At 2:00am on June 6th , 1993, the Golden Venture ran aground at New York’s Rockaway Beach carrying 286 undocumented Fujianese. In the last leg of their 17,000 mile, 222-day journey in a hull the size of a two-door garage, the panicked refugees leapt from the boat in a desperate attempt to reach the American shore. Weakened and starving, ten Fujianese passengers died; the Coast Guard took 260 more into custody and arrested the ship’s thirteen crewmembers.
Smuggled to the U.S. through an elaborate international operation based in New York’s Chinatown, the passengers of the Golden Venture were only the most visible few of the climbing number of Fujianese that have endeavored to reach the U.S. by perilous means since the 1980s. With passages costing tens of thousands of dollars, Fujianese immigrants arrive in New York Chinatown bearing extreme debt to their “snakeheads” (Chinese Gangs that smuggle people).Embarrassed by the loophole of the “catch and release” asylum policy that has drawn Fujianese immigrants to America and away from stricter countries like Japan, the Clinton Administration placed any Golden Venture passengers that were not deported into Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detention facilities.
After four years and a New York Times article condemning the example being made out of the passengers, Clinton pardoned the remaining fifty-three immigrants in detention, placing them on “humanitarian parole.” These 21st century papers sons reflect the ongoing legacy of exclusionary policies: the “pardoned” Fujianese of the Golden Venture who fanned out across the country live in legal limbo, with neither permission to stay nor a means to permanent citizenship.
1993年6月6日凌晨2点， “金色冒险”号搁浅在纽约洛克威海滩，船上载有286名没有办理入境手续的福建人。在一艘大小近似一个双门车库的船上，在经历了长达17000英里、222天航程的最后一段航程中，惊慌失措的难民们从船上跳下，充满绝望地试图抵达美国海岸。10名福建乘客在虚弱和饥饿中死去，海岸警卫队带走了余下的260多名乘客看管起来，并逮捕了船上的13名船员。
通过精心策划而偷渡到美国的国际行动在纽约唐人街发展起来，自上个世纪80年代开始，越来越多的福建人努力用一些危险的方式抵达美国，而“金色冒险”号的乘客只是其中最为显眼的一小部分。因为要花费数万美元的偷渡费用，福建移民抵达纽约唐人街时，往往背负了欠蛇头们的极端沉重的债务（偷渡人口的中国团伙被称作蛇头）。由于“先抓后放”的庇护政策漏洞，使得福建移民们远离了如日本等更严格的国家，转而投奔美国，克林顿政府将所有未被驱逐出境的“金色冒险”号上的乘客关在了移民归化局（INS）的拘留所内。
四年后，《纽约时报》（New York Times）发表了一篇文章谴责这个偷渡客案例，克林顿赦免了剩余的53名被拘留的移民，将他们“人道主义假释”。这些21世纪的“纸儿子”们再现了当年排华法政策的影响：“被赦免的”金色冒险号上的福建人分布在全美各地，他们生活在法律的边缘地带，既不能获得居留许可，也无法获得永久公民身份。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。