Creating Communities in California: Chinese American Experiences

Creating Communities in California: The Chinese American Experience is a National Endowment of the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture program hosted by the History Project at UC Davis. The course is for K-12 teachers, who will explore historic sites in Sacramento, Donner Summit, the town of Locke, and San Francisco, California, and examine academic scholarship and primary sources to ground our understanding of Chinese immigration and contributions from the Gold Rush era through the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 and its lasting impact. These major events in American history bookend our study, as do the common perceptions of “yellow peril” and “model minority” associated with the two eras. The Chinese American experience serves as a case study of the dynamics of immigration and the contributions and experiences of those who came to and built community in Northern California and across the country.