TEACHING GUIDE Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project A Film by Barre Fong Teaching Guide by Christopher B. Lowman Trailer: hps://vimeo.com/326082052 Full-length film: hps://cangdong.stanford.edu/documentary-film This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Aribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit hp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/ or send a leer to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Transcript
TEACHING GUIDE
Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
A Film by Barre FongTeaching Guide by Christopher B. Lowman
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project ........................................... 7
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities .......................................................... 13
Part I. General Interest ................................................................................ 14
Part II. Archaeology Methods and Interpretation ......................................... 20
6. Sample Curriculum: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology .....................................24
7. Key Terms and Ideas ....................................................................................28
8. Further Reading and Resources ....................................................................30
Field resesarchers at Cangdong Village
1
1. Using the Teaching Guide in Undergraduate Classes
This study guide will help instructors plan discussions and activities using Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project. The guide is designed for use in undergraduate teaching and focuses on content in the social sciences.
Both Making Ties and the affiliated website, https://cangdong.stanford.edu/, are fully bilingual in English and Chinese (simplified), making them useful resources for courses with students with Chinese language backgrounds.
Making Ties can be taught as a stand-alone class session. For one-hour classes, students can be assigned to watch the film in advance, with class time reserved for discussion and activities. For 90-minute and two-hour class meetings (or, two one-hour class meetings), the 55-minute film can be shown at the beginning, with the remaining time used for discussion and activities.
The guide includes a short section about the film and filmmaker, historical background for instructors or students to read prior to the film, a film summary for instructor preparation, a section devoted to discussion exercises and classroom activities, and a sample curriculum unit on Chinese diaspora archaeology. The discussion questions and activities contribute to learning objectives commonly listed for classes such as Introduction to Anthropology, Introduction to Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Material Culture Studies, and Introduction to Asian American Studies. Instructors are encouraged to focus on those discussion exercises and classroom activities most relevant to their course.
Incorporating interviews, historical photographs, satellite imagery, and footage from fieldwork, laboratory, and archival research, the film records the research process of an archaeological project. This process begins with the collaborative development of research questions, continues with survey and excavation methods, and concludes with the analysis of recovered materials and the integration of this new information into narratives about the past. The film’s combination of historical information and documentation of research and field practices make it an ideal classroom teaching tool for undergraduate-level introductory courses in multiple disciplines within the social sciences.
Filmmaker Barre Fong is a fourth generation Chinese-American and San Francisco native. Barre’s activities as a filmmaker and community activist is an embodiment of his grandfather’s dream of preserving his own experience as a turn-of-the-century Chinese immigrant.
He previously served as the President of the Board of Directors for the Chinese Historical Society of America and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Lick-Wilmerding High School. He has produced and directed short films about the Asian American experience since 2013, including Digging to Chinatown (2016) and Finding the Virgo (2018).
Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project documents a collaborative research program studying the home villages of Chinese migrants. The project exemplifies the possibilities of transnational and interdisciplinary research, involving historians, architectural historians, archaeologists, folklife specialists, botanists, and zoologists from the United States and China as well as members of the Cangdong Village community today.
3
Film Access
Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs liscense. This means you are free to distribute the film for any non-commercial purpose, including teaching.
Making Ties can be streamed from two web locations:
https://cangdong.stanford.edu/documentary-film
https://vimeo.com/325737738
To download the film, go to: https://vimeo.com/325737738. Below the film streaming window towards the right, click on “download.” Vimeo.com will ask you to select the desired file size.
2. About the Film
Closed CaptionsMaking Ties is closed captioned in both Chinese and English. To view the captions, click on the closed captioning (“CC”) logo on the bottom right of the video frame. You will be able to select from “English (United States) CC,” “中文（简体中文）,” or “None.”
The Cangdong Village Project investigates the material practices of Cangdong Village residents during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a time when many Chinese people migrated from their homeland and created new communities around the world.
Nineteenth-century Chinese Migration
During the mid-nineteenth century, a combination of European imperialist interests, internal political unrest, and natural disasters caused widespread conflicts and displacement in southern China. This pushed many residents of the region to consider seeking new ways to support themselves and their families by moving abroad. Southern China’s large port cities, including Guangzhou (then called Canton), Macao, and Hong Kong, gave the people of that region means to seek economic opportunities in other countries.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, more than 2.5 million people left China to live and work abroad in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. This migration resulted in the formation of the Chinese diaspora.
In nineteenth-century North America, Chinese migrants worked in a variety of industries, including railroad construction, mining, logging, fishing, and agriculture. Many Chinese migrants established businesses. Often described in historical records as “merchants,” these entrepreneurs developed a wide range of enterprises that included labor contracting, manufacturing, handcraft production, and import/export companies as well as mercantile stores.
The majority of nineteenth-century migrants were young men, due to both gender roles in China as well as laws restricting Chinese women from immigrating to countries like the United States. However, some Chinese women did emigrate, and their experiences and contribution are an important focus of current research. Many Chinese migrants formed split households that included migrants living abroad (usually young men) and parents, wives, and children living in their home village in China. Clan, district, and business organizations also connected migrants living abroad with communities in China.
Star Anise architectural motif at Cangdong Village
5
3. Cangdong Village: Historical Background
These transnational ties, which often persisted for generations, forged deep family and social connections between Chinese living abroad and home villages in the Pearl River Delta. Chinese living abroad also sent remittances—a transfer of money by a foreign worker to individuals in their home country—which provided economic support to those who remained in China.
Qiaoxiang: Chinese Migrants’ Home Villages
The flow of remittances and foreign cultural influences led to major changes in the economy, architecture, and social structures of villages in the Pearl River Delta. These became known as qiaoxiang (侨乡), home villages transformed through migrants’ support. The distinctive culture and architecture of qiaoxiang, especially the tall watchtowers (diaolou 碉楼), is recognized through designation of the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages UNESCO World Heritage Site (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112).
Cangdong Village is a rural qiaoxiang located in the Pearl River Delta Region within Kaiping County in Guangdong Province. At the time of the residents’ first migrations to the United States in the 1850s, it was home to over 400 people, predominantly members of the Xie clan. Today, the village has about 50 residents, and continues to be a place for Xie clan members to visit in order to honor their ancestors and connect with their heritage. Village residents established the Cangdong Heritage Education Center to preserve and celebrate qiaoxiang culture and heritage.
In 2014, researchers at the Guangdong Qiaoxiang Cultural Research Center at Wuyi University (Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province) invited researchers from the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University to study the material practices of daily life in Cangdong Village. Team members conducted surface studies in December 2016, which helped them select four locations for subsurface testing in December 2017. The combination of survey and excavation revealed household materials from the Late Qing Dynasty (1875–1912) and early Republic Period (1912–1941), including a variety of ceramics, glass, and metal artifacts. These artifacts have been analyzed and studied in order to build a more complete picture of daily life in a qiaoxiang and compare it to the daily life of the migrants who left China to live and work overseas.
7
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
The following summaries are organized by the title cards present in the film. The timestamp for each section is included along with its title.
1. Cangdong Village Project—Origins and Goals (00:17)
In this introduction to the film, viewers learn the origins of the project and meet project leaders. Each leader identifies how they came to be interested in work at the village and what they see as the project’s goals.
Dr. Gordon H. Chang, Stanford University, discusses how his own identity as a 4th generation Californian and Chinese American led him to be interested in Chinese railroad workers, but that he found limited historical information. Dr. Chang and other researchers started the Stanford University Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project. While Dr. Chang is not on the Cangdong Village Project team, the network established by his work provided the basis for the interdisciplinary relationships that started the Cangdong Village Project.
Dr. J. Ryan Kennedy, University of New Orleans, describes how archaeologists have worked on Chinese railroad workers’ sites in the West for a long time, and points out that archaeology provides a rich body of data about people who otherwise lack extensive written records.
Dr. Selia Jinhua Tan, Guangdong Qiaoxiang Cultural Research Center, Wuyi University, discusses her work with the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project and her idea that archaeological work could take place in qiaoxiang.
Dr. Barbara L. Voss, Stanford University, points out that during the last 50 years of archaeological work on Chinese diaspora sites, no one has done parallel excavations before at home villages in China. Therefore, only half the story has been told.
Dr. Tan discusses her research interest in Cangdong Village (07:20)
8
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
2. Methods (03:46)
This section of the film introduces viewers to what archaeology is and how it adds information missing from the historical record. Archaeology is the study of the material remains of people in the past, in order to understand daily lives both long ago and recently. In historical archaeology, researchers combine excavated materials with newspapers, oral histories, and other kinds of written records to understand daily life, like what people ate or the tools they used to accomplish everyday tasks.
3. Choosing Cangdong Village, China (05:13)
This project is the first archaeological investigation of a qiaoxiang. Cangdong Village, the ancestral village of the Xie clan, went through dramatic changes following the Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860), when Guangdong Province became the center of international trade and a starting point for a long history of emigration. According to Dr. Tan, this history led to Guangdong’s residents being more open to people from overseas. Dr. Tan was born in the area and is partly motivated by her interest in learning more about her own culture and preserving its history. Within Cangdong Village, the location of some ceramics recovered during a temple restoration suggested the potential of doing archaeology in the area.
9
4. Planning and Cooperation (09:04)
The Cangdong Village Project is transnational, involving researchers from the United States and China, and Chinese government agencies. In China, unlike the United States, the nineteenth century is studied by historians, architectural historians, and folklorists rather than by archaeologists. How can the research cultures of the United States and China be brought together? The project worked with other university departments and government agencies to draft a document identifying how American historical archaeology methods could integrate with Chinese interdisciplinary approaches to the same history. The signing of that document opened the door for research to begin. The team proposed a common research sequence for historical archaeology: start with background historical research, follow up with surface studies, use them to predict below-ground deposits, and then excavate for materials. The more kinds of data sources, such as specialized research on plants, animal remains, or other artifact types, the easier it is to create a three-dimensional picture of daily life.
5. 2016 Surface Survey (14:09)
In Cangdong Village, archaeologists recognized patterned sherds, broken pieces of ceramics, that looked like those found in Chinese diaspora contexts in the United States and elsewhere. While waiting for permit approval, the team shopped for archaeological tools, such as trowels, buckets, and plumb bobs for measuring the depth of objects as they are excavated. They also started a total surface collection, walking in 2 by 2 meter grids, marking surface features with flags, and bagging all artifacts that are diagnostic, considered to have possible research value. Once these artifacts were found, they went through lab processing: they were washed, dried, and sorted first by material types, and then by their possible use in the past. Finding these artifacts allows archaeologists to see the similarities and differences in artifact types between Cangdong Village and Chinese diaspora sites in the United States. For example, both Cangdong Village and Chinese diaspora sites contained a mix of British- and Chinese-made ceramics and glass.
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
10
6. 2017 Subsurface Testing (23:19)
The project returned to Cangdong in August 2017 for a workshop and conference, meeting with archaeological museums in the area to plan subsurface testing that December. As Dr. Voss describes: “There is nothing quite as exciting as peeling back the layers of earth and seeing what’s concealed beneath, and being able to physically encounter the things that people used and held... That tangible connection with the past is one of the things that continues to inspire me to do this work.” The team used previous data to determine places to dig, using multiple lines of evidence including artifact density, diagnostic material, surface features, and oral history. After choosing four locations, the team dug along a grid, using stratigraphy, changes in the soil layers, to help determine contexts from different time periods. Once artifacts were recovered, they were labeled and brought into lab for cleaning and sorting. The archaeologists describe discoveries at each unit, and the surprises they encountered. They also discuss flotation, the systematic collection of organic materials by separating excavated soil into heavy fractions (the materials that sink) and light fractions (the materials that float) when soil is agitated in a water-filled bucket. Cangdong Village provides the first comparison dataset for Chinese diaspora sites elsewhere in the world, especially in the western United States since the time period of the site corresponds to the time of the establishment of many Chinese settlements there.
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
7a. Conclusions (38:28)
Dr. Chang describes the need for multiple lines of evidence due to the lack of documents or memorabilia related to Chinese railroad workers and other nineteenth-century migrants. Archaeology is one way to do this. Dr. Voss describes how, while the team had hoped to find deposits from before, during, and after the mass migration, they mostly found Late Qing and early Republic period deposits from after migration began.
Abietine Medical Company bottle (CVAP IN-00417.001).
11
7b. Conclusions—Abietine Medicine Bottle (40:13)
First case study: one small, colorless glass vial was made by the Abietine Medical Company in Oroville, California but marked in both English and Chinese. R.M. Green, an entrepreneur, started the Abietine Medical Company in 1885. How did he get the expertise needed to develop medicine from local tree sap? One clue may be in a photograph of Green and an herbalist named Chun Kong You, who sold Chinese medicines and helped the Oroville Chinese population send remittances back to the Pearl River Delta. The photograph suggests that he and Green could have interacted, and the bottle suggests that Green exported his products to China. While there is no concrete proof, these two lines of evidence provide a pathway for further investigation.
7c. Conclusions—Gun Flints (44:23)
Second case study: Kaiping is famous for diaolou, watchtowers built for defense, often using remittances from the United States. Guns for these watchtowers were important for the local area. Archaeologists found several gun flints, worked chips of stone used to ignite gunpowder. However, they are all British and French manufactured, from the late 18th and 19th centuries. Despite the peaceful atmosphere in the village today, these gun flints are a reminder of the turbulent Late Qing period when bandits threatened the families whose wealth stemmed from overseas remittances.
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
Archaeologists frequently found Qing-era pits used for construction and lime, and later reused as garbage pits. These garbage pits yielded western objects like British whiteware ceramics showing that Cangdong Village was not isolated: people, money, letters, and material goods circulated between the village and the world. Objects like the Abietine bottle are themselves transnational, emerging from a flow of ideas between the Pearl River Delta and the western United States.
7d. Conclusions—Animal Bones (46:40)
Third case study: only a dozen animal bones emerged from the site. This was far less than expected. Dr. Tan explains that in Chinese cooking, animal bones are not thrown away but used to make soup and other dishes. Then, any food scraps are given to dogs. These factors combine to make bones disappear from the archaeological record. However, excavations yielded hundreds of freshwater clams and snails far away from the ponds where they would have lived, suggesting they were eaten as food. Local mollusks are still found in Guangdong Province grocery stores today. Dr. Kennedy suggests that the Cangdong Village residents would have eaten preserved, shelf-stable meat which wouldn’t leave archaeological traces, and that bone instead may have been used for fishing or fertilizer the same way it is there today.
8. Final Thoughts (51:41)
The archaeologists express gratitude for the welcome they received from the village residents. Chinese railroad workers have been characterized as poor, illiterate, and exploited. However, this project suggests that picture is incomplete. The artifacts, along with the research of the Chinese Railroad Workers Project, instead suggest they were often literate, entrepreneurial, and experienced in many ways of working. Their story is much more interesting and varied.
4. Summary of Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
Field researchers at work in front of the reconstructed Furen Temple (2016).
13
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities
The following discussion topics, group discussions and activities, and assignment suggestions are meant to guide instructors on how to use the film for specific classroom learning experiences. Instructors are encouraged to pick and choose which discussion topics are most relevant for their course rather than attempt to cover them all. Assignments could also be distributed over several class days. Because the film and project website are open access, students will be able to rewatch the film at home for any out-of-class assignments.
• Segments labelled “Preparation” are suggested as topics to explore before beginning the discussions and classroom activities.
• Segments labelled “Discussion” are designed to cover broad topics. New discussion topics begin under black dividers.
• “Focused Discussion” segments contain more specific questions and ideas related to the discussion topic.
Part I provides examples of general discussion and activities. Part II focuses on discussion topics and activities for archaeology courses.
14
5. Discussion Topics and Class ActivitiesPart I. General Interest
Preparation—Background Reading
You may wish to assign reading prior to or after showing the film. Possible readings include the short historical background included in this guide (page 4); and general background readings provided in the sample curriculum on page 24.
Preparation—Locating Cangdong Village
Prior to showing the film, familiarize students with the location of Cangdong Village. The center of Cangdong Village is located at 22°21.342’ N, 112°33.822’ E. Use Google Maps or the map included on page 15 as a handout or on a projector to show students where the village is located. Orient them by zooming out or referring to the inset map of China. This would be a good time to discuss Cangdong Village’s location within Guangdong Province and its proximity to major port cities: students may recognize Hong Kong, Macao, or other locations on the map.
Discussion Topic—Research Questions
Before the film, discuss the importance of specific, answerable research questions with students. Point out that over the course of the film, the archaeologists identify the gaps that exist in knowledge of the past and what questions they hope to answer. Ask students to note specific research questions as they arise, as well as how they are answered (or not) later in the film.
• What is it that each project leader wants to find, and find out?
• What do they find, and how does this help them draw conclusions?
Discuss these questions and answers at the end of the film.
15
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part I. General Interest
Loca
ting C
angd
ong V
illag
e (m
ap by
Kat
ie Jo
hnso
n-N
oggl
e)
16
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part I. General Interest
Focused Discussion on Research Questions—Researchers
In the film, the three primary voices are project leaders Dr. Selia Jinhua Tan, Dr. J. Ryan Kennedy, and Dr. Barbara L. Voss. Ask students to pick one of these researchers or assign groups of students to one each. Before starting the film, guide students toward identifying the inspirations, goals, and outcomes for each researcher.
• What inspires them to start the project? • What questions do they ask? • What methods do they use to answer their questions? At the end, give students time to compare with others who chose the same
researcher, and then come together as a class and review each one. Ask students to consider the role of individuals and their goals in the research process.
Focused Discussion on Research Questions—Methods
Before the film begins, present students with the following research question: are qiaoxiang in China largely similar to, or different from Chinese diaspora communities in the United States? Ask students to talk in groups and imagine what evidence would be needed to answer the question, and what methods could be used to obtain this evidence. Prepare them to observe what questions and methods appear in the film and compare them to their own ideas.
• How were they similar or different? • What questions or additional evidence could be explored in the future?
Focused Discussion on Research Questions—Expectations vs. Outcomes
After discussing research questions, ask students to watch for instances when researchers anticipated one thing, but found something different. Examples of this could by Dr. Kennedy anticipating animal bones but finding very few or Dr. Voss anticipating deposits from prior to migration but finding none so far.
• What did the researchers do when they found evidence that differed from their expectations?
17
Discussion Topic—Transnational Research on a Transnational Past
In the film, Project Director Laura Ng reflects that, “This project is truly transnational, as well as a study of transnationalism” (22:32).
• What does she mean, and what is the difference between the two statements?
Encourage students to provide specific examples of how the project both studies transnationalism and is a transnational project. Consider the different disciplines and approaches to study between China and the United States. Ask students to discuss with a partner and then return to full class discussion.
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part I. General Interest
Focused Discussion on Transnationalism— Why Cangdong Village?
After the film, ask students to consider why Cangdong Village is a suitable research site.
• Why was it chosen, and what does it represent more generally as a qiaoxiang?
• Are there limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn from Cangdong, and how could those be addressed?
Guide students to consider where other lines of evidence could be found, such as additional qiaoxiang, and what would be necessary for that to happen.
Focused Discussion on Transnationalism—Website
After viewing the film, direct students to explore the project website (https://cangdong.stanford.edu/).
• How does the website continue, or further, the goals of transnational research discussed in the film?
Guide students toward observing that the site is multilingual, image heavy, and includes open access technical documents.
Participants in the International Conference of Archaeological Research on the North American Chinese Railroad Workers’ Wuyi Hometown. August 2017.
18
Assignment on Transnationalism—Reflection Paper
Pose the same question as above but frame it as a written assignment, to be done individually either based on the film or on the film and supplemental reading. Ask students to identify two examples each for why the Cangdong Village Project is both transnational research and research on transnationalism.
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part I. General Interest
19
Discussion Topic—Changing Perspectives
Considering particularly the statements made by Dr. Chang at the beginning and ending of the film, how has the Cangdong Village Project altered understandings of Chinese migrants in the United States?
• What information was missing, and what were some of the assumptions about Chinese immigrants before the project?
• What did the project add that was new and unique?
Focused Discussion on Changing Perspectives— Interdisciplinary Research
Prior to starting the film, go over the interdisciplinary nature of the project. Ask students to consider what disciplines, beyond your course’s focus, might come into play in this research. Discuss both the different fields of study (historians, architectural historians, archaeologists, folklife specialists, botanists, and zoologists) as well as how these fields might be different according to different research traditions (China or the United States).
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part I. General Interest
Assignment on Changing Perspectives— Interdisciplinary Contributions
After viewing the film, ask students to write or discuss examples of the way different disciplinary experts worked together to synthesize their understanding of the past. Place emphasis on how multiple lines of evidence build a stronger argument for what happened in the past.
• How did researchers handle differing archaeological traditions in China and the United States?
• How did oral history inform where excavation took place? • How did other lines of evidence, such as photographs and architecture,
help archaeologists?
20
5. Discussion Topics and Class ActivitiesPart II. Archaeology Methods and Interpretation
Preparation—Background Reading
You may wish to assign reading prior to or after showing the film. Suggested readings include those listed in the sample curriculum included in this guide (page 24); and general background readings listed beginning on page 30.
Discussion Topic—From Survey to Excavation
How do archaeologists decide where to dig? Before the film, ask students to consider what kinds of evidence archaeologists could use to know where to start. In the film, the archaeologists discuss the process for deciding where to excavate. They review the following multiple lines of evidence necessary to do so:
• Surface survey data such as artifact type distribution and density which helps identify “hotspots.”
• Distinguishing features in the landscape that could suggest further buried material.
• Interviews with village residents about their memories of the area in the past.
After the film, review these lines of evidence with students. What does each contribute to the likelihood of getting useful results?
Discussion Topic—Stratigraphic Sequence
How do archaeologists use stratigraphy to create a sequence of past events? At 26:42, Dr. Kennedy discusses how changes in soil color can denote a change in the context of a deposit, helping to separate two events when soil, and the artifacts it contains, accumulated in the past. Use this description to introduce students to a simple stratigraphic profile (see sample on page 21 adapted from Voss et al. 2019). Ask students to observe how different soil layers contain different artifacts, and how the order in which the layers were deposited helps date these artifacts using relative dating, placing past events in a sequence related to each other rather than related to specific dates.
21
Cang
dong
Vill
age P
rojec
t: U
nit A
2 Eas
t wal
l pro
file a
t uni
t com
pleti
on. (
Illus
tratio
n by
Kat
ie Jo
hnso
n-N
oggl
e)
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part II. Archaeology Methods and Interpretation
22
Activity—Stratigraphic Sequencing
Dividing students in groups, give each group a copy of the sample stratigraphy profile or something similar (many are available online). Ask students to identify the sequence of soil layers from oldest to newest. Note: At 30:34, Dr. Voss describes how depth and historical context might be different (a pit was made for mortar mixing and then used as a trash deposit, placing recent artifacts deep in the ground). Use this to point out how context 152 in the sample is newer than context 151 and 153, even though it goes deeper, since it represents a similar pit dug later.
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part II. Archaeology Methods and Interpretation
Discussion Topic—Material Types
Beginning with site survey and continuing with excavation and analysis, archaeologists use material types as a primary means for distinguishing artifacts. Prior to the film, ask students to identify materials that survive well in most archaeological contexts (ceramics, glass, metal, construction materials, faunal remains, stone). Ask students to pick one material or assign groups to different material types and follow along in the film as each material type is identified and processed.
• What objects represented each material type? • How was each material further subdivided by other categories (such as
decoration or origin)? • What materials (e.g, plant remains or wood) were not initially discussed?
Focused Discussion on Material Types—Diagnostic Attributes
After the film, discuss the meaning of diagnostic attributes with students. • What do decoration, patterns, maker’s marks, evidence of manufacture
or modification tell archaeologists about objects? • What are some specific examples of diagnostic attributes that made
objects particularly meaningful in the film? (Embossing on bottles, European maker’s marks on ceramic dishes or European origin of gun flints, peck marks on ceramics, Chinese lettering on the Abietine Medical Company bottle).
23
5. Discussion Topics and Class Activities Part II. Archaeology Methods and Interpretation
Assignment on Material Types—Object Case Studies
At the end of the film, the archaeologists relate four case studies of objects that have changed the way they understood the site: the Abietine Medical Company bottle, European gun flints, faunal remains (the near absence of bone and the abundance of shell), and European ceramics. After the film, ask students to pick one object to focus on in a written reflection.
• What did this specific artifact tell researchers about Cangdong Village? • How did this change previous understandings of Chinese diaspora sites? • Why is this useful for researchers moving forward?
Discussion Topic—Processing Artifacts
Ask students to observe the “life” of artifacts after they leave the soil. What happens, and in what order? Pay attention to techniques for cleaning them and sorting them. Notice how archaeologists wash artifacts (scrubbing with a toothbrush for a gentle clean at 17:41, refraining from cleaning medicine bottles because their contents could still be inside at 30:17, or using sieves to wash them without risking losing small pieces at 30:32. Notice also how archaeologists describe sorting artifacts, in both the 2016 and 2017 field seasons, by types such as ceramic, glass, metal, or structural material.
Activity on Processing Artifacts—Sorting
Provide students with a set of archaeological finds that include multiple material types. These could be already-labeled objects from a previous excavation, objects selected to fulfill basic material type categories, or pictures of artifacts from the Cangdong Village Project or another project. In groups, ask students to sort objects the same way as in the film: first by material type, and second by visible decoration. Ask them to consider what other sorting criteria could be used (color, vessel shape, use, or something else that occurs to students). This activity could be modified to give students “contexts” such as kitchen, living area, or some other category depending on which object they are given.
24
6. Sample Curriculum: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology
This sample curriculum outlines a two-week unit on Chinese diaspora archaeology. It is designed for a 90 minute class that meets twice a week, and can be adapted for other formats.
Week 1, Class 1 History of Nineteenth-century Migration from China
In this introductory session, readings provide important background about the history of migration from southern China. Lecture and discussion may be used to tie the topic of Chinese diaspora archaeology into themes and learning objectives of the course.
Chang, Iris 2003 The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Penguin Books, New York: 1-28.
Hsu, Madeline 2000 Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration between the United States and South China, 1882-1943. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 16-54.
Chang, Gordon H. 2019 Chinese Railroad Workers and the US Transcontinental Railroad in Global Perspective. Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad. G. H. Chang and S. F. Fishkin, editors. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 27-41.
Prior to class, assign students one or more of these readings according to appropriate reading amounts for your class. Alternatively, assign an article each to smaller groups of students and then during class, ask students to form groups with others who read different articles and share what they read. Prompt them by asking questions such as:
• Where did Chinese migrants come from, and where did they go? • What were some push- and pull-factors for Chinese migrants leaving their homes
and seeking opportunities abroad? • What kind of work did they find that supported themselves and their families? • How was the immigrant experience shaped by the difficulties they encountered after
leaving China?
Remind students to consider the ways that Chinese immigrants came from diverse backgrounds and had diverse experiences, including both hardships and successes.
25
6. Sample Curriculum: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology
Week 1, Class 2 Chinese Diaspora Archaeology—United States
Prior to class, students are divided into working groups. All students read the overview provided by Ross 2017. Each group is assigned a specific case study for group discussion and presentation to the class. Two options are provided depending on the background level of the class. Prior to class, students prepare by viewing/reading their assigned case study. During class, groups meet to discuss their case study and prepare a short presentation. Possible group discussion prompts might include:
• What were archaeologists trying to learn through studying this artifact/this case study?
• What evidence (historical, community knowledge, material science, archaeology) did they use?
• What was actually learned through this study?• How did this case study contribute to the broader research themes
outlined by Ross?• What did your group find most interesting about your assigned case
study?
Overview Reading:Ross, Douglas E. 2017 Archaeological Research on Asian Americans. Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study. Franklin Odo, editor. National Park Service, Washington, DC: 52:85 <https://www.nps.gov/articles/aapi-theme-study-essay-3-archaeology.htm>
Option 1: Artifact case-studies (for students with little archaeology background)
“There Was a Chinatown There” (http://www.chinesemuseum.historysanjose.org/) is a digital exhibit presented by the Chinese American Historical Museum in San Jose, California. For this exercise, students watch the introductory slide show (http://www.chinesemuseum.historysanjose.org/) and then each group is assigned a specific object (rice bowl, ceramic ornament, spoon, jar, toothbrush, medicine bottle, and doll) to view in depth. Point out to students that in addition to the pictures and text, each object page includes a video interview with a member of the Chinese American community.
Option 2: Research case-studies (for students with some archaeology background)
Each of the four case-studies listed below has forged new directions in the archaeology of the Chinese diaspora by highlighting interactions between Chinese migrants and the new communities and environments they encountered.
Kennedy, J. Ryan 2015 Zooarchaeology, Localization, and Chinese Railroad Workers in North America. Historical Archaeology 49(1): 122-133.
Praetzellis, A. and M. Praetzellis 2001 Mangling Symbols of Gentility in the Wild West: Case Studies in Interpretive Archaeology. American Anthropologist 103(3): 645-654.
Sunseri, Charlotte K. 2015 Food Politics of Alliance in a California Frontier Chinatown. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19: 416-431.
Voss, Barbara L. 2019 The Archaeology of Serious Games: Play and Pragmatism in Victorian-era Dining. American Antiquity 84(1): 26-47.
6. Sample Curriculum: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology
Week 2, Class 1 Making Ties: The Cangdong Village Project
See previous section (page 13) for examples of discussion exercises and class activities. Consider whether it fits your class structure best to 1) assign viewing the film prior to class or 2) show the film in class and use Week 2, Class 2 for follow up discussion and activities.
27
Week 2, Class 2 Discussion and Activities
Use this final class meeting to bring together the themes introduced in the previous sessions, and to complete group presentations, discussions, and class activities. In addition to Cangdong Village Project-related activities, in-class readings of poems from both Chinese migrants and home village residents may provide a meaningful capstone experience for this unit.
Hom, Marlon K. 1992 Songs of Gold Mountain: Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatown. University of California Press, Oakland, CA.
Lai, H. M., G. Lim and J. Yung (editors) 2014 Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA.
Zhang, Guoxiong 2019 The View from Home: Dreams of Chinese Railroad Workers across the Pacific. Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad. G. H. Chang and S. F. Fishkin, editors. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 55-75.
All publications include original Chinese transcriptions as well as English translations of the poems; in classes with Chinese-speaking students, inviting students to read the poems in the language of their choice can provide an opportunity for a bilingual classroom experience.
6. Sample Curriculum: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology
28
7. Key Terms and Ideas
Archaeology is the study of the material remains of people in the past, in order to understand daily lives both long ago and recently.
Archaeological tools aid archaeologists in survey and excavation, and include marker flags, strings and nails for demarcating square units in a grid, trowels, buckets, screens, and plumb bobs for measuring the depth of objects as they are excavated, among other specialized tools.
Chinese diaspora is the mass migration and settlement of Chinese people in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. It began in the 1600s but intensified in the nineteenth century when 2.5 million people left China.
Diagnostic artifacts are considered to have possible research value because of a physical attribute that identifies their material, use, modification, or origin. This can include physical shape indicating what part of a larger object or organic matter they came from, marks such as marker’s marks or physical modifications like peck marks, or decoration such as color or glaze, among other things.
Flotation is a systematic method for recovering organic (botanical) materials. Excavated soil is mixed with water in a bucket or other container and divided into a heavy fraction (the materials that sink) and a light fraction (the materials that float).
Historical archaeology is also the study of material remains from the past, but researchers combine excavated materials with newspapers, oral histories, and other kinds of written records to understand daily life within recent time periods.
Lab processing of artifacts involves a series of steps, including when artifacts are washed, dried, and sorted first by material types, and then by their possible use in the past. Labs have storage plans for any excavated materials, usually bagging and boxing artifacts by material type or excavation location.
Multiple lines of evidence come together to form a stronger suggestion of what happened in the past. In archaeology, these can include artifact density, diagnostic material, surface features, documents, and oral history.
Qiaoxiang are home villages in China that were transformed by cultural influences and financial remittances from migrants living overseas.
29
7. Key Terms and Ideas
Relative dating places archaeological deposits in a sequence related to each other. This is used when absolute dates (e.g., calendrical dates) are not available.
Remittances are transfers of money by foreign workers to provide economic support for those who remained in their home country.
Research sequence for historical archaeology starts with background historical research, followed by surface studies, which can then be used to predict below-ground deposits in order to excavate materials. The materials are then analyzed and stored.
Split households occur when some family members migrate and others stay in the home country, usually because of restrictive immigration laws. Although living thousands of miles apart, members of split households continue to function as a social and economic unit, sharing resources and maintaining important kinship ties.
Sherds are broken pieces of ceramics.
Stratigraphy is the study of changes in the soil layers exposed by excavation.
Total surface collection is a method for walking the surface of a site in a systematic way, usually in lines measured on a metric grid. Surveyors mark all potentially diagnostic artifacts and features found, and all that is possible is collected. This method is used prior to excavation to locate possible buried deposits.
Transnational research is work involving researchers from multiple countries synthesizing their methods. In the case of the Cangdong Village Project, researchers from a variety of disciplines in the United States and China, and Chinese government agencies, worked together.
30
8. Further Reading and Resources
A. Cangdong Village Project
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 2014 World Heritage List: Kaiping Diaolou and Villages. <http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112> Accessed 24 October 2014.
Cangdong Village Project 2019 仓东村项目 Cangdong Village Project. Stanford University. <https://cangdong.stanford.edu> Accessed 29 April 2019. • The project website includes information about the project team, an artifact gallery,
and links to media coverage about the project.
Voss, Barbara L., J. Ryan Kennedy, and Selia Jinhua Tan (editors) 2019 The Transnational Lives of Chinese Migrants: Material Culture Research from a Guangdong Province Qiaoxiang. Manuscript, Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford, CA. <https://cangdong.stanford.edu/publications> Accessed 29 April 2019. • The Cangdong Village Project technical report is available as a downloadable PDF
from the project website. This provides detailed information about the research methods and archaeological findings discussed in the film.
Scholarly articles about Cangdong Village:Tan, Selia Jinhua 2019 How I’m Restoring One of China’s Most Beautiful Villages. Sixth Tone. <https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003700/how-im-restoring-one-of-chinas-most-beautiful-villages> Accessed 29 April 2019.
Voss, Barbara L., J. Ryan Kennedy, Selia Jinhua Tan, and Laura W. Ng 2018 The Archaeology of Home: Qiaoxiang and Non-state Actors in the Archaeology of the Chinese Diaspora. American Antiquity 83(3): 407-426.
Voss, Barbara L. 2016 Towards a Transpacific Archaeology of the Modern World. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 20: 146-174.
8. Further Reading and ResourcesB. Transnational Chinese American Studies
Benton, G., and H. Liu 2018 Dear China: Emigrants Letters and Remittances, 1820-1980. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Chan, Sucheng 2005 Chinese American Transnationalism: The Flow of People, Resources, and Ideas between China and America during the Exclusion Era. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA.
Chang, Gordon H. 2019 Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Chang, Gordon H. and Shelley Fisher Fishkin (editors) 2019 The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad. With Hilton Obenzinger and Roland Hsu. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Chang, Iris 2003 The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Penguin Books, New York: 1-28.
Hom, Marlon K. 1992 Songs of Gold Mountain: Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatown. University of California Press, Oakland, CA.
Hsu, Madeline 2000 Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration between the United States and South China, 1882-1943. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA.
Lai, Him Mark. 2004 Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions. AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
Lai, H. M., G. Lim and J. Yung (editors) 2014 Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA.
Lee, Erika. 2003 At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
32
Liu, Haiming 2004 Transnational Historiography: Chinese American Studies Reconsidered. Journal of the History of Ideas 65:135–153.
Lowe, Lisa 2015 The Intimacies of Four Continents. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.
Franklin Odo (editor) 2017 Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study. United States National Park Service Theme Study. Washington, D.C. <https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/asianpacificislanderthemestudy.htm> Accessed April 29, 2019.
Pan, Lynn (editor) 1999 The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas. Harvard University Press, Boston, MA.
Schlund-Vials, Cathy J., Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong (editors) 2015 Keywords for Asian American Studies. New York University Press, New York, NY
Takaki, Ronald 1998 Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, updated and revised edition. Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, & Company, New York, NY.
Williams, M. 2018 Returning Home with Glory: Chinese Villagers around the Pacific, 1849 to 1949. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong.
Yung, J. 1995 Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Zhou, Min (editor) 2017 Contemporary Chinese Diasporas. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
8. Further Reading and ResourcesC. Chinese Diaspora Archaeology
Berrocal, María Cruz and Cheng-hwa Tsang 2017 Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Colonialism in Asia-Pacific. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Byrne, Dennis 2016 Heritage Corridors: Transnational Flows and the Built Environment of Migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42(14):2360-2378.
Gonzalez-Tennant, Edward 2011 Creating a Diasporic Archaeology of Chinese Migration: Tentative Steps across Four Continents International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15:509-532.
Kennedy, J. Ryan 2015 Zooarchaeology, Localization, and Chinese Railroad Workers in North America. Historical Archaeology 49:122–133.
Maniery, Mary L., Rebecca Allen, and Sarah Christine Heffner 2016 Finding Hidden Voices of the Chinese Railroad Workers: An Archaeological and Historical Journey. Society for Historical Archaeology, Germantown, MD.
Merritt, Christopher W. 2017 The Coming Man from Canton: Chinese Experience in Montana, 1862–1943. University of Nebraska Press and the Society for Historical Archaeology, Lincoln, NB.
Merritt, Christopher. W., Gary Weisz and Kelly J. Dixon 2012 “Verily the Road was Built with Chinaman’s Bones”: An Archaeology of Chinese Line Camps in Montana. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16(4): 666-695.
Praetzellis, A. and M. Praetzellis 2001 Mangling Symbols of Gentility in the Wild West: Case Studies in Interpretive Archaeology. American Anthropologist 103(3): 645-654.
Ross, Douglas E. 2011 Transnational Artifacts: Grappling with Fluid Material Origins and Identities in Archaeological Interpretations of Culture Change. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31:38-48.
34
8. Further Reading and ResourcesRoss, Douglas E. 2013a Overseas Chinese Archaeology. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. C. Smith, editor. Springer, New York, NY.
2013b An Archaeology of Asian Transnationalism. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Sunseri, Charlotte K. 2015 Food Politics of Alliance in a California Frontier Chinatown. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19: 416-431.
Voss, Barbara L. 2005 The Archaeology of Overseas Chinese Communities. World Archaeology 37(3): 424-439.
2016 Towards a Transpacific Archaeology of the Modern World. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20:146-174.
2018 The Archaeology of Precarious Lives: Chinese Railroad Workers in Nineteenth-Century North America. Current Anthropology 59(3):287-313.
2019 The Archaeology of Serious Games: Play and Pragmatism in Victorian-era Dining. American Antiquity 84(1): 26-47.
Voss, Barbara L. (editor) 2015 The Archaeology of Chinese Railroad Workers in North America. Thematic Issue, Society for Historical Archaeology 49(1).
Voss, Barbara L. and Rebecca Allen 2008 Overseas Chinese Archaeology: Historical Foundations, Current Reflections, and New Directions. Historical Archaeology 42:5–28.
