Lesson 3

 

Objective

Students will understand the timeline of early Chinese immigration in context with historic events in the U.S. and world.

 

Materials Provided in Curriculum

Student Handout: Events in Chinese American History

Portrait Cards from Lesson 1 of the following individuals:

Florence Chin Eng

Bill Kay

Harriett Wu

James Mar

Fannie Eng Lung

Jimmie Eng

Article: The History of Chinese Immigration (from NW Asian Weekly)

Optional: Asian Pacific American Immigration and Legislation (Timeline)

Optional: Oral Interview Sample Questions (for Extension Activity)

  1. Events in Chinese History

2. Asian Pacific American Heritage

 

 

3. Asian Pacific American Timeline

4. Oral History Sample Interview Questions

Background Reading

A timeline of Asian Pacific American Immigration and Legislation is provided for a fuller view of Asian immigration that preceded and followed Chinese immigration and as a teacher resource and/or additional student reading if appropriate.

 

Suggested Activities:

 

Fitting Portrait Cards into Timeline of History

Have students read the article, The history of Chinese immigration and record any new dates or factual information that they glean from the article onto their timeline in the “Student Research” column.

 

Also, have students add any other information that tells them who, what and where and that will help them to  reconstruct what it was like for Chinese immigrants back then (i.e., what was the populations of people like in those days, what did they do for a living, what did they do in their spare time?).

 

OR Alternate Jigsaw Activity

Have all students read the article, The history of Chinese immigration.

 

Divide class into 4 groups of students, and assign each group one of the time periods below (which is how the Events in Chinese American History Timeline is divided on each page). Each student is to become an “expert” on his or her time period.

Page 1) Pre 1860 through 1885;

Page 2) 1886 through 1910;

Page 3) 1911 through 1940;

Page 4) 1941 through 1965.

 

Make the Portrait Cards available to all and have students record the dates found on the Cards in their copy of the timeline in the “Student Research” column.

 

Assign additional research time and resources (i.e., Internet sites, history books, newspaper articles) for students to fill in enough details in their timeline so that they get a good idea of what else was going on in the state and country during their assigned time period.

 

Finally, reassign groups so that there are 4 students in each group, one each for each time period. Each “expert” will explain their information to the 3 other students and help them to understand Chinese immigration from their research. Continue until all 4 student experts have had a chance to provide their information, and all students have had a chance to fill out their entire timeline.

 

 

Assessment:

Invite students to write an analytical essay to critically examine the time periods in which Chinese immigrants came to the United States and the reasons for admission or exclusion (including economic reasons, racism, and events on the West Coast that pulled immigrants to America as well as events in China that motivated Chinese to leave).

 

Teacher’s Note on Analytical Writing:

The purpose of the analytical writing piece is to critically examine and to reason about complex issues and concepts. The analysis should be well developed and supported by examining specific connections between events, social and political attitudes, economic climates, and the information learned about Chinese immigration to the U.S. through activities in the past two lessons.

 

 

Extension Activity

Conduct an oral history of an immigrant or a family member

 

Create a homework assignment for students to find out stories about their parents and grandparents, or interview someone who is a recent immigration to find out about their experiences and perspectives.

 

Historical events can be personalized through the use of first-hand accounts. Learners can become privy to the thoughts and emotions of individuals who have actual experience of what is being studied. Through first-hand accounts, the students can get a sense of the personal agency involved, personal struggles, and the sacrifices, losses or gains made as a consequence of one’s choices or of historical events that influenced a person’s life.

 

In addition, learning about the struggles and achievements of members of one’s own family can often heighten appreciation for one’s own identity and family roots. Family and community are often rich resources for learning about oneself, whether one is a recent immigrant with roots outside of the United States, or has been several generations in the United States.

 

Suggested Procedure:

  • The following questions may be helpful for a follow-up discussion on the different experiences shown in the previous lessons and to prepare the students to conduct their own oral interviews of a member in their family (or community) who has experienced immigration from another country or migration from another area in the United States.
  1. In what ways were the experiences of people in the photo cards similar? Different?
  2. What are some challenges that are mentioned by those in the photo cards?
  3. What are some successes mentioned?
  4. How might issues of adaptation be different or similar for those from different generations? What might those issues be for each generation?
  • Write up questions for the oral interviews (or choose questions from the handout “Oral Interview Sample Questions for Immigrant and Migrant Histories” and go over the procedures for conducting an oral interview.

 

Procedures for conducting an oral interview:

 

  1. Make an appointment for about 30 minutes with the person you would like to interview. Explain that the interview is a class project to gain more information on one’s own family migrations or immigration experiences. Ask permission to videotape or audiotape the interview if needed.
  2. When interviewing, have the interview subject answer the easy and less personal questions first, to build up some rapport and make the interview subject more comfortable in answering the later, more personal questions.
  3. Take notes, videotape, or audiotape the interview so that you can remember the content.
  4. Ask clarifying questions when something doesn’t make sense to you as the listener.
  5. Be sensitive to any questions that the interview subject does not wish to answer, and make sure they s/he knows that they may decline to answer any questions if they are not comfortable answering.
  6. Try to limit the interview to about 20-30 minutes unless you are sure that the interview subject would like to continue for a longer length of time.
  7. When you are through, thank the interviewee for her or his time and knowledge.
  • Have students conduct the oral interviews.

4)    Have students submit some sort of summary activity that highlights what they learned from the oral interview. It can be in the form such as a video clip, a transcription of the interview, a summary of selected quotes and why the interviewer found the person interesting, a family or community history write up, a photo essay or collage with accompanying explanation of its relationship to the oral interview, or a presentation to the class.