Week 5: Taiping and Chinese Exclusion Act

This week, we’ll deviate slightly from the focus on modern China per se, and look more closely at the relations with the US. This means the “Basic set” is the larger chunk, and the “Exploration packs” are a lot lighter, in an attempt to prevent you getting overburdened.

If you are curious and want to learn more about any topic, you can always reach out to me and ask for more readings or pointers to find more materials. Please remember I am a resource for you: a shortcut, a guide, a catalog-friend who can help you find materials to satisfy your thirst for knowledge! One of my favorite things in teaching is helping students find resources, and the perfect challenge is when a student tells me “but I can’t find anything about this topic.”

The second half of the nineteenth century is a period of intensive migration, within Qing China, but also from China to southeast Asia, and to the Americas. Tensions between Chinese and US white settlers led to the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was the first time a specific population group was targeted in a specific anti-immigration law in the US, but it was not the last time that Asian people were the target of specific legislation.

Slides
Readings and class details
Assignments
Extra Credit Tasks
Where to Get Assistance?

Slides

Readings and class details

Wednesday: Taiping and Chinese Exclusion Act

Ettinger, 204, 9.30AM

Before we dive into the Chinese Exclusion Act, let’s take a moment to think about the Taiping rebellion/civil war, so you can understand one of the factors that contributed to migration:

Podcast: Melvin Bragg and guests “The Taiping Rebellion”. In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, Feb. 24 2011.
- Available with transcript here (look under “captions”)

The Chinese Exclusion Act:

“The Chinese Exclusion Act”. Directed by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu. Public Broadcasting Service, 2018. https://video-alexanderstreet-com.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/watch/the-chinese-exclusion-act
- (Play time: 2hrs 40′; transcript available in the sidebar)
- Tip: if you break your viewing into smaller sessions: take note of the time stamp where you left off, because the system logs you out quite quickly.
Textbook summaries: Chapter 9, Chapter 10
No slides by me. This week you will contribute to this class sourced slide deck. You have editing access: add information (bullet points, sections of text), images and questions/remarks which we can use in the Thursday session.
- Ping me a message on Discord chat if somebody is doing inappropriate things and you need me to intervene, of course.
OPTIONAL EXTRAS:
- “The Chinese Exclusion Act”
  - website with the text of the actual legal document. You can annotate in our Hypothes.is group: e.g. can you make it easier to understand? Do you have questions or remarks about the text?
- Yung, Wing. My Life in China and America. Cer Classics. Hong Kong: Reprinted by China Economic Review Pub, 2007.
  - ebook Trexler
  - Yung Wing was educated by missionaries in China, and the first (known) Chinese student to graduate from a US college. (He also visited the Taiping) He married an American woman, and as a man who lived and understood both American and Chinese culture, his memoirs make it a bit easier to try and understand nineteenth century China’s mindset.
- Ng, Rachel. “Why does the US have so many Chinatowns?” National Geographic URL: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/09/why-does-the-us-have-chinatowns/#close
  - spotted by a student in Fall ’20
  - note: you have to sign up with an e-mail address to get access or use this poor PDF I took

Friday: Foreign relations and aggressors

Ettinger 204, 9.30AM

Exploration pack 1: Plain Textbook

Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
- Chapters 9, 10
- folks, this is the reading-heavy option this week! Only choose this if you have time!

Exploration pack 2: Migration

Choong Wilkins, Rebecca. “Who are the Peranakan Chinese? Deep roots and many routes” LARB China Channel January 24, 2019. https://chinachannel.lareviewofbooks.org/2019/01/24/peranakan/
- Migration to southeast Asia, where the Chinese faced different challenges and opportunities compared to the US.
- Lighter reading!

Exploration pack 3: Japan

Image gallery: woodblock prints of the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95) – check the information on the site. The first link gives the overview, the slightly indented link(s) right under it give you a close-up of the image itself for detailed study.

You can find many more images if you follow this link, and scroll down to “Japanese War Prints from our Archive”. Note that some are from the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), which does not concern us here.

Ideal if you like visual arts!
Questions to ponder: these Japanese artists use a traditional medium to portray Japan as a modern nation. Do they succeed? Why (not), and how? From these images, how does Japan appear to see China at this point? And how does that compare to the US perception of the Chinese (as seen in Wednesday’s materials)?

Assignments

1. Weekly Blog post (content week 4)

5 points, due Mon. Feb. 13, 11:59PM

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
- TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
Add the words “Week 4” in the title.
- Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose.
Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 4 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

2. Hypothes.is: comments on Week 4 posts

3 points, due Wed. Feb. 15 by 11.59pm.

Below you find links to three blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites.

Post 1:
Post 2:
Post 3:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students using Hypothes.is group HST271. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use tags in Hypothes.is: question: If you have a question (obvious); answered: if you gave an answer to a question; info: if you provide more information, looking up additional facts, drawing on knowledge from other classes; and other tags you can think of. This will help us to navigate more quickly to the questions that still need answering.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

When you’ve commented on three posts, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I commented on three fellow students’ posts on the readings from Week 4 using the group HST271.
– I made sure to leave substantial comments that move the discussion forward and help to create better insights, and go beyond a “nice” or “great”.
– I left comments that I would like to receive myself: thoughtful, helpful, kind, but also pointing out errors so they can be fixed.

3. First reflection

8 points, due Feb. 17, 11:59PM

Find all the details on the dedicated webpage (this helps me to keep the weekly schedule a bit more clutter-free).

4. Weekly Blog post (content week 5)

5 points, due Mon. Feb. 20, 11:59PM

Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
- TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
Add the words “Week 5” in the title.
- Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose.
Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.