(BAY AREA, CA – July 14, 2023)  The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) is pleased to present Chinese Pioneers: Power and Politics in Exclusion Era Photographs (www.aiisf.org/events/chinese-pioneers).

This temporary exhibit explores the social, political, and judicial disenfranchisement of Chinese Californians — as well as moments of Chinese agency and resilience — in the decades before and after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The exhibit will be on view from July 14, 2023 to September 3, 2023.

The exhibit begins in the Gold Rush era, when significant numbers of Chinese people began to arrive in California. Anti-Chinese sentiment led to protests, violence, and vigilante expulsions up and down the West Coast. The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese laborers from immigrating, becoming citizens, and tightened restrictions on previous residents reentering the country. It is against this backdrop that the exhibit considers the broad range of nineteenth-century imagery depicting the first generations of Chinese Californians and how visual culture influenced, aligned with, and diverged from the politics of Exclusion and the actions of the state.

Featured in the exhibit are examples of how different types of photography (studio portraits, street photography, and surveillance) reflect different facets of the Chinese experience. While studio portraits presented a dignified image of the subject, street photography highlighted the unequal social relations that existed between the Chinese and non-Chinese populations. Government headshots were used as a tool in the suppression, surveillance, and criminalization of Chinese residents through systems of registration and identification. Together, these varying styles of photography shaped the perception of the Chinese in the Exclusion Era years.

The exhibit was developed by the California Historical Society in collaboration with the Chinese Historical Society of America with touring coordinated through Exhibit Envoy. Institutional support provided by San Francisco Grants for the Arts and Yerba Buena Community Benefit District. The Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation supported the first 6 bookings of this exhibition.

For more information on planning your visit to Angel Island, visit www.aiisf.org/planyourvisit

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About AIISF

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) raises awareness of the experience of Immigration into America through the Pacific. In partnership with Angel Island State Park, AIISF collects and preserves the rich stories and personal journeys of thousands of immigrants, and shares them with visitors and everyone living in America through education initiatives and public programs. To learn more, visit www.aiisf.org.

About Angel Island Immigration Station

From 1910 to 1940, over 500,000 persons from 80 different countries were processed or detained at the former U.S. Immigration Station at Angel Island. While sometimes referred to as the “Ellis Island of the West”, Angel Island’s immigration station was built to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and similar immigration policies that sought to keep Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants from entering the nation. The former U.S. Immigration Station at Angel Island was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997. The site now includes the Detention Barracks Museum and the Angel Island Immigration Museum.

About the California Historical Society

The California Historical Society (CHS), the official state historical society of California, has been collecting, sharing, and honoring the extraordinarily diverse stories from throughout the state for 150 years. Headquartered in San Francisco with support from California Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Yerba Buena Community Benefit District, and all of its donors and members across the state, the nonprofit organization works statewide to inspire and empower people to make California’s past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives.

About Exhibit Envoy

Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California. For more information, visit www.exhibitenvoy.org.

Media Contact:
Edward Tepporn
Executive Director
(415) 658-7691
etepporn@aiisf.org