racist Lament for Lost Chinatown stereotypes
One hundred years ago today …. the News lamented the passing of the glories of the “romance” of Chinatown, in terms that put forth racist stereotypes the dangers of which we have explored before.
Daily News, 30 March, 1921, p. 20. Newspapers.com.
The caption laments the passing of the “opium chamber, the tales of tong men and slave women,” etc.
The accompanying article asks
What has happened to Chinatown that children may play in its crooked streets all day long withe out a quiver of danger; that white maidens may wander curiously down its garbage-tainted lanes and visit its colorful shops and tea rooms without attracting any more attention than the parchment-faced s yellow denizens themselves?
Daily News, 30 March, 1921, p. 17. Newspapers.com.
– Jonathan Goldman, March 30, 2021
TAGS: Chinatown, racism, Chinese American history, stereotypoes