Attendees learned about the history of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and how it impacted Chinese immigrants and Chinese American families.

The Chinese Exclusion Act signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, was followed by a series of laws that extended the exclusion of Chinese until December 17, 1943, when the Magnuson Act was enacted. The laws made it illegal for Chinese laborers to immigrate to the United States and for Chinese nationals already in the U.S. to become citizens. The Chinese were the only specific ethnic group excluded in the history of the United States. Potential Chinese immigrants were interrogated and many were detained at Angel Island after 1910. Case files of interrogation transcripts and other records, kept at the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) regional offices, are some of the most valuable research resources for Chinese American family historians today.

Attendees discussed how the Chinese Exclusion Act and feelings toward the Chinese impacted their family members.

Marisa Louie Lee is a freelance researcher and genealogist, who specializes in 20th century immigration and naturalization records. She formerly worked as an archivist at the National Archives at San Francisco and is the co-author of the article "The A-Files: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors", published in the Spring 2013 issue of Prologue magazine. She worked as an archival researcher for the PBS American Experience documentary “The Chinese Exclusion Act” (Steeplechase Films, 2018). A fifth generation Chinese American, Marisa is a proud alumna of the "Roots" program which brought her to her maternal grandfather’s village in rural Kaiping, Guangdong Province.

Marisa demonstrated how to search for records relating to those who immigrated during and after the Chinese Exclusion period. She talkedabout accessing Alien Files (“A-Files”), Chinese partnership case files, and more. She shared records she has discovered on behalf of our own CFHGSC members attending the meeting. ​

On Saturday, August 23, 2015, docent Michael Ho and Chinese American Museum’s Director of Operations and Programs, Michael Truong, gave a special tour of the museum to 32 members and friends of the Chinese Family History Group of So Cal.

Michael Truong welcomed us and informed us that CAM is jointly operated by the Friends of the Chinese American Museum and the City of Los Angeles. It is housed in the city-owned Garnier Building, built in 1890 in the area of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown. Recognized as the oldest surviving structure in Southern California that is linked to the Chinese community, it originally housed Chinese businesses and civic organizations.

Our guides then proceeded to lead us, in two groups, through the on-going exhibits on display. 

The ground floor exhibit, “Journeys,” features Chinese immigration to the U.S. with emphasis on the history of Chinese in Los Angeles. Along one long wall is a pictorial timeline, beginning with the sojourn of Chinese from Guangzhou province in 1850s, then moving on to early contributions, anti-Chinese sentiment leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and continuing with significant events, historical figures and milestones of the 19th and 20th centuries. Personal stories about local Chinese Americans are featured throughout. A separate room displays photos, documents, and other artifacts relating to Old Chinatown Los Angeles. Our guides pointed out examples of some early businesses (e.g. laundries, restaurants, produce markets), and the creation of civic and political organizations, such as the Native Sons of the Golden State, now known as the Chinese American Citizens Alliance.

The “Sun Wing Wo General Store and Herb Shop” exhibit is a re-creation of an actual shop that was housed in the Garnier Building in the 1890s.  We were shown examples of acupuncture instruments and herbs that doctors specializing in Chinese medicine used. Banking and postal services were also available at the time the store was opened to the public. A letter writing service that was provided was essential for those workers who came with little or no education. Today visitors can write a postcard to their friends or relatives from a replica of a writing station.

The exhibit on the mezzanine floor is “Origins: The Birth and Rise of Chinese American Communities in Los Angeles.” Highlights include the creation of “New Chinatown,” Chinatown associations and youth groups such as the all-female Mei Wah Drum Corps, and the depiction of Chinatown in Hollywood movies. The exhibit chronicles the dispersion of Chinese population to Monterey Park and throughout the San Gabriel Valley during the years after lifting of severe immigration quotas by the U.S. Government in the 1960s.  Our guides explained the reasons that Chinese began to populate areas to the east of Chinatown, and also described some of the challenges communities faced and continue to face, such as the “English-only sign” controversy in Monterey Park, which first occurred during the ‘80s.

At the end of the tour, we were treated to a mini-exhibit of our own. Some artifacts belonging to the Museum that are not currently on display were shown to us. They were:

• A photograph taken in 1865 depicting a parade in Old Chinatown Los Angeles
• A photograph of Chinese men working to build a railroad in California
• A medical record from a health inspection of an immigrant who had arrived at Angel Island but was denied entry because he had meningitis
  
• A letter to Doris Soo Hoo from a friend who wrote about her observations of Chinese people in Chinatown
• Examples of hats owned by Mabel Hong, wife of Y.C. Hong 

We thank our tour guides and CAM for a highly informative and fascinating morning spent at the Museum. We learned much from their expert commentary and lively stories.  For those of us who are researching our Chinese ancestors’ histories, the Museum provides a good overview and excellent primary source examples of the historical and cultural context in which they immigrated, lived and worked. As one tour member said, upon hearing and learning about the history of Chinese in Los Angeles and in the U.S., he realized how interconnected we all are to our past.

For more information about the Chinese American Museum, consult its website: http://camla.org/