Deschutes Public Library

Chinese Americans in the woods, Sue Fawn Chung

Label
Chinese Americans in the woods, Sue Fawn Chung
Language
eng
Literary Form
non fiction
Main title
Chinese Americans in the woods
Nature of contents
catalogs
resource.otherEventInformation
Online presentation by Deschutes Public Library on November 9, 2021
Responsibility statement
Sue Fawn Chung
Series statement
DPL YouTube, Nov 2021
Summary
One seldom pictures a Chinese man in the American West as a lumberjack (cutting and transporting trees), but in the 1860s-1900s, many Chinese chose that occupation. Some had performed this task in southeastern China, but the Manchu (Qing) government had ordered forests (where bandits and rebels hid) to be burned and converted to tea plantations because of the high value of tea for the western export market. Attracted to the American West for first mining and then railroad construction, several thousand found work in the forests because of the growing need for wood products. This lecture covers their forgotten story of their experiences in the woods, cutting and transporting wood and cooking for the men in the western lumber camps