Useful Links
Late-19th-Century Business Maps of San Francisco’s Chinatown, Used to Determine Immigration Status
“Walking through San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1894, immigration officer John Lynch recorded the nature of the small businesses lining the ethnic enclave’s streets and alleys. The National Archives has digitized the maps Lynch and other immigration investigators used to track the fish vendors, tailors, and restaurants found along streets like Washington Alley, which is mapped below.”
https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/03/history-of-the-chinese-exclusion-act-in-maps-made-by-government-officials-to-determine-immigration-status.html
When West Coast Cities Tried to Drive Out Their Chinatowns
https://www.history.com/news/anti-chinese-violence-removal-tacoma-seattle-1885
Bancroft Library, “Background Essay on San Francisco's Chinatown,”
“This short essay describes the origins of San Francisco's Chinatown, as well as some of its major economic, political, and social facets. The essay also describes the challenges San Francisco's Chinese community faced from the city's white politicians and residents.”
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/527
Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, Updated and Revised Edition
https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Different-Shore-History-Americans/dp/0316831301
Gilded Ghettos: Chinatowns in the Early Twentieth Century
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jE97KlPV7tLa-OM44U-BCL9YIetFAthe/view?usp=sharing
How 1800s racism birthed Chinatown, Japantown and other ethnic enclaves.
This first of three articles about Asian enclaves in the U.S. explores how the earliest Chinatowns and Japantowns were created in response to anti-immigrant laws
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-1800s-racism-birthed-chinatown-japantown-other-ethnic-enclaves-n997296
Primary Sources
Cache of Photos Reveals LA’s Old Chinatown
https://hyperallergic.com/649078/photos-reveal-los-angeles-old-chinatown/
Chinatown declared a nuisance
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/san-franciscos-chinatown-1880
San Francisco’s Old Chinatown
By Commissioner Jesse B. Cook
Former Chief of Police
Jesse Brown Cook (1860-1938) served the San Francisco Police Department from the late 1880s to the 1930s. He began as a beat officer, and then served as a sergeant of the “Chinatown Squad.” He served as Chief of Police after the 1906 earthquake, retired, and was later appointed to the Police Commission. Before he joined the police department he studied taxidermy, worked as a sailor, drayman, and butcher, and toured Europe as a contortionist. His police career began in San Antonio, Texas, and was a police officer in San Diego before he returned to San Francisco. He describes the conditions in San Francisco’s Chinatown before the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 as seen from his perspective as a member of the “Chinatown Squad.”
https://sfmuseum.org/hist9/cook.html
https://hyperallergic.com/649078/photos-reveal-los-angeles-old-chinatown/
Chinatown declared a nuisance
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/san-franciscos-chinatown-1880
San Francisco’s Old Chinatown
By Commissioner Jesse B. Cook
Former Chief of Police
Jesse Brown Cook (1860-1938) served the San Francisco Police Department from the late 1880s to the 1930s. He began as a beat officer, and then served as a sergeant of the “Chinatown Squad.” He served as Chief of Police after the 1906 earthquake, retired, and was later appointed to the Police Commission. Before he joined the police department he studied taxidermy, worked as a sailor, drayman, and butcher, and toured Europe as a contortionist. His police career began in San Antonio, Texas, and was a police officer in San Diego before he returned to San Francisco. He describes the conditions in San Francisco’s Chinatown before the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 as seen from his perspective as a member of the “Chinatown Squad.”
https://sfmuseum.org/hist9/cook.html
Lessons
In this lesson, students learn about the historical and cultural background of San Francisco’s Chinatown and its significance to the Chinese community in the United States over time. After reading primary sources, they compare the depictions of Chinatown written by non-Chinese with those written by Chinatown residents and visitors of Chinese descent. They examine the connections between the Chinese railroad workers and Chinatown and look at the role of Chinatown in sustaining a shared identity among the Chinese community in the United States. Finally, students reflect on the legacy of the Chinese railroad workers by designing a memorial in their honor.
https://fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/crwnap_4_-_san_franciscos_chinatown.pdf Chinese American Life During the 1920s The following excerpt looks at Chinese American life during the 1920s. Historian Henry Yu describes what those years were like for Chinese Americans. He focuses on a single year, 1923. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/laundrymen-and-movies |