1) The relationship between China and the United States; and its impact on Chinese Americans. 2) How Chinese Americans have perceived themselves in American society (and been perceived) over time. 3) The impact of Chinese Americans on American politics, culture, and life.
1) Go East! Go West! (1784-1870) opens the exhibition with the flows and exchange of and people between the United States and China in the nineteenth century; how this encounter helped shape the formation of new American identities and brought America into the industrial revolution; and the diverse roles Chinese workers played in the industrialization of America.
2) Down With Monopolies! The Chinese Must Go! (1870-1930s) examines the political climate in America leading up to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and its impact as the first federal law to restrict the immigration of a specific group based on nationality, defining in legal terms who could not “become American.”