From Chinese Exclusion (1882) to Chinese Revolution (1911): The Archaeology of Resiliency in Transpacific Communities

Summary

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 transpacific communities between two important historical events: the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, a racist federal law which severely restricted Chinese immigration, and the Chinese Revolution in 1911, a political revolt that ended the imperial system in China. Using an archaeological lens, I examine the built environment of three diasporically linked sites—two Chinatowns in the Inland Empire area of California and a village in Taishan, Guangdong, China—to examine the resiliency of late 19th and early 20th century transpacific Chinese communities during a period of intense anti-Chinese racism in the U.S. and great political change in China.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 291