Hop a ferry on Saturday, July 31, to the centennial celebration of Angel Island Immigration Station, which features talks, performances and free access to the wood barracks whose walls have poems carved by detained emigrants.
Angel Island's Immigration Station primarily served to enforce the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred all Chinese from the US except for merchants, diplomats, students, and US citizens and their families.
From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island station processed about 175,000 Chinese and held them for two-and-a-half weeks on average. But some were detained for months and even years before being admitted to the US or deported. Some carved poems in Chinese on the barrack walls, memorializing their despair and frustration.
The centennial activities include reenactments of the interrogation of emigrants, music, dance performances and new exhibits.
Erika Lee and Judy Yung will show slides and talk about their new book, which traces the Russians, Indians, Mexicans, Jews, Koreans and other non-Chinese who arrived at Angel Island. (Read more about this little-known history here).
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation's website has details about the celebration. Tickets to Angel Island on the Blue and Gold Fleet ferries are available at http://www.blueandgoldfleet.com.
A previous article I wrote has more information about the Chinese Exclusion Act and anti-Chinese discrimination.. Also check About.com's summary of Chinese-American history.
Part of a Chinese poem etched into a wall
of the detention barracks at Angel Island
Immigration Station.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
Comments
I knew about the law against intermarriage, due to the Prop 8 battle and same-sex marriage struggles. I did not know about the specific law against immigration by Chinese. Hopefully, we learn from our history. . .