Barriers to Bridges

Barriers to Bridges is a new exhibition which was unveiled at the National Museum of American History (NMAH) on November 21, 2008. This artifact case offers glimpses of a rich history of Asian Pacific Americans from the 19th century to the present. The immigration process for Americans of Asian Pacific descent was never easy. Asians were initially tolerated, along with other immigrants, but resentment and racial tensions sparked of a series of exclusionary laws that were enforced in the late 19th century—for the first time in U.S. history, which led to immigrants being barred entry solely on the basis of race.

The Chinese were the first group to be excluded, by the early 20th century, even as most Asians were prohibited from immigrating and applying for citizenship until 1965. Visitors to Barriers to Bridges will find anti-Asian images but the exhibition also includes stories of Asians who found ways to enter the country. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fire in San Francisco destroyed public records, allowing many Chinese to claim that they had been born in San Francisco.

These Chinese immigrants claimed citizenship for their children living in China, even as these “slots” were often sold to strangers or handed to relatives. Immigration officials carried out extensive interviews attempting to uncover these “paper sons,”

The “coaching” book on display helped an immigrant meticulously memorize hundreds of detailed questions to “prove” his status as the son of a waiting American-born parent. Another legal immigration path into the United States lay in being a picture bride—so named because often the couple knew each other only through the exchange of photos and family information.

In the early 20th century, over 20,000 picture brides from Japan and Korea arrived mostly in California and Hawaii to join their husbands. One such picture bride left a beautiful wedding kimono (Japanese traditional garment) and her wedding photo.

The Asian exclusion laws were replaced after 1943, with a very restrictive quota system. Some Asian countries received tiny allotments (105 people per year for China, for example) while certain non-quota immigrants became eligible for entry and eventual citizenship. Asian American populations in the U.S. increased after World War II as Asian women (wartime brides), children (adoptees), and refugees entered the U.S.
The passage of the Immigration Act of 1965 saw Asian immigration growing quickly which privileged family reunification. Some immigrants left their homelands because of political turmoil such as in Southeast Asia but most were drawn by economic opportunity and those who were desirous about uniting with their families.

In the artifact case, visitors may see a Filipino nurse’s cap, Hmong story cloth, entry permits for Vietnamese political refugees, and a doctored Thai passport for an exploited laborer. Today, about 15,000,000 Asian Pacific Americans make up 5% of the U.S. population and join Latinos as one of our fastest growing ethnic groups.

Barriers to Bridges is an ongoing exhibition. To know more about the Asia Pacific Americans, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawaii

From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawaii is an exhibition hosted by the Smithsonian Asia Pacific America Program at the Japanese American National Museum’s exhibition that captures the evolution of Japanese American identity in multicultural Hawaii as seen through the eyes of the first generation to the present.
From Bento to Mixed Plate panned out to be a huge success attracting over 300,000 visitors. Over 150 volunteers served as gallery guides.
At the start of the From Bento to Mixed Plate, visitors experience open rooms typifying a garage and a living room belonging to a Japanese-American family in Hawaii. The rooms have telling Hawaii touches: a surfboard propped against a wall, for example, and sandals placed neatly in the doorway.
Visitors to this exhibition sees how Japanese first journeyed to Hawaii to work in the sugar cane fields, became an integral part of Hawaii’s multiethnic culture and firmly establishing themselves as community leaders in Hawaii through photographs, videotapes and displays.
From Bento to Mixed Plate traces the rigors of Japanese Americans’ working in the cane fields, their love of baseball, their unique experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II and their postwar political successes.
The exhibition here includes something not found elsewhere: a steam engine, the “Olomana,” actually used on an Oahu sugar plantation a century ago. The engine was donated to the Smithsonian years ago.
From Bento to Mixed Plate takes us through the World War II section which includes a wall devoted to the exploits of the decorated Japanese-American soldiers and another devoted to the Japanese Americans rounded up and sent to live in mainland camps. The latter includes a display case filled with the wooden carvings, some decorated with Hawaiian flowers, done by Ryosen Yonahara, principal of a Japanese language school on Maui who was interned in New Mexico.
This exhibition ends with a videotape of short takes put together by a diverse group of Hawaii students and a photograph of Ellison S. Onizuka, the Hawaii astronaut who died in the Challenger disaster, surrounded by an equally diverse group of students. The exhibition, which ran from May 23 to November 30, 1999, was presented at Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees

Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees is a traveling exhibition hosted by the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building and produced by the New York-based Museum of Chinese in America (MoCA) from June 8-September 30, 2001.
Fly to Freedom traces how the ship, Golden Venture, bearing 300 passengers from China (mostly from the province of Fujian) wrecked off the coast of New York City on June 6, 1993. Among the passengers were many who had left their homes in China to make passage to the United States. Fifty-two of these refugees were apprehended by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and sent to York County Prison in Pennsylvania and were held there for nearly four years.
Fly to Freedom reveals how the refugees while being incarcerated transformed a paper-folding pastime into an art, creating more than 10,000 paper sculptures.
Fly to Freedom featured 25 artworks which speak of the difficulties that many immigrants face when they leave their homelands and are moving testaments to the human impulse to create beauty in the face of hardship.
Visitors to this exhibition learned the story of the ship and her passengers, and the outcome of the refugees’ struggles. Five of the artists represented in the show received approval for U.S. residency on the basis of “extraordinary artistic ability.”
The exhibit was supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was provided by The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and members of MoCA.

For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu.

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Gateway to Gold Mountain

Gateway to Gold Mountain chronicles the immigration experience of more than 175,000 Chinese immigrants who came to America through the Angel Island between 1910 and 1940. These Chinese immigrants were ferried from ships to the isolated Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay, and were greeted by an America far different from the land of opportunity many called “Gold Mountain.”

This traveling exhibition discussed the hopes and fears of the Chinese immigrants, as well as the discrimination they were confronted with while trying to gain entry to America.

Gateway to Gold Mountain chronicles the Angel Island experience with photomurals that depict the day-to-day life on Angel Island, and life-size photographic cut-outs show how Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and Jewish immigrants were all part of the station’s history.

Visitors walked through a series of vignettes that represented a particular experience at the immigration station. For example, they saw the images of what the immigrants saw upon arrival: the barbed wire fences, guard towers, and locked doors. Processing and questioning of new arrivals took weeks and sometimes months—and, in a number of cases, even years. The despair and isolation felt by the immigrants was revealed in poems they carved into the walls of barracks on Angel Island. Many of the poems were translated for this exhibition.

Gateway to Gold Mountain was a tribute to the pioneering spirit of all those who persevered in establishing new roots in the United States and laying the groundwork for later Asian immigrants. This exhibition was designed by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, a non-profit organization founded more than 20 years ago by citizens committed to preserving the deteriorating immigration station barracks. Angel Island is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Gateway to Gold Mountain was hosted by the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building from July 9- August 27, 2001. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience

On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience tells the story of the Chinese in America through the six-generation odyssey of a Chinese American family, who originally immigrated to California in 1867 and whose members have lived and worked in Los Angeles from 1897 to the present.

On Gold Mountain is based on a book by Lisa See, whose family has a long and prominent history in Los Angeles. Members of the See family established a successful antique business, opened an art gallery and restaurant, became furniture designers and manufacturers, and helped build Los Angeles’ Chinatown.

The exhibition weaves this family legacy into the broader history of Los Angeles Chinatown, in order to bring focus to a community often overshadowed by better-known American Chinatowns. The backdrop for these family and community histories is an even bigger picture that exemplifies national tragedies and triumphs, ranging from nineteenth century exclusionary laws to burgeoning suburban Chinatowns in the twentieth century.

On Gold Mountain explores the transformation of Chinese immigrants into Chinese Americans, the many facets of Chinese American identity, and methods of uncovering family and community history.

On Gold Mountain reveals how all immigrants to America are faced with similar challenges: choosing between the old world and the new, maintaining culture and language, balancing long-practiced traditions with the demands of assimilation. This exhibition was hosted by the Smithsonian Institution Asian Pacific American Program and exhibited in the Arts and Industries Building from May 18 –September 30, 2001. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Kaho’olawe: Ke Aloha Kupa’a I Ka’Aina (Steadfast Love of the Land)

The exhibition Kaho’olawe: Ke Aloha Kupa’a I Ka’Aina (Steadfast Love of the Land), tells a beautifully interwoven tale of how one of Hawaii’s islands became degraded and was subsequently rescued and revitalized through a sustained spiritual, cultural, and political awakening of the Native Hawaiian people and their allies.

Hosted by the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building and developed by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu in cooperation with the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana, this exhibition traces the culture, spiritual practices and political aspirations of the native Hawaiians by focusing on the history of Kahoolawe.

Kaho’olawe examines the way outside influences affected the island’s natural and cultural resources. The exhibition shows Kahoolawe much more than a place once used for military target practice and native protests against the bombing and looks at its future as a cultural preserve.

Kaho’olawe allows visitors to hear the voices of those who participated in the saving of the island. They also could take a computer-simulated tour of the island, read news clippings from the island’s history, and see the faces of island residents going back several generations.

When walking into the exhibit, visitors were greeted by a song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow immortalized by Judy Garland in the film, The Wizard of Oz. But the exhibition’s version was sung by a Native Hawaiian man accompanied by a ukulele.

This mixing of the familiar and unfamiliar was repeated throughout the exhibition, with what we know about Hawaii through the mainstream press challenged by the facts as presented by the Native Hawaiian people themselves.

Kaho’olawe was hosted by the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building and developed by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu in cooperation with the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana. The exhibition ran from June 5 to September 2, 2002. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution is an online exhibition presented by Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History that traces the forced relocation and internment of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II in the wake of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor became the catalyst for challenging the loyalty of all Japanese people living in the US.

Almost 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and sent to detention camps constructed by the War Relocation Authority after President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing military authorities to exclude “any and all persons” from designated areas of the country as necessary for national defense.  The internment of the Japanese Americans led to many of them spending the next three years living under armed guard.

A More Perfect Union explores this period of U.S. history when fear and racial prejudice upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen versus the power of the state. The exhibition tells the story of Japanese Americans who suffered great injustice at the hands of the government, and who have struggled ever since to insure the rights of all citizens guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

A More Perfect Union provides an opportunity to students to explore more than 800 artifacts related to the Japanese-American experience, including archival photos, publications, original manuscripts, artworks and handmade objects from the Museum’s outstanding collection of items related to the Japanese American experience during World War II.

This exhibition enables users to explore and experience the online site much in the same way they would the physical exhibition. Jennifer Jones, a military history curator at the museum, worked on both the original exhibition and served as a co-curator of the web exhibit.

The online exhibition was made possible by grants from the Rockefeller and AT&T Foundations. It was produced in conjunction with Second Story Interactive Studios. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Miracles Under the Waves

The exhibition, Miracle Under the Waves: Photographic Art of Akiyoshi Ito puts on view Ito’s impressive collection of color photos of coral reefs from many parts of the world which serve as an inspiration to at least two separate worlds: one is the artistic realm of photography, especially of the world within our oceans; the second is the absolutely critical nature of coral reefs in the world’s ecosystem.

A public program was presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Miracle Under the Waves: Photographic Art of Akiyoshi Ito which focused on the latter aspect in order to educate the public about the endangered nature of coral reefs and its impact on our future.

The program featured three eminent panelists – Mr. Michael Lang, Marine Science Network Director, Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Anthony Coates, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; and Dr. David Kennedy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Miracle Under the Waves was displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center concourse from March 2 until May 1, 2005. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Dreams and Reality

Dreams and Reality: Korean American Contemporary Art Exhibition to Celebrate 100 Years of Korean Immigration to the US is a historic art exhibition that threw open to the audience the impressive works of 18 renowned Korean American artists. These artists were meticulously chosen to share their unique and unparalleled artistic style, reflecting both their Korean heritage and their modern day American and global lifestyle.

These artists have showcased their works in numerous domestic and international venues, but this was the first time that a group of Korean American artists have come together to display their works in a single exhibition of such magnitude.
Dreams and Reality provided viewers with a unique opportunity to experience a fragment of Korean American history through each of the artworks featured. The exhibition represents a culmination of the past, present and dreams and hopes for the future.

The participating artists embody their ethnic heritage and a unique perspective of being an immigrant artist in their work, resulting in a unique artistic style that reflects both the Korean and the American in them.

Dreams and Reality includes a special painting by world-renowned Nam June Paik. Fittingly, Paik created a special painting for this exhibition despite being down with illness and also graciously agreed to donate it to the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection upon the closure of the exhibition. The exhibition was held at the International Gallery from August 15 to September 19, 2003. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.

Through My Father’s Eyes

Through My Father’s Eyes: The Filipino American Photographs of Ricardo Ocreto Alvarado offers a rare collection of 51 black-and-white photographs taken by Ricardo Alvarado (1914-1976) during the 1940s and 50s. These photographs, selected from more than 3,000 negatives, provide an intimate view of Filipino life and history in the United States.
Through My Father’s Eyes offers a visual tour of the Filipino communities in San Francisco and the neighboring rural areas with San Francisco street scenes, the City’s Farmers’ Market, migrant farmworkers, Filipino-owned businesses and community hall events during the Post WWII era.
Alvarado immigrated to San Francisco in 1928 from the Philippines as part of the early 20th-century wave of Filipino immigrants. He initially made a living doing some menial jobs. During World War II, Alvarado served as a medical technician in the Pacific with the U.S. Army’s highly decorated First Filipino Regiment. When the war came to an end, Alvarado pursued his passion for photography even as he worked as a civilian cook for the Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco.
Alvarado possessed a remarkable eye and it was his sheer genius that enabled him to capture on film the special celebrations and daily rituals of the Filipino-American community in San Francisco after the war. He canvassed the Bay Area’s city streets and rural back roads for subjects. His camera gave him access to large social functions—weddings, funerals, baptisms, parties, and dances—well as into intimate family gatherings. He recorded street scenes, beauty pageants, cock fights, agricultural workers tending crops, and entrepreneurs on the job.
Alvarado died in 1976 and left behind a rich collection of historically significant and visually arresting images, which would have remained hidden until his daughter, Janet Alvarado, found his vast collection and recognized their importance. She formed the Alvarado Project to ensure that her father’s artistic legacy would be preserved and seen.
Through My Father’s Eyes is curated by Janet Alvarado and Franklin Odo, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Program. Created by the Alvarado Project, it was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Asian Pacific American Project in collaboration with the National Museum of American History, Behring Center, and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. For more information, visit: www.apa.si.edu

Disclaimer:  This is not an official blog of the Smithsonian Group nor I am associated with them.