Chinese Exclusion Act

Seamlessly weaving movement with sound, poetry and projections, the multimedia experience—a restaging of the 2017 site-specific production by the Lenora Lee Dance Company—follows nine Chinese immigrants through their time at the Angel Island Immigration Station.

When evaluating the “authenticity” of these foods, we should judge them on their own merit and not arbitrarily compare them to their nondiasporic counterparts.

Sinophobia emanates from a historical resentment. A fear of all Chinese people is linked to past ethnic trends and, today, COVID-19.

After a process that lasted more than a year, I have decided that the law school should stop using the Boalt name. Boalt wrote a racist essay supporting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S. for more than 60 years.

While the lines between time and place, record and feeling, art and artifact may converge and overlap, Lee’s hand never wavers.

“People suffered for leaving, but they also suffered for staying,” Lee said. “The Chinese Exclusion Act was the lack of hospitality that the U.S. showed to people that they didn’t have the right to be reborn geographically.”

The City Council meeting taking place this Tuesday evening will discuss the proclamation of May 2017 as a Month of Inclusion, in addition to items related to the Berkeley Police Department and Board of Library Trustees.