Tour of Chinatown

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

The Chinese-American Museum was opened in 2003. Our docent, Mike Chung, first took us to a room that displayed Old Chinatown 1900-1930. Union Station was built over it. A lady named, Christine Sterling, built Olvera Street to mark Spanish culture. She also had Chinatown rebuilt to mark Chinese culture. Next was the Chinese Herb Room – This is the last room standing of Old Chinatown (built around 1806). On the wall is a map of their Footsteps through Time: Immigration to U.S. map to show where they came from and where they came to.
History of Chinese Immigration: They came to U.S. due to the Gold Rush, wanting to improve their lives. They met a lot of discrimination in mining. They were given the worst plots but did well due to their tenacious work ethic. (This is from Ken Burns series, The West.) Overall, they ended up not doing well in mining. In order to come, they had to pay boat owners who might charge up to $20,000. This was an impossible amount to repay but they believed they’d be lucky in the U.S. They never really planned to stay so the men came alone or with young male children. They planned to make it rich and return home. They ended up with no fortunes or even enough money to return home. Besides, they didn’t want to return empty-handed. This would be too shameful.
In 1870 there was a gang fight where many Chinese were killed (by Chinese). They killed one white person. This sparked a bloody retaliation. A Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in Congress because so many Chinese were coming that they were taking the place of others in the job market. If they were merchants or business people they were allowed to come so they began falsifying their records. Then they had to pass through Angel Island. This began a time of interrogating Chinese Immigrants to verify their claims as business people or merchants. This interrogation often asked irrelevant questions so many people were returned to China. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed Chinese records so immigration resumed.
Those who became citizens could lose their citizenship by marrying a non-citizen Chinese. WWII changed things for the Chinese. At first, all Asians were seen as the enemy since we were fighting the Japanese. However, the Chinese became a great force for the allies since Japan had conquered China. In 1943, Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. There was still a quota of immigrants allowed. The 1965 Immigration/Nationality Act repealed the national origins quota system and opened the door to Chinese immigrants.
Thien Han Temple is a Viet Namese Taoist temple. Our docent, Amanda Roraback, explained the features inside and out as well as some of the practices. We had a chance to go inside and see for ourselves what that was like.
Amanda explained how the Chinese organized into (secret) societies because they didn’t have police protection or legal representation. They helped with burials, finding wives, loans, hospitals, school and weddings. Nowadays, they are more of a social society holding big banquets and elders gather. I walked by one and peeked in. I saw elders playing games. There was a sign at the entrance that said it was for members only.
We also were told about Chinese school were children learn to speak, read and write Chinese. They fly the Taiwanese flag which is recognized as Unified China. We passed Castlelar Elementary which was the second school opened in LAUSD. We went to the West Plaza and learned more history and went across the street where we met in front of the statue of Sun Yat Sin and received a lesson on his involvement to bring a peaceful government to China in the early 1900s. That concluded our tour.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

This is a great discussion of the Chinese American Museum. I think, though, that much more could be said regarding the flag issue. You may wish to do a search at the LA Times website to read articles about the struggle over flags. It's a highly sensitive topic.

2005: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/apr/25/local/me-flag25

In 1982, I borrowed a film about holidays in the US from the US Embassy to show my students at a Beijing college. I never got to see it (remember those pre-vhs days anyone?), but the college authorities screened it and decided I wouldn't be showing it. I was told that the film included a segment on lunar new year celebrations in NY. The parades included the Republic of China flag (white star on blue in the upper left, the rest red -- the flag used on Taiwan). And the authorities figured students shouldn't be exposed to such heresy.

To create a new thread (or discussion topic), please click on the "new thread" button. To comment within a thread (topic), please click "post reply." You can change the subject line if you want, to make it more appropriate. This is especially important in the Asia in My Classroom forum. There, for example, click on the film festival thread. To discuss a new film, click "post reply" and then replace the subject with the name of the film. You can do this in any of the threads.

Please don't click the "new poll" button.

Thanks.

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