On May 6, 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which implemented a 10-year ban on Chinese immigrants to the country and marked the first significant restriction on a specific racial group. Its passage wasn’t arbitrary.
Anti-Chinese sentiment had already been brewing throughout the 19th century as increasing waves of Chinese immigrants arrived in America for jobs during the California Gold Rush and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. When Chinese laborers flooded the mining or factory industries, European American laborers considered the Chinese a threat to their jobs. Resentful white laborers across the West looted and burned Chinatowns, expelled the Chinese from the cities, and massacred the Chinese people.
Until the past few decades, this dark Chinese American history had remained hidden, erased from the school curriculum, and largely unaddressed by city governments.
Now, monuments with the intent of apologizing for historic injustices against the Chinese have sprung up around the country. Preserved Chinatowns, statues honoring Chinese laborers, and rocks carved with the names of murdered Chinese residents — these monuments collectively bring awareness and recognition to history once obscured from nationwide attention.
But how can a monument turn a site of violence into something contemplative and beautiful? Can monuments help a city understand and heal from historic injustices while also serving as relevant to today? Here are three monuments that reveal their city’s untold history of Chinese American exclusion and how they champion a more harmonious community.
The Chinese Reconciliation Park, Tacoma, Washington
The Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park, a gorgeous Chinese garden with swirled walking trails and stunning Chinese structures, peacefully sits on the Washington coast facing Commencement Bay. Although serene, the park remembers the notorious “Tacoma Method,” the city’s deliberate expulsion…
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