Help Asian Americans Reclaim our History in
the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad!
April
10, 2014
This historic photograph
captured the ceremony celebrating the completion of the transcontinental
railroad, which united east and west coasts of this country by a land route for
the first time; yet, the thousands of Chinese Americans who helped build the railroad
were conspicuously absent. Photo credit: Wikipedia
On May 10th of this year,
the transcontinental railroad will be 145 years old. On that day in 1869, track
laid by Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad companies finally
connected, and insodoing created a railway that spanned 1,928 miles. For the first time in
American history, it was possible to travel from coast-to-coast without sailing
around the North American continent.
It is estimated that as
many as 12,000 Chinese American labourers helped build the transcontinental railroad,
predominantly on the West Coast. Working for a fraction of the pay of their
non-Asian White counterparts, Chinese “coolie” labourers were assigned some of
the most dangerous tasks, including blasting away rocks that lay in the path of
the track. Unknown numbers of Chinese American men lost their lives in the
course of laying the railroad. This was in part because of ongoing anti-Asian
racism among the work crews; White labourers viewed their Chinese American colleagues
with disdain, calling them “midgets”,
“effeminate” and “monkeys”. Nonetheless, Chinese American labourers
participated in the construction of virtually every railroad track on the West
coast built during that era.
Yet, when the railroad was
completed on May 10th, 1869, an event commemorated in a historical photograph that
showed actual railroad workers crowded around the final spike as it is hammered
into the ground, Chinese American labourers were left out of the photograph.
They were literally erased from history.
Every year on May 10th,
that historic photograph is re-created by the park officials who maintain the
national park commemorating the site of the Golden
Spike ceremony. And every
year, park officials refuse to make any
specific effort to make the Asian American community visible in the photograph
recreation.
Corky Lee (in the middle) has been
documenting the Asian American Movement’s protest actions and historic moments
for over the last 40 years.
This year, acclaimed Asian
American photographer and historian, Corky Lee — whose iconic black-and-white
photographs have documented some of the most landmark moments in the political
history of Asian America — is organizing a “flashmob” style event to correct
the historic wrong of that 1869 Golden Spike Ceremony photograph.
On Saturday, May 10th at 9:30am,
Corky is inviting Asian Americans to join him at the Golden Spike National
Historic Site in Tremonton, Utah (group transportation is being organized from
Salt Lake City). He is hoping to get at least 145 Asian Americans to join him
in recreating that historic photograph, but this time with the faces of Asian
America front and center!
If you are 1) Asian
American, and 2) able to get to Utah on May 10th, I urge you to please come out
and help him in making this important project happen! Please help challenge the
erasure of Asian Americans from the history of the transcontinental railroad.
And, if you are able to make it to
Utah on May 10th, please contact Ze Xiao (zxiao [at] slco [dot] org), who is
coordinating transportation to the Golden Spike site for Corky’s photograph.
牛頓市議員約翰萊斯（John Rice）也特地送上表揚狀，感謝經文處，波士頓華僑文教中心對豐富牛頓市文化生活的貢獻。
當天一整個下午，既有五十多個社團擺賣美食，展售手工藝品，教學材料，以及新聞組的台灣風情文宣介紹，穿插由僑務委員馬滌凡、陳家驊，熱心中餐廳、僑胞，以及經文處、僑教中心所提供四十餘項獎品的抽獎，還安排了十幾項表演，從下午一點起，一直演至四點，從中華民俗藝術工作坊的“鼓舞奔騰”，麻州元極舞協會的“高山青”，中華藝術協會中國傳統舞蹈團的“堅韌的花朵”，芳太極氣功協會的太極示範，中華公所揚琴鼓樂團的“普天同慶”，紐英崙客家鄉親會的“細妹按將”，劍橋合唱團演唱“月琴”，臺大校友會孫瓔以吉他演奏“望春風”，李明慧、張劭聿、李務熙以大提琴，二胡，電子鋼琴合奏“菊花台”，陳秀惠以周杰倫的“大大的擁抱”帶領帶動跳等，節目豐富到讓人流連不去。 
