Chinese Americans

"Generation Connie": A News Anchor and Her First-Generation Namesakes

The practice of choosing American names for immigrant children coincided with the peak of Connie Chung's career as the national face of CBS News. Adopting her name symbolized mobility and potential for a generation of Asian American women recently come of age. 

Los Angeles to Memorialize 1871 Anti-Chinese Massacre

Architect Annie Chu describes the task of using design and space to evoke an emotional connection to the victims of mass violence whose identities and stories have been largely lost. 

Looking for the Gold Rush Town of Chinese Camp

"Sucheng Chan, a retired historian and the author of more than 15 books on Asian American history, notes that this region, called the Southern Mines, was home to almost half of the Chinese in California in 1860," but that history is poorly preserved for visitors today.

The Failed Plan to Replace the South's Black Labor Force with Chinese Immigrants

James Loewen's work "The Mississippi Chinese" is a touchstone for writer Jay Caspian Kang, who reflects on the connections between race and exploitation in history. 

America Once was Eager for Chinese Immigration. Mae Ngai's Book Explains What Happened

The first wave of the California Gold Rush was "a nettlesome experiment in multiracial democracy that had little precedent in the country's history," but resulted in the development of institutionalized anti-Asian nativism as a political force.

Bigler's Gambit: How the California Gold Fields Gave Rise to Global Anti-Chinese Politics

by Mae Ngai

The Chinese Question and Chinese exclusion policies that circumnavigated the Anglo-American world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries grew in local soils, and shifted and evolved as it crossed the Pacific world and supported the consolidation of British and American power over global emigration and trade."

Recognizing an Unrecognized Chinese American WWII Veteran

by A.J. Wong

In December, Congress honored all Chinese American World War II veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal, and some of their families will be eligible to receive a replica medal in their names. Hoy You Lim (林開祐) was killed in action in France in 1944. None of his survivors could complete the paperwork to receive his medal. The granddaughter of another Chinese American veteran wants to recognize his service. 

The Country’s Oldest Chinatown is Fighting for its Life in San Francisco

Tourism to San Francisco has fallen by half since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and tourist spending has declined even further, impacting many of Chinatown's businesses as well as its social life. 

Prop 16 and the "Chinese Virus" Bring Two Views of Asian American History into Conflict

by Hao Zou

Many Chinese Americans oppose California's Proposition 16, which would reinstate race-based affirmative action in state university admissions. This support stems from a meritocratic interpretation of Chinese American experiences that is challenged by the xenophobic "Chinese Virus" discourse around COVID-19.

Race Against Time: Saving the Largest Archive of Chinese American History From Fire

In January, a fire tore through an historic building in the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, threatening to engulf decades of artifacts documenting Chinese life in the US.

Asian Americans and the Model Minority Myth

by Ellen D. Wu

Offering culture as a formula for success is risky, and the concept is a deeply flawed approach to solving social issues.

Is the "Yellow Peril" Dead?

by Ellen D. Wu

How Asian Americans became the model minority -- and why whites still consider them to be a threat.

Two Chinese on a Mountain...

by Bruce Chadwick

The Dance and the Railroad Pershing Square Signature Theater 480 W. 42nd Street New York, N.Y.Photo Credit: Signatory Theater. The play The Dance and the Railroad could have been a landmark drama about the role of the Chinese in the historic construction of the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the entire country by rail in 1869, but something went wrong. David Hwang’s play debuted in 1981 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Price and has been produced hundreds of times since then. Now, thirty-two years later, it has lost whatever punch it had when it opened. The drama is the story of two Chinese workers on the railroad who are killing time on top of a mountain, pretending they are members of a Chinese opera troupe. All of the Chinese laborers are on strike to protest unacceptable conditions on the railroad, from long hours to low pay. The railroad, and strike, are hardly mentioned during the entire length of the play. Towards the finale, there is some discussion about the strike -- management wins -- and the two men now have to return to work.