User:Rellyson/sandbox

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

I'm going to try to research and discuss how the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was formed in San Francisco and for what reason. Using the following sources:

https://himmarklai.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Historical-Development-of-the-Chinese-Consolidated-Benevolent-Association.pdf?9388f2

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Six_Companies

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/chineseinca/sfchinatown.html

http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/428-chinese-six-companies.html

http://www.ccbanyc.org/eaboutus.html

Social, political, and economic influence of CCBA

Since the CCBA inception over 135 years ago it has received a diverse range of publicity from the American media. Much of the attention received often overlooked the cultural differences, which ultimately lead to misunderstanding by much of the American population. This factor and the increasingly anti-Chinese sentiment hastened the need for an empowered Chinese organization in the United States. Thus, the CCBA was formed out of the need for the Chinese to have organized social, political, and economic structures.

From a societal perspective, the CCBA was set up to help the Chinese relocate and travel to and from China. The travel was not limited to living persons, it also included the returning of corpses back to China from the United States. With many families fragmented and dispersed between China and across the U.S., the association additionally allowed for the communal care of the unwell or the poor who often lacked access. In its later and more developed years, as anti-Chinese sentiment was increasing the United States, the organization offered protection. This included protection via litigation and physical protection. Physical abuse was not uncommon in Chinatown from racist American's. Such incidents lead to the rise of groups like the Tongs, which were noted to have protected Chinese from abuse by white miners.

The CCBA also exerted its dominance in the political sphere, becoming authorized to speak on behalf of Chinatown throughout the United States. The board of directors of the CCBA became increasingly powerful as it consisted of wealthy merchants and businessmen, who turned their wealth into power. The board had many dealings with local and federal governments, exerted strong influence through a variety of techniques. One of the methods utilized was the use of a caucasian attorney, who was simultaneously the spokesman of the organization, which likely helped reduce the amount of racial pushback that would have been otherwise received.

A large portion of immigrants from China who came to California through the 1800's came for the promise of work in the gold mines. As the gold caused California's economy to excel the Chinese became an integral piece to this. As gold mines decreased as a source of new jobs, the Chinese found well suited opportunities elsewhere, including but not limited to fishing, food services, farming, and building of railroads. Many in the mid to late 19th century argued that the influx of Chinese immigrants decreased the availability of job prospects for American citizens. However, it has been suggested that this is not the case, due in large part to the language barrier, which forced many of the Chinese to create their own jobs out of necessity.

David Wojnarowicz:

I would like to try to research more of his life as an activist and more specifically how that influenced his art. Another topic that could use more information on the wikipedia page is how much influence his work had on society, as it appears to be substantial. Continuing to research David Wojnarowicz, I think many more interesting topics will come up and would like to adapt those into my research as well.