Chinese Railroad Workers in North America: A Conference
FAIN: RZ-230425-15
Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2004)
Gordon H. Chang (Project Director: December 2014 to May 2017)
Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Co Project Director: January 2015 to May 2017)
An international scholarly conference on Chinese Railroad Workers in North America, to take place in April 2016 at Stanford University. (12 months)
This grant is requested to hold the "Culminating Conference of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University." Between 1865 and 1869, 10,000-15,000 Chinese migrants toiled at a grueling pace and in perilous working conditions to help construct America's first transcontinental railroad. The labor of these Chinese workers was pivotal to the development of the United States and to the founding of Stanford University. The Project seeks to recover and interpret the work of the Chinese railroad workers to remedy major historical neglect and lacunae in Chinese as well as U.S. history. The conference will be trans-national and multidisciplinary. Thirty scholars from North America and Asia will present original scholarship, based on four years of research. In addition, conference participants will take a three-day field trip to the Sierra high country to visit sites where Chinese railroad workers labored to build the railroad.
Media Coverage
“American Railroad Project Peers into Chinese Past.” Ken Miguel, ABC 7 News, San Francisco, August 4, 2015. (Media Coverage)
Publication: ABC 7 TV news.
Date: 8/7/2016
URL: http://abc7news.com/society/american-railroad-project-peers-into-chinese-past/903452/
“Chinese Railroad Workers.” KTVU Channel 2 News. Oakland, California, August 21, 2015 (Media Coverage)
Publication: KTVU Channel 2 news.
Date: 8/7/2016
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJj20l4ezlk
“Stanford Project Unearths Personal Histories of Chinese Railroad Workers.” Presentations by Gordon Chang, with Sue Lee, executive director of the Chinese Historical Society of America and Project Affiliate,?Russell Low, descendant. (Media Coverage)
Publication: KQED Radio, "Forum."
Date: 8/7/2016
URL: http://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2015/07/27/stanford-project-unearths-personal-histories-of-chinese-railroad-workers-2/
“The Laborers Nobody Knows: Project aims to fill in the history of Chinese railroad workers.” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Brian Eule
Publication: Stanford Alumni Magazine
Date: 1/1/2016
URL: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=83019
“How the West was built: Project seeks stories of Chinese workers.” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Julie Mackinon
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Date: 6/21/2015
“Historians build links to an important historic past.” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Chang Jun
Publication: China Daily USA
Date: 6/9/2015
URL: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2015-06/09/content_20943833.htm
“Chinese Migrants Were Brought in to Build the Transcontinental Railroad.” (Media Coverage)
Publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Date: 5/26/2016
URL: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2015/05/26/150-years-chinese-migrants-were-brought-in-to-build-the-transcontinental-railroad/#photo-640842
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Publication: China News
Date: 11/1/2015
URL: http://www.chinanews.com/gj/2015/11-12/7620254.shtml
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Publication: China Daily News / Sina ???
Date: 6/1/2015
URL: http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/news/usa/uslocal/sinaus/su/20150606/19026708864.html
“Stanford Scholars Give Voice to the Chinese Workers Who Helped Build Transcontinental Railroad.” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cuahtemac Garcia-Garcia
Publication: Stanford News: The Humanities At Stanford
Date: 6/1/2015
URL: http://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/17/railroad-chinese-laborers-061715/
“Exhibit Honors Chinese Railway Workers.” (Media Coverage)
Publication: China Daily USA
Date: 11/12/2015
URL: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-11/12/content_22443487.htm
Associated Products
Digital Archive: Chinese Railroad Workers in North America (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Digital Archive: Chinese Railroad Workers in North America
Author: Gabriel Wolfenstein
Author: Gordon Chang
Author: Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Author: Roland Hsu
Author: Hilton Obenzinger
Abstract: The second digital product will be the “Stanford University Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Digital Archive” (the “Archive.”) We are designing this as the world’s leading and enduring resource for future generations of historians and the general public. It will be hosted by Stanford University Libraries in perpetuity. The Archive is the achievement of our Stanford research administrative team, and our goal is to open the archive, attract a worldwide audience, and guide users through search and discovery. Visitors to the Archive will be welcomed with two leading-edge digital features:
A) Digital “Exhibits.” We will build digital “exhibits” through the Stanford Digital Repository “Spotlight” portal. Each digital “exhibit” will illuminate a small selection of items from our archive with short one thousand-word explanatory essays. The selections and the essays in exhibit format have been shown to attract new audiences. Visitors will in this way take a guided “tour” of the Archive, and gain insight and appreciation in a short amount of time. Our team will curate the “exhibits.” The digital format also gives us the chance to offer “guest curatorships” to professional scholars, teachers, and possibly amateur historians for an expanding series of digital exhibits using our open Archive.
B) Digital “Visualizations.” We will build visual representations to serve as the interactive interface for scholars to use the Archive. For advanced scholars and general audiences alike, the visualizations will illuminate meanings and patterns in our unprecedented treasury of sources. Prototypes have been developed to indicate the sites along the rail route for which we have richest collected sources; other visualizations highlight where we need more discovery.
Year: 2018
Access Model: Open Access.
Chinese Railroad Workers in North America: History from Descendants. (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: Chinese Railroad Workers in North America: History from Descendants.
Writer: Connie Young
Writer: Barre Fong
Director: Barre Fong
Abstract: Documentary film of feature length (75 minutes) and subsequent 10-minute films for the classroom. The film story line will be in three parts:
Backstory of the building of the railroad
Interviews with North American descendants of the railroad workers
Interviews with China-based descendants of the railroad workers
Year: 2017
Format: Film
“The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad: the Railroad Helped Build America. Photographs by Li Ju.” (Exhibition)Title: “The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad: the Railroad Helped Build America. Photographs by Li Ju.”
Curator: Li Ju
Abstract: Public exhibition of photographs by Li Ju of sites of historic photo imagery of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America and the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. Title: “The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad: the Railroad Helped Build America. Photographs by Li Ju.” Opening event: Commentary by Gordon Chang, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and Li Ju. Welcome remarks by Faqiang Ren, Deputy Consul General of the Peoples Republic of China. Stanford University. November 2015.
Year: 2015
Primary URL:
http://news.stanford.edu/thedish/2015/11/09/photo-exhibition-on-central-pacific-railroads-history-comes-to-stanford/Primary URL Description: Exhibition: “The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad: the Railroad Helped Build America. Photographs by Li Ju.” Commentary by Gordon Chang, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and Li Ju. Welcome remarks by Faqiang Ren, Deputy Consul General of the Peoples Republic of China. Stanford University. November 2015.
Prizes
“Committee of 100 Common Ground Award for Advancement in U.S.-China Relations.”
Date: 5/8/2014
Organization: Committee of 100
Abstract: The Committee of 100, an international organization dedicated to making cultural connections between the United States and Asia, honored Stanford University with its Common Ground Award for the Advancement in U.S.-China Relation
The gala featured a video about the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, as an example of how Stanford research is bridging a historical divide in Chinese and American relations.
Led by two Stanford professors, more than 100 scholars in North America and Asia are searching for information – seeking out descendents and traversing archives and museums – about the thousands of Chinese migrants who labored on the Transcontinental Railroad. The rail line helped shape the American West and culminated with Leland Stanford driving the Golden Spike at its completion on May 10, 1869.