Last week my family and I visited the New York Historical Society to see the exhibit Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion. Although I knew the basic outline of the history of the Chinese in the U.S., I wasnt prepared for the story - or rather, the multitude of stories - conveyed through this brilliant exhibit. The curators have done a masterful job of relating the big picture through details about diplomacy, politics, law, economic development, and culture, but theyve also managed to capture this history at the most intimate human scale through a multitude of individual stories and voices. In the center of the wide corridor where the exhibit is housed there is a life-size replica of structures and objects from the Angel Island Immigration Station in California, where Chinese immigrants were processed (and mostly turned away) after passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. As the exhibit makes clear, many of the policies and practices that were eventually incorporated into 20th century immigration law were developed through implementation of the wretchedly racist Chinese Exclusion Act. The exhibit reminded me again and again of just how deeply ingrained racism is in all of our institutions, and of the kind of effort that remains necessary to eradicate it. For their part, the Chinese did not hesitate to challenge the unfairness of these policies from the start and they led sustained campaigns to have the law changed. Many also circumvented the law through the paper sons scheme, though that carried a heavy price for individuals who then had to live under a false identity. This is a powerful exhibit, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in history. It runs through April 19. nyhistory.org/exhibitions/chineseamerican
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:00:21 +0000
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