Chinese American Voices: Teaching with Primary Sources

Comprehensive Unit60 pagesGrade Level: High School – Community CollegeIncludes curriculum unit + book ("Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present") Chinese-American history is often narrowly portrayed as a brief episode during which Chinese laborers helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. Yet the story of Chinese Americans is so much more than that. It may have begun with railroad and agricultural laborers, but it certainly did not end there. Many established family roots in the United States by building communities, businesses, and even new identities in the United States. Over the course of 150 years, they have evolved into a vibrant and dynamic segment of today’s U.S. population. This unit offers a teacher’s guide to Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, a collection of primary source documents left by Chinese Americans themselves. The scholars who collaborated on the book spent 10 years searching through materials written by