"Young Aristocrats," Pictures of Old Chinatown,

by Arnold Genthe, 1908.

What does it mean to be an American?

How does one feel more American?

Or think like an American?

Or appear to be more American?

These questions have been at the pinnacle of the immigration issue for over two-hundred years.

You just came to a country that you are not at all familiar with.

You don’t know the language, so you can’t ask for help or directions.

You are not at all familiar with the customs and immediately notice how different you are.

Your clothing, beliefs, and even your meals are drastically different.

People of this new land stare at you and seem unfriendly—almost as if they are scared of you.

Sometimes they point and laugh at you.

What do you do?

Do you surround yourself with similar people whom you recognize and know?

Or do you attempt to explore this new place and consider change?

This describes the unfortunate experience and troublesome dilemmas of many

immigrants, especially the Chinese, who emigrated to America in the nineteenth century.

America has been called a melting pot—a nation inhabited by people from many diverse ethnic backgrounds,

who live together harmoniously to makeup a nation that resembles a patchwork quilt.

On the contrary, America has also been dubbed a salad bowl— a nation comprised of people made-up of

people from many diverse ethnic backgrounds, who choose to live and grow in communities

with similar cultural values, and remain distinct.

Some immigrants chose to assimilate, therefore avoiding harsh stereotyping and prejudice,

while others preferred to promote their cultural identity, settling in small, isolated microcosms, a home away from home,

subjecting themselves to exclusion and outright discrimination.

Immigrant groups became part of the American landscape and contributed to the building of America in their own ways.

The Chinese became part of the landscape of the American West,

Greatly contributed to the building of the Central Pacific Railroad,

and were the focus of discrimination around the turn of the twentieth century.

Below are the links that explain to you the AHPPA process you must follow to fulfill the task of this webquest:

Step 1 of AHPPA: identify the problem

Step 2 of AHPPA : gather the evidence

Step 3 of AHPPA : determine the causese

Step 4 of AHPPA : Evaluate the policy

1. Using the dictionary, define the following terms and be sure to reference the two tabs sentence example and culture to better understand the definitions, as you will be expected to include and correctly use them in your PowerPoint:

a. acculturation

b. assimilate

c. discrimination

d. exclusion

e. microcosm

f. xenophobia

2. Explore the background of the Chinese American experience courtesy of Harper’s Weekly, learn about: culture, labor, AntiChinese movement, etc.

3. View the timelines: Immigration Timeline and Chinese American History

4. Investigate Primary Source Documents:

-Harper’s Weekly illustrated article

-The Restriction on Immigration, address to President by Henry Cabot Lodge 1909

-Theodore Roosevelt on immigration

-Chinese Exclusion Act

-We Seek Any Remedy to Cure the Disease, see page 6 speech by Senator Hon. George S. Perkins 1893

-Chinese Railroad Workers

-Harper’s Weekly Illustrations

5. Once you have identified the problem, gathered the evidence, determined the causes, and evaluated the policy, create a PowerPoint Presentation that answers, in-depth, all of the following essential questions:

-What is xenophobia?

-Why were the Chinese immigrants discriminated against?

-What forms of discrimination were the Chinese subjected to?

-What policy did the U.S. government enact in response to public

sentiment towards the Chinese? Explain.

-What were both the benefits and consequences of the policy?

Click HERE for checklist & rubric

This webquest was designed to better familiarize students with xenophobia and it’s role discrimination,

particularly experienced by the Chinese in the American West during the mid to late nineteenth century.

A second objective was to teach students about the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Students are expected to gain a better understanding of how the American nation handled issues,

such as discrimination and immigration, in response to the needs of both the nation itself and the needs of the citizens.

This subtopic is studied along with the larger topic: Immigration.

The following standard and key ideas were met under the guidelines of NYSED’s core curriculum:

Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Key Idea 1: The study of New York State and United States history requires an analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and traditions.

Key Idea 2: Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of perspectives.

Key Idea 2: Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of perspectives.

Key Idea 4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.

The above information was obtained from NYSED C & I

Created by:

Ms. J. Tinker

History Teacher

Email address: Ms.JTinker@gmail.com

Oriskany Jr. Sr. High School

Oriskany, New York

Affiliated with Adapting Project History

Created on:

26 November 2010