VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Asian/Pacific American Heritage Association (APAHA) presents Remembering 1882, a Traveling Exhibit, on view May 1 through May 25 in the rotunda at City Hall in downtown Houston.

On the 125th Anniversary of the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Historical Society of America's presents the Remembering 1882 project.  Drawn from photographs, newspaper commentaries, political cartoons, and other objects in CHSA's collections, CHSA's Remembering 1882 exhibit provides a flavor for the intrigue, passion and poignancy of this dramatic chapter in American history.

From sailors in the young nation's early China trade, to accomplished athlete-scholars at Yale, Chinese people have been part of life in the U.S. before the nation even reached its tenth year. In San Francisco, Mayor John W. Geary holds a public ceremony in 1850 to formally welcome Chinese immigrants. By 1852, Chinese Californians comprise 20 percent of the state's newly arrived population, and join that year's Fourth of July parade in San Francisco "on horseback and in carriages, dressed in colorful silk and satin that dazzled the spectators."

In the early years after the Civil War, the U.S. officially articulates a commitment to equal protection under the law and free migration, in 1868 adopting both the 14th Amendment and the Burlingame Treaty.

The Houston exhibit features 8 scrolls in the City Hall Rotunda depicting scenes, letters, newspaper accounts, and photos of the era. History and documents of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and how the Chinese were a part of the American society at that time. The exhibit discusses American democracy and how we should not take this for granted.

Pictured:  In 1852 Yung Wing becomes the first known naturalized citizen of Chinese descent.