such certificate, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor; and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoned in a penitentiary for a term of not more than five years. Sec. 8. The master of any vessel arriving from any foreign place shall, at the same time he delivers a manifest of the cargo, and, if there be no cargo, then at the time of making a report of the entry of the vessel pursuant to law, in addition to the other matter required to be reported, and before landing, or permitting to land, any Chinese passengers, deliver and report to the collector of customs of the district in which such vessels shall have arrived a separate list of all Chinese passengers taken on board his vessel at any foreign place, and all such passengers on board the vessel at that time. Such list shall show the names of such passengers, (and if accredited officers of the Chinese or of any other foreign government traveling on the business of that government, or their servants, with a note of such facts,) and the names and other particulars, as shown by their respective certificates; and such list shall be sworn to by the master in the manner required by law in relation to the manifest of the cargo. Any [willful] refusal or willful neglect of any such master to comply with the provisions of this section shall incur the same penalties and forfeiture as are provided for a refusal or neglect to report and deliver a manifest of cargo. Sec. 9. Before any Chinese passengers are landed from any such vessel, the collector or his deputy shall proceed to examine such passengers, comparing the certificates with the list, and with the passengers; and no passengers shall be allowed to land from such vessel in violation of law. Sec. 10. Every vessel whose master shall knowingly violate any provision of this act shall be deemed forfeited to the United States, and shall be liable to seizure and condemnation in any district into which such vessel may enter, or in which she may be found. enter by land without producing to the proper officer of customs the certificate required of persons seeking to land from a vessel. And any person found unlawfully here shall be caused to be removed to the country whence he came, [by direction of the President,] and at the cost of the United States, after being brought beforé some justice, judge, or commissioner of a United States court, and found to be one not lawfully entitled to remain; and in all such cases the person who brought, or aided in bringing, such person to the United States, shall be liable to the United States for all necessary expenses incurred in such investigation and removal; and all peace officers of the several States and Territories are hereby invested with the same authority as a marshal or United States marshal in reference to carrying out the provisions of this act, or the act of which this is amendatory, as a marshal or deputy marshal of the United States, and shall be entitled to like compensation, to be paid by the same officers. And the United States shall pay all charges for the maintenance and return of any person having the certificate prescribed by law as entitling such person to come into the United States, who may not have been permitted to land by reason of any provision of this act. Sec. 13. This act shall not apply to diplomatic and other officers of the Chinese or other governments traveling upon the business of that government, whose credentials shall be taken as equivalent to the certificate in this act mentioned, and shall exempt them and their body and household servants from the provisions of this act as to other Chinese persons. Sec. 14. Hereafter no court shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. Sec. 15. The provisions of this act shall apply to all subjects of China and Chinese, whether subjects of China or any other foreign power; and the words "Chinese laborers" shall be construed to mean both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining. Sec. 16. Any violation of any provision of this act, or of the act of which this is amendatory, th given rise in certain parts of the United States, desires to prohibit the emigration of such laborers from China to the United States; "And whereas the government of the United States and the government of China desire to coöperate in prohibiting such emigration, and to strengthen in other ways the bonds of friendship between the two countries; " Now, therefore, the President of the United States has appointed Thomas F. Bayard, secretary of state, as his plenipotentiary; and the Emperor of China has appointed Chang Yen Hoon, minister of the third rank of the Imperial Court, etc., as his plenipotentiary; and the said plenipotentiaries have agreed upon the following articles: About September 1st it was "reported, by way of London," that the treaty in its new shape had been rejected. The representative of China, at Washington, made no such report. On September 3rd the subjoined "Exclusion Act " was presented, read and passed in the House of Representatives, and by the Senate, four days later, unamended. A motion to reconsider the vote postponed final action by the latter body some ten days; and on October 1st the President signed the bill, - the Chinese government, on September 20th, having declined to negotiate further upon the subject-matter. The act reads as follows: "Be it enacted, etc., That from and after the passage of this act, it shall be unlawful for any Chinese laborer who shall at any time heretofore have been, or may now or hereafter be, a resident within the United States, and who shall have departed, or shall depart, therefrom, and shall have not returned before the passage of this act, to return to, or remain, in the United States. "Sec. 2. That no certificates of identity provided for in the fourth or fifth section of the act to which this is a supplement shall hereafter be issued; and every certificate heretofore issued in pursuance thereof is hereby declared void and of no effect, and the Chinese laborer, claiming admission by virtue thereof, shall not be permitted to enter the United States. "Sec. 3. That all the duties prescribed, liabilities, penalties and forfeitures imposed, and the powers conferred by the second, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth sections of the act to which this is a supplement are hereby extended and made applicable to the provisions of this act. "Sec. 4. That all such part or parts of the act to which this is a supplement as are inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed." (See 25 St. L. 504.) An act approved October 19, 1888, appropriated fifty thousand dollars for carrying into effect the provisions of the Exclusion Act. (25 St. L. 615.) In the case of Chae Chan Ping v. United States, decided May 13, 1889 (130 U. S. 581, 589), the Supreme Court held that Congress has power to pass the act of October 1st, 1888, notwithstanding that it may affect personal rights acquired under existing treaties. Mr. Justice Field, delivering the opinion, said, in substance: By the Constitution, laws made in pursuance thereof and treaties made under the authority of the United States are both declared to be the supreme law of the land, and no paramount authority is given to one over the other. A treaty, although in the nature of a contract, is often merely promissory in its character, requiring legislation to carry its stipulations into effect. Such legislation will be open to future repeal or amendment. If the treaty operates by its own force, and relates to a subject within the power of Congress, it can be deemed in that particular only the equivalent of a legislative act, to be repealed or modified at the pleasure of Congress. In either case the last expression of the sovereign will must control. While it will not be presumed that Congress will lightly pass laws conflicting with treaties, circumstances may arise which would not only justify the Government in disregarding their stipulations, but demand, in the interests of the country, that it should do so. Unexpected events may call for a change in the policy of the country. Neglect or violation of stipulations on the part of the other contracting party may require corresponding action on our part. In 1798 the conduct toward this country of the government of France was of such a character that Congress declared that we were freed and exonerated from the stipulalations of previous treaties with that country. That the Government, through the legislature, can exclude aliens from this territory is a proposition not open to controversy. Jurisdiction over its own territory to that extent belongs to every independent nation. It is a part of its independence. If it could not exclude aliens, to that extent it would be subject to the control of another power. As said by this Court in the case of The Exchange, 7 Cranch, 136 (1812), speaking by Chief Justice Marshall: "The jurisdiction of the nation within its own territory is necessarily exclusive and absolute. It is susceptible of no limitation not imposed by itself. Any restriction upon it, deriving validity from an external source, would imply a diminution of its sovereignty to the extent of the restriction and an investment of that sovereignty to the same extent in that power which could impose such restriction." To preserve its independence, and give security against foreign aggression and encroachment, is the highest duty of a nation. To attain these ends nearly all other considerations are to be subordinated. It matters not in what form such aggression and encroachment come, whether from the foreign nation acting in its national character or from hordes of its people crowding in upon us. The Government, possessing the powers which are to be exercised for prote
CHINESEa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Of or pertaining to China; peculiar to China. Chinese paper. See India paper, under India. -- Chinese wax, a snowy-wgite, waxlike substance brought from China. It is the bleached secretion of certain insects of the family Coccidæ especially Coccus Sinensis.
CHINESEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A native or natives of China, or one of that yellow race with oblique eyelids who live principally in China. sing. The language of China, which is monosyllabic.
Chinesename
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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The citizens of China, particularly citizens of the People's Republic of China. | The Han Chinese, whether in China or overseas. | The Standard Chinese language, written in Chinese characters and spoken and spelled using Standard Mandarin pronunciation. | The branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Southern Min, and other closely related language varieties and dialects. | The logographic writing system shared by most Sinitic languages.
Chineseadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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Of, from, or related to China, particularly now the People's Republic of China. | Of, from, or related to the people of China, particularly the Han Chinese and their culture whether in China or overseas. | Of, from, or related to a language native to Han Chinese persons, often used generally of Chinese characters or particularly to refer to Standard Mandarin. | As exotic, unusual, backwards, or unorganized as someone or something from China. | Used with a noun to indicate a referent different from, and seemingly more exotic or unusual than, the base noun's referent. | Having barn doors with a horizontal orientation.
Chinesenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A person from China or of Chinese descent. | Ellipsis of Chinese cuisine. | Ellipsis of Chinese meal (“meal consisting of Chinese cuisine”). | Ellipsis of Chinese restaurant (“restaurant serving Chinese cuisine”).

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