Sojourners & Settlers: the Chinese Experience in Arizona

WRITTEN BY:
Lawrence Michael Fong

NARRATED BY:
Michael Scott

Much of the literature on early Chinese immigrants to the western United States focuses on their experiences in California and as laborers on the great railroad construction projects of the late nineteenth century. However, their role in Arizona Territory is examined in depth in this essay by Lawrence Michael Fong.

The conditions in their homeland made passage to the gold fields worth any investment and any discomfort in steerage travel across the Pacific Ocean. Initially the Chinese were drawn to the sparsely settled western frontier after news had reached them of the vast natural resources and beauties of the region. The earliest Chinese settlers came to Arizona just after it had become a Territory of the United States in 1863.

Lawrence Fong is the Associate Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, which houses a large and renowned collection of Asian art.

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