NEA Big Read Webinar: "Profits of Labor: A History of California's Chinese Immigrant Miners, Merchants, and Workers"

Opening Event for NEA Big Read Program

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

This virtual presentation by Professor Sue Fawn Chung is about three men and their families, all Chinese immigrants, that offers a historical landscape of Chinatowns in San Francisco and other western cities, from immigrant labor to entrepreneurship. These men fulfilled their American immigrant dream and only recently have been recognized for their achievements by the larger communities.

Little has been written about Chinese immigrants who have achieved the American immigrants’ dream of economic stability, a leadership role in the community, recognition by fellow Americans, a wife and family, and achievements by the second and later generations. This presentation is about three men, who arrived in the American west as teenagers, became proficient in English, were relatively successful financially, married and had a large family, and were well-known and well-liked in the larger Euro-American community. They were miners, merchants and Chinese contract men (middle men between the workers and employers in the railroad industry.)

The three men being covered in this presentation are: 

• Chung Kee (1847-1909)
• Lim Lip Hong (1840/43-1920) 
• Tom Ah Quin (1848/50-1914)

Admission:

• Mechanics' Institute members - Free
• Public sliding scale - $5 to $10

CLICK HERE for more information and to register.