Today’s assignment
involves direct exploration of the American Memory Library of Congress site
The
Chinese in California: 1850-1925.
- Click around the site
for a few minutes to orient yourself.
- Linger on the “Timeline”
for a contextual overview of dates and events relating to our topic.
- Read all the
essays (they are only a few paragraphs long) and browse the galleries
in the “Topical Overview: Essays and Galleries” section to help orient yourself
to the history of the early Chinese in America and to the issues surrounding
Chinese immigration.
- Go to the Theme Index
(click on Search by Theme from the main page) and explore texts and images
from the numbered lists that interest you in any section of your choice
except "Anti-Chinese Movement and Chinese Exclusion" and "Sentiments
Concerning the Chinese: Illustrations from Periodicals" (these will be the
focus of following assignments).
- After exploring a reasonably
large range of texts and images, select three (preferably from different
media: for example, photos,
pamphlets, documents, drawings, advertisements, letters, etc.) as the subjects
for your blog in the “Exploring
the Essays/ Galleries” section
of the discussion board.
- In your blog, consider
answering such possible questions about your explorations as
- What texts and images
did you find?
- What ones really interested
you, and why?
- What did you learn about
the Chinese in California?
- What ideas do you think
are being represented in the texts /images that you've chosen?
- What are the positive
/negative/ambivalent notions about the Chinese represented in the texts /images?
- How do the different
media contrast /compare in their messages or representations?
- In your blog as well,
please identify the specific locations of the selected items by theme and
item number or by direct link so that others may easily view them.
- Read other blogs as
time permits, but reply thoughtfully to the blog of at least one other person
(if at all possible, reply
to a person you haven't replied to before and who hasn't received a reply).
- Consider an addendum
to your blog as a result of reading others.
"To this day, Chinatown
remains one of the treasures of San Francisco."