Remembering place(s): Changing commemorative traditions in and across Chinese diaspora cemeteries in North America and Hawaii, 1900-1960

Summary

This poster presents research on grave markers and other monuments from Chinese cemeteries in four Pacific ports: Honolulu (Hawaii), San Francisco (California), Vancouver and Victoria (British Columbia). These cities were among the major hubs for travel, communication and trade between China and Chinese diaspora communities in the Americas. Documenting patterns of change in commemorative practices at these sites allows for an exploration of the relationship between local, national, and transnational social networks. Certain broad changes in commemorative practices occurred across all of these cities and cemeteries, but came about in different ways in different local contexts. This pattern evinces the influence of trans-Pacific circulations of ideas and information to and from China, but also of circulations between diaspora communities in North America. It also attests the important ways in which concrete interactions by individual people coming together in real places mediated these circulations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Poster Session   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): POS-99,22