Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

On the eve of the publication of an important edited volume on Chinese diaspora archaeology, we are already looking toward the next disciplinary horizon. For this session, participants will engage with the conference theme of “revolution” in three major ways. First, we take a critical, reflexive look at the overall state of Chinese diaspora archaeology in terms of its contributions to issues of diversity, rebellion, resistance, survivance, and commemoration, as reflected in the forthcoming edited volume and other recent research. Second, we explore how aspects of revolution, broadly conceived, infuse new and ongoing research through a series of individual case studies that broaden the geographic, methodological, and theoretical scope of our field. Finally, we conclude with a moderated discussion that allows participants and the audience to draw links between the various presentations and weigh in on the direction the field is, or should be, taking.

Other Keywords
Chinese diaspora • Chinese • Oregon • Mining • Railroads • Spatial Analysis • Gold Mining • American West • Built Environment • Racism

Temporal Keywords
Late 19th Century • 19th Century • 19th - 20th Century • 19-20th Century • 19th and 20th centuries • 1880-1930 • Late 19th/Early 20th century • 1885 to 1927 • late 19th- and early 20th-century • 1873-1918

Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) • Delaware (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-13 of 13)

  • Documents (13)
Documents
  • Archaeological Evidence of Survivance: Chinese Habitation Sites on the Malheur National Forest (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katee R. Withee.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Documentary and archaeological evidence from the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon indicates large numbers of immigrant Chinese gold miners lived and worked in this area during the 19th century. Populations persisted into the early 20th century as well, contrary to narratives suggesting rural goldfields...

  • The Chinese Massacre in Rock Springs, Wyoming and the Archaeological Evidence for the Movement of People affected by this event from 1885 to 1927 (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only A. Dudley Gardner.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. When the Rock Springs Chinatown was looted and burned to the ground on September 2nd 1885, goods and people were scattered and lives were destroyed. The burial of the dead, the salvaging of possessions, and reconstruction of lives was stymied by political constrains. As a result, reconstructing the...

  • Chinese Railroad Workers in Utah: Connecting Past to Present (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris Merritt.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As a build up to the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad's completion on May 10, 1869, the Utah Division of State History and the Bureau of Land Management partnered to highlight the unique archaeological landscapes of this construction effort, now located on public lands in northeastern...

  • Community Collaboration is Commemoration at the Arboretum Chinese Labor Quarters (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Veronica Peterson.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Models of community archaeology generally use collaboration as a foundation for a future commemoration. In practice, the process of collaboration is itself an act of commemoration. The Arboretum Chinese Labor Quarters, on Stanford University’s campus, is a site where Chinese employees lived as they...

  • Dining And Resistance In Chinese Diaspora Archaeology: A Case Study Of Food Practices From The Market Street Chinatown, San Jose, California (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Virginia S. Popper. J Ryan Kennedy. Maxine Chan.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Chinese immigrants to the United States of America in the second half of the 19th century encountered racial prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Activities such as cooking and eating were central to how Chinese people dealt with these challenges. We take a close look at the plant and animal...

  • From Chinese Exclusion (1882) to Chinese Revolution (1911): The Archaeology of Resiliency in Transpacific Communities (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Ng.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Historical archaeologists are increasingly using transnational approaches to understand diasporas, particularly because migrants are affected by social and political events in both their homeland and their diasporic community. My paper examines Chinese migration to the U.S. and the development of...

  • How Revolutionary is Chinese Diaspora Archaeology? (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas Ross.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this opening paper, I set the stage for the presentations and discussions that follow by examining the ways archaeologists of the Chinese diaspora have explored the topic of “revolution,” as defined in the conference theme. I draw on recently published literature and on an imminently forthcoming...

  • Interpreting the Yreka Chinatown Collection through a Modern Lens (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah C Heffner.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the Spring of 1969, California State Park archaeologists conducted excavations at Yreka’s third Chinatown, prior to its destruction by the construction of Interstate 5. It was one of the earliest excavations of a Chinese community in California, and one of the first large-scale historical...

  • Living Under Threat: A Transnational Look at Safety, Security, and Cultural Memory in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chelsea Rose.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. It is a well-established fact that Chinese immigrants to the United States faced chronic structural violence and institutional discrimination on the local, regional, and national level. However, it is unclear the degree to which acute or interpersonal violence was experienced in everyday life by early...

  • The Persistence of Resistance: Chinese Kongsi Partnerships in 18th Century Borneo and 19th Century North America (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Don Hann.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Chinese immigrant gold miners in North America are generally portrayed as unskilled laborers eking out a bare subsistence by scouring placer deposits previously worked and abandoned by white miners. Archaeological evidence and historic documentation suggest this is a gross oversimplification. For a...

  • The Practice of Seasonal Mining: Chinese Gold Miners at Island Mountain, Nevada (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyle Crebbin.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Island Mountain was established in northeastern Nevada between 1873 and 1918, following the discovery of placer gold deposits nearby. The community was populated in part by Chinese migrants, working in the employ of a European American mining company whose owner actively sought to hire, as well as...

  • Small Towns and Mining Camps: A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Diasporic Communities in Oregon (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jocelyn Lee.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Chinese Diaspora archaeology has historically focused on urban contexts or in-depth case studies, with minimal comparative studies. The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project is a multi-agency partnership conducting research on Chinese migrant populations across the state. This paper focuses on the...

  • Spatial Relationships at Ethnic Chinese Dominated Section Stations in the Western United States (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Polk.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. My research into Chinese Railroad Worker archaeology on the Central Pacific has focused on section station life in the 1870s into the 1890s in Utah and Nevada. These investigations and others have pointed out elements of the distinctive Chinese ethnic material culture, the specific housing provided by...