Chinese Pioneers: Power and Politics in Exclusion Era Photographs
On view through August 13, 2022
California Historical Society
San Francisco, California
https://californiahistoricalsociety.org
The California Historical Society’s (CHS) exhibition “Chinese Pioneers: Power and Politics in Exclusion Era Photographs” presents a visual history of the social, political, and judicial disenfranchisement of Chinese Californians—as well as moments of Chinese agency and resilience—in the years leading up to and after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
In the United States during the Exclusion Era years, depictions of Chinese people ranged from deeply derogatory to aestheticized and racialized. The Chinese Pioneers exhibition examines the visual record of how mainstream culture influenced, aligned with, and/or diverged from politics and state actions.
The exhibition is drawn exclusively from the California Historical Society’s deep collections of topical material. On view are rare items, such as one of the earliest known records of Chinese immigration to California, certificates of residence for Chinese laborers (1894–1897), and a one-of-a-kind photo album compiled by a Sierra County justice of the peace who was tracking Chinese residents. Less rare but equally powerful items in the collection include formal portraits of Chinese men and women taken in photographic studios, some operated by Chinese photographers; illustrated newspapers; a painting of a Chinese woman; photographs of Chinese workers; and works by art photographers Arnold Genthe and Laura Adams Armer.
The richness of these collections presents a compelling visual history that dovetails with the social, political, and judicial disenfranchisement of Chinese Californians, as well as moments of Chinese agency and resilience.
[Image: Victor Duhem, Woo Dunn and two other men (1910), gelatin silver print. Courtesy California Historical Society]
