“The old men were shaken as by an earthquake when they learned that a modern Union Depot with expansive grounds was going to dislodge them from their long-established habitations,” Garding Lui, 1948

It was shocking to learn that Chinatown was razed and moved to make way for Union Station. This was a destruction of Chinese life and also many Mexicans that also called this area home. I’ve learned a lot about Chinese Americans coming to California through San Francisco during the Gold Rush, but know very little about Chinese Americans in Southern California.  

I didn’t know about the 2^nd biggest festival in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. The festival is on the 15^th day of the 8^th month of the Chinese calendar when the moon is believed to be the biggest and fullest and is the festival of family reunion and peace.  The festival is traced back to the Zhou Dynasty when they observed that the moon was connected with the seasons and agriculture.  This would be a fun festival for the children to celebrate by making lanterns, eating moon cakes and learning dances.

I’m still learning about the Chinese Lunar calendar. The idea that you have a birthday and a lunar birthday and you look at the lunar calendar before choosing important activities. This also plays into the Chinese Zodiac as someone born in January would still be under the Zodiac symbol of the standard calendar’s previous year. 

Because I don't teach American History, I would focus on the Chinese immigrant experience starting in the late 19th C. One of the first timelines on the second floor drew the connection between a need for labor and migration. After the abolishment of slavery, Chinese workers were a much needed source of inexpensive labor. In the fall, I'll be mindful of encouraging students to consider how events in one country have a ripple effect impacting others. 

The last session of our Exploring East Asian Culture seminar took place at the Chinese American Museum. First of all, the introduction by the museum coordinator was really eye-opening. I can’t believe that this is one of the only two buildings from the historic Chinatown that still remain in this area of Los Angeles. Her explanation about the evolution of Chinatown, the planning and construction of Union Station and the evolution of the area were quite important for any local to know about the history of Los Angeles. The building itself is very charming and conveys a lot of history in itself.

The artifacts and artwork from the Chinese Herbs room on the first floor really take you back in time and help you visualize how life was back in the day for Chinese Americans in Los Angeles. The exhibit with little bowls with rice symbolizing the growth of the Chinese American population in the city was also a very clever and simple way to help students realize the growth of the community.

It was also great seeing so many newspaper materials, election pamphlets, artifacts and even clothing from Chinese politicians running for office. They really helped me understand this growth of the Chinese communities and the evolution of Chinese culture in the city. Finally, the hip hop exhibition on the third floor was also quite engaging and interesting. Again, as it happened on the modern culture exhibition on the first floor of the Korean Cultural Center, I think this modern exhibit is a great way to instill curiosity in my students, and help them better understand Chinese American culture and the evolution of this historic part of Los Angeles.

In our second session of the day we traveled to The Chinese American Museum in Downtown Los Angeles, First of all that I did not know this place existed at all, secondly, I did not expect it to be so near Olvera Street, but as the spokesperson for the Chinese Museum told us, the locale where the Chinese Museum is located at, used to be part of the original Chinatown, That Chinatown was bigger than what it is today. This I did not know and now it made sense that the museum is located where it is. Inside the museum they ha interesting literature on how the Chinese kept moving in and thus creating Monterey Park, and thus creating Monterey park to become a bigger pace, with all the shops, restaurants and businesses. Now it all made sense of why here are so many Chinese people in the City of Monterrey Park. This is a fact I had always wondered about, and because of this field trip/outing and the seminar, now I know. A thing that I found funny about this museum is that on the second floor in one of their displays/exhibits boom boxes are thee. This seems so weird ,as boom boxes existed not too long ago, when many people would walk around with these giant radios on their shoulders and enjoy the/their music. But  now how times have changed and now people walk around with  their music on their I-phones, or small MP 3’s ,( but these are not so visible any more as well), How times have changed. However I bet that when they put the boom boxes on display they were at their peak of existence, he modern trend, the must have’s. There was also interesting artwork ant the museum. There was one poster that mentions the fact that the Chinese were in a growing Latino barrio or something to that effect. I found this interesting as I would never dream or correlate the Chinese people in a “Barrio”, barrio meaning,” a part of a large U.S. city, especially a crowded inner-city area, inhabited by a Spanish –speaking population”, the meaning taken from Merriam –Webster’s dictionary.

The ways I can incorporate this session/field trip in bringing and teaching about Asia in my classroom, once again I can teach about bus safety and community rules and regulations. I can make a compare/contrast chart with technology as the main point. I can make and teach my students about timeline, and what inventions happened at what particular times, dates, era’s.  I can teach them about the five senses in regards to the foods/ boom boxes, musical instruments o the different cultures in the different time periods. I can teach them about trade and expansion. I can teach them the basics of running for office such as, a school president, treasurer, or a member of an organization, such as in joining a group/social club at school. I can teach them many things from this one session. 

On a related note, China City is a really interesting topic to learn about too! China City existed 1938-1949 and was an effort by Christine Sterling (the mother of Olvera Street) to put Chinese culture on display in a romanticized and exoticized way. The museum had a couple display cases showing some objects from the time period. Christine Sterling's plan included having the store owners and business people of China City wear traditional costumes and speak with an accent to make it feel more "authentic." They had a chop suey house, rickshaw rides, and actually used props from the movie The Good Earth as kind of set pieces for the place. China City competed with New Chinatown after Old Chinatown was razed, but ultimately was burned down. I find it really fascinating as an example of how white Americans would turn Chinese into "the other," and create this totally inauthentic experience in the supposed quest for authenticity. It really shows how the Chinese were taken advantage of and how the culture has been fetishized.

Although I am a Los Angeles native, this is my first visit to the Chinese American Museum.  This is one of the many reasons I am appreciative of these seminars, as they never fail to introduce me to topics and places of interest.  This small city gem provides an overview of the Chinese American experiene in California through its interesting displays and exhibits.  It documents the hardships the Chinese in Los Angeles endured from soial marginalization, lack of political representation and oppportunity to their unfortunate displacement from the original Chinatown.  Fortunately, with the advent of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's and the immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, this changed and we see the movement from social marginalization to activism, and eventual inclusion.  It would be easy to include aspects of the Chinese American experience and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in my US History class.  I would include this part of American history and compare it to the treatment of Japanese Americans during the Japanese internment. Since the history textbook we use at my school includes little information about these two historical topics, it is particularly important that I supplement the material presented to include these voices, which are glossed over historically.  My students would relate to this topic as many of them are either immigrants or children of immigrant parents.  By including both primary and secondary texts that introduce students to the experiences of Chinese and Japanese Americans, students can make the connections between their experiences and their own as I would have my students interview family members and write about their own experiences to include their voices and perspectives in class.    

This is truly a gem of a museum for its location. 

I really enjoyed the "time line" the museum offers. On the first floor it was really cool how they compare the rice in the bowls as the Chinese population grew in the LA area. The pictures are so wonderful, it adds a face to the numbers on the wall. The short multimedia clips along the wall are wonderful also, it shows how Chinese immigrants succeeded in America. It also highlights the challenges that tried to keep Chinese from achieving a better life: racism and stated and federal laws.  

The upstairs exhibition of the more modern Chinese experience was also wonderful. Seeing how the Chinese became successful and leaders in their communities and later in California as whole was wonderful. It also showed how the Chinese have affected the landscape with their festivals and assimilation to America.  The general store exhibition was great, it had displays of the various items Chinese could buy at this stores whether from China or locally. I was also impressed with the display of artifacts found in the area: plates, cups, bottles, etc. At times we are too focused on the big archeological finds, when in fact we can find more modern finds that speak and attest to those before us.

Finally, the modern exhibition of art and music will definitely draw most students' attention. The art was wonderful, clean, and full of message.

The CAM is definitely a go to museum for student of any age. It's not too big and not too small for a class or two of students. The realia displayed will reinforce what we are teaching in the classroom from the reasons and beginnings of Chinese immigration to the present.