The Cultural Politics of Tourism in San Francisco's Chinatown, 1882-1917

2007 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAYMOND W. RAST
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Theatrical Performances

During the 1880s San Francisco bohemians began to portray Chinatown as a place in which the forces of marginalization allowed a premodern authenticity to fl ourish. Their depictions of Chinatown resonated with a growing number of tourists. Historians have examined these developments, but few have considered the ways in which touristic interest in "authentic Chinatown" created new opportunities for entrepreneurial activity and social action. As this article argues, white and Chinese San Franciscans seized these opportunities. By the 1890s white tour guides had begun to stage scenes of depravity and present them as "authentic." Some Chinese San Franciscans performed within these scenes; others responded to tourists with practiced indifference, contempt, or hostility. A loose coalition of Chinatown merchants pursued a third strategy. They sought to rechannel touristic interest by locating Chinatown's authenticity within its exotic architecture, theatrical performances, curios, and cuisine. In doing so, they affi rmed perceptions of Chinese American "otherness."

Multicultural Sport Psychology’s Consulting Role in the United States Activist–Athlete Movement

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. David ◽  
Jesse A. Steinfeldt ◽  
I. S. Keino Miller ◽  
Jacqueline E. Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Social Action ◽  
National Football League ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Broad Term ◽  
Racial Injustice

Multiculturalism is a broad term that encapsulates a number of idealistic constructs related to inclusion, understanding the diverse experiences of others, and creating equitable access to resources and opportunity in our society. Social justice activism is a core tenet of multiculturalism. In order to be optimally effective, multiculturalism needs to be an “action word” rather than a passive construct, one that is inextricably linked to the ability to commit to and engage in an agenda of social justice wherein the inclusive ideals of multiculturalism are actively sought out and fought for. One such domain where the constructs of multiculturalism and social action are playing out in real time is within U.S. sport. U.S. athletes across all ranks (i.e., Olympic, professional, college, and youth sports) are actively engaging in social justice activism by using their platforms to advocate for equality and human rights. A recent display of activism that has garnered worldwide attention was the silent protest of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. During the National Football League (NFL) preseason games of the 2016 season, Kaepernick began kneeling during the playing of the U.S. national anthem as a means to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and the killing of African Americans. Since the start of his protest, athletes around the nation and the world have joined the activist–athlete movement, thereby raising awareness of the mistreatment of African Americans within U.S. society. The activist–athlete movement has amassed support and generated momentum, but consulting sport psychology professionals can adopt a more active role to better support athletes, thereby advancing the movement. Consulting sport psychologists can strive to better understand the nature of athlete-activism and aspire to help their athlete clients explore and express their opinions so they can work to effect meaningful societal change, using sport as the vehicle for their message.

Late Night in the Lion's Den: Chinese Restaurant-Nightclubs in 1940s San Francisco

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 94-101
Author(s):  
harley spiller
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social History ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Chinese Restaurant ◽  
Food And Drink ◽  
The U.S

Late Night in the Lion's Den: A Social History of Chinese-American Restaurant-Nightclubs in the 1940s Restaurant menus can serve as excellent primary source material for social histories. The springboard for this article is a 1940s menu from San Francisco's Lion's Den, a Chinese-American restaurant and nightclub. A thorough review of the food and drink offerings is bolstered by an interview with a former Lion's Den dancer and emcee, Ms. Nora Wong. She tells stories of growing up Chinese in the U.S., and provides vivid insight into the real life of Chinese performers in the mid-twentieth century. The article is illustrated with period menus and the first-ever public glimpse of a telling behind-the-scene photograph from Ms. Wong's personal album. Beginning with 1930s Shanghai, the world nightlife capital that inspired imitators in the U.S., this article explores the naissance, development, heated competition, and eventual demise of Chinese nightclubs in both California and New York City. Many Chinese restaurant/nightclubs of the period are discussed, and other well-known performers are featured. Other topics discussed include the Western exotification of Asia, stereotyping, sexism, and racism.

Early Chinese-American Society as Portrayed in Chinese Letters of the Ah Louis Family of San Luis Obispo, California, usa早期美国华侨社会：美国加州,圣路易斯-奥比 斯波市-黄安家族的中文信件

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215
Author(s):  
Joel Fetzer
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Report ◽  
San Luis ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
American Society

This research report presents the English-language translations of several hand-written, Chinese-language letters from the overseas-Chinese Ah Louis family of San Luis Obispo, California. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, when these letters were written, this medium-sized town on the Pacific coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles was home to hundreds of Cantonese immigrants. As unofficial “mayor” of San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown, the Guangdong-born Ah Louis interacted with a wide variety of merchants, employees, friends, family members, and officials. These documents discuss commerce in Chinatown, a legal case about local Chumash Indians, migration between China and the United States, family life in rural Guangdong Province, and labor relations in California, providing a near-unique window into ordinary Chinese-American life around the turn of the twentieth century. Extensive footnotes also place the letters in their historical and cultural context.

Chinatown Opera Theater in North America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Yunhwa Rao
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
English Language ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
American Music ◽  
American Business ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
Performance Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
And Migration

In this expansive project, Nancy Yunhwa Rao examines the world of Chinatown theaters, focusing on iconic theaters in San Francisco and New York but also tracing the transnational networks and migration routes connecting theaters and performers in China, Canada, and even Cuba. Drawing on a wealth of physical, documentary, and anecdotal evidence, Rao brings together the threads of an enormously complex story: on one hand, the elements outside the theaters, including U.S. government policies regulating Chinese immigration, dissemination through recordings and print materials of the music performed in the theaters, impresarios competing with each other for performers and audiences, and the role of Chinese American business organizations in facilitating the functioning of the theaters; and on the other hand, the world inside the theaters, encompassing the personalities and careers of individual performers, audiences, repertoire, and the adaptation of Chinese performance practices to the American immigrant context. The study also documents the important influence of the theaters on the Chinatown community's sense of its cultural self. Presenting Chinese American music as American music, Rao's work significantly revises understandings of American music by placing the musical activities of an important immigrant group firmly within the bounds of music identified as "American," liberating it from the ghetto of exoticism. Firmly grounded in both Chinese and English language sources, this study offers critical insight into both historical and contemporary questions of cultural identity in the American context.

scholarly journals Nightclub as a Liminal Space: Space, Gender, and Identity in Lisa See’s China Dolls

Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Melody Li
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Chinese Values ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Chinese American Women ◽  
A Site

Nightclubs flourished in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 1930s when it became a nightlife destination. To Chinese Americans, however, San Francisco nightclubs became a new site at the time for them to re-explore their identities. For some, visiting these nightclubs became a way for them to escape from traditional Chinese values. For others, it became a way to satisfy Western stereotypes of Chinese culture. Lisa See’s China Dolls (2015) describes three young oriental women from various backgrounds that become dancers at the popular Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco in the late 1930s. Through the three girls’ precarious careers and personal conflicts, Lisa See proposes the San Francisco nightclub as both a site for them to articulate their new identities beyond their restricted spheres and a site for them to perform the expected stereotypical Asian images from Western perspectives. It was, at that time, a struggle for the emergence of modern Chinese women but particularly a paradox for Chinese-American women. The space of the Chinese-American nightclub, which is exotic, erotic, but stereotypical, represents contradictions in the Chinese-American identity. Through studying Lisa See’s novel along with other autobiographies of the Chinese American dancing girls, I argue that San Francisco nightclubs, as represented in Lisa See’s novel, embody the paradox of Chinese American identities as shown in the outfits of Chinese American chorus girls—modest cheongsams outside and sexy, burlesque costumes underneath.

Homeland tour guide narratives and the discursive construction of the diasporic

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Avni
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Tour Guide ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Transnational Ties ◽  
Jewish Youth

By analyzing the constitutive role of tour guides narratives, this article addresses the recruitment of tourism as a means of forging transnational ties between diasporans and their ethnic homeland. Combining theoretical frameworks from linguistic anthropology and the sociology of tourism, it examines the narratives told to American Jewish youth at three graves at a military cemetery in Israel and analyzes the discursive, linguistic, and rhetorical strategies in the narratives, including stancetaking, reported speech, and pronominal usage. Attending to the growing phenomenon of diaspora homeland tourism, it analyzes how tour guide narratives about the past work as a form of social action in constituting present day transnational identifications.

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