Chinese in Chicago: 1870-1945 - Hardcoverby Chuimei Ho (Editor), Soo Lon Moy (Editor) The first wave of Chinese immigrants came to Chicagoland in the 1870s, after the transcontinental railway connected the Pacific Coast to Chicago. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented working class Chinese from entering the U. S., except men who could prove they were American citizens. For more than 60 years, many Chinese immigrants had acquired documents helping to prove that they were born in