“The Rise of a New Identity: The Chinese American”
Creators: Lena, Hanzhang, Vincent
High School Students from NY Historical Society
Type of Project:
- Other
Themes of Project:
- Culture/Heritage,
- Immigration,
- Social Justice
About this Project:
During the Reconstruction era, the idea of a composite nation emerged. America was a country with a myriad of different cultures and ethnicities but its immigration policies didn’t reflect that. The US saw an increase in Anti-Chinese sentiment during the Reconstruction era, and many Chinese immigrants were hurt by this sentiment in New York City. Foo created The Chinese American newspaper in hopes of mitigating the harms of Anti-Chinese sentiment by introducing the idea that Chinese immigrants were Americans too and should be treated equally. Our blog post focuses on the lasting impact that The Chinese American (1883) newspaper had on the formation and development of the Chinese American identity by highlighting how completely revolutionary it was to have a newspaper written by a Chinese man for the Chinese people written in Chinese characters. Our group picked out our primary source (The Chinese American Newspaper) from the Composite Nation exhibit at the New York Historical Society museum and created a blog post that is now posted on the NYHS website. Our blog post draws connections from immigration issues during the Reconstruction to modern-day immigration issues through an analysis of the newspaper.
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Feedback from the Judges:
Nice inclusions of vintage imagery.
Your article provides a captivating and insightful exploration of the evolving Chinese American identity! The stories in your article are from many years ago, but their experience are still very relatable to Chinese Americans today. Thank you for highlighting this important issue!
What a deep dive into a trailblazing publication. It was a delight to read about Foos history and impact on the Chinese American experience. Nicely done!
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