Searching for Gold Mountain The history of the Chinese in California begins in the 1850s. They came seeking the promise of a better future. After years of war, drought, and unemployment in China, Chinese immigrants looked to "Gold Mountain" (California) as a land of opportunity. Yet the hardships they endured in leaving China and traveling to a new land often paled in comparison to the challenges they would face in California during the coming decades.
Although initially welcomed to work the gold fields and build the railroads, the Chinese soon became targets of frequent racial intolerance. Once the gold and silver deposits of California were depleted, unemployed white miners viewed the hardworking Chinese as competition in a changing job market. Beginning in the 1860's, the California legislature passed a series of bills against the Chinese. The Chinese became ineligible for U.S. citizenship; they had to pay higher taxes; they could not testify in court against whites; and they had to send their children to separate schools. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, making the Chinese the first ethnic group restricted from immigration to the United States.
In 1910, the Government opened the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. Here thousands of Chinese were detained before being given or denied permission to enter the Gold Mountain.
Task
Few primary sources remain of the early Chinese settlers in the Sacramento area. Fortunately, a local archivist has located several images and a document dating back to the late 1880s. After much research, she has uncovered some historic and biographical data for each of the four items in the collection, but she needs your input. She believes all four items once belonged to a young man seeking to immigrate to the Sacramento area around 1910. It is quite possible the man shown in Photo One was a "paper son," an immigrant who had false documents to show family connections in this country. The archivist would like you to research Chinese immigration to California, and then, using her collection and other online and printed sources, design a story poster to recreate this young man's journey to Gold Mountain. She is counting on you to produce a museum-quality poster she could display when making presentations to local organizations and schools on the history of the Chinese in California.
Procedure
Activity One: Begin your investigation
Begin the task with a brainstorming session. What do you already know about early Chinese immigration to California? What do you know about Angel Island? "Paper sons"?
What will you need to know in order to complete the task?
Activity Two: Check your resources for background information
Off-line
Check with your teacher and school or local librarian to find out what books, magazines, videos, CD-ROMs, or other resources they have available.
On-line
If you have access to the Internet, check the Teacher Notes section for a list of useful URLs.
Activity Three: Analyze the Archivist's Collection
Shown below are the images gathered by the archivist. Examine and analyze them carefully. If they, in fact, did belong to a "paper son," why were they important to him? What untold stories are behind each image? How do these images help paint a picture of life for Chinese immigrants at the turn of the century?
