詹妮弗·k·森田著

2024年6月12日

大多数游客很少想到美国唐人街屋顶上挂着的红灯笼

宝塔式建筑和杂碎菜单字体即使不假，也会让人觉得很迷人。

But it turns out there is a story behind what 萨克拉门托 State Ethnic Studies Professor William Gow calls “Chinatown pastiche.”

In his new book, Gow shows how Chinese American merchants reshaped Chinatown’s image, attracting white tourists – and their money – while pushing back against so-called “yellow peril” stereotypes.

“《唐人街表演：好莱坞、旅游业和华裔美国人社区的形成》” explores the emergence of two Los Angeles Chinatowns and tells the overlooked stories of Chinese American movie extras and street performers during the 1930s and ‘40s.

Gow’s interest in L.A. Chinatowns began while he was a public school teacher and volunteering for the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. 他参与制作了一部关于一个鲜为人知的华裔美国人社区的短纪录片，这个社区曾经存在于东亚当斯街和圣佩德罗街的交汇处，现在被称为南洛杉矶

“Chinese merchants laid the groundwork to make Chinese people more acceptable within the U.S. by creating this American-style Chinese culture.” ——威廉·高，博彩平台民族研究教授

He ended up running a program for the historical society that trained high school and college students to interview local elders about their memories of Chinatown in the '30s and ‘40s, and a common thread emerged.

“All the people we interviewed had been extras in Hollywood films during this time. 每一个人。 It was a thing,” said Gow, who has a master's degree in Asian American studies from UCLA.

“I was very well versed in Asian American history by the time I came out of UCLA, but we didn’t spend much time talking about local Asian American history. I didn’t know any of this stuff.”

高和他在洛杉矶唐人街长大的叔叔聊了聊。

“He said, ‘Yeah, I was an extra in a movie.’ I saw my uncle all the time growing up. He was the first person to RSVP for our wedding, and I had no idea,” Gow said.

“It’s such a cool and interesting part of history. 这件事有很多角度。 I knew if I ever went back to school and got my Ph.D., I was going to do my research project on this.”

Their stories became the inspiration for Gow’s book and influenced how he later taught Ethnic Studies at 囊状态.

从19世纪末开始，美国的华人面临排他性法律，限制他们在哪里生活、去哪里旅行、和谁结婚。 反亚裔法律也针对他们的生意，唐人街被描绘成肮脏、暴力、毒品泛滥的社区。

Off-duty police officers gave the first tours of Chinatown to middle- and upper-class white Americans who were “slumming,” according to Gow.

“Merchants watching this said, ‘We need to make money off this,’ ” Gow said. “They took the notion of exotic China and played it up, while fighting to dispel these other ‘yellow peril’ stereotypes.

“Fortune cookies, fake pagodas and chop suey menu lettering all attempt to sell ‘Chinese-ness’ to white tourists in a way that the merchant class can profit off of, while pushing back against negative stereotypes.”

高在书中讨论了1938年夏天洛杉矶两个唐人街的出现。 China City, built by white philanthropist Chirstine Sterling, was backed by the L.A. Times and Hollywood producers when it opened near Olvera Street complete with a re-creation of “The Good Earth” movie set.

Chinese Americans who ran stalls and operated rickshaw stands also worked as background extras in Hollywood films in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Peter SooHoo and Chinese American merchants formed a corporation to create New Chinatown, a walkable neighborhood near downtown with pagoda-style rooftops, neon lights and a wishing well.

China City burned down a decade after opening, but New Chinatown still exists.

The two Chinatowns and this “Chinatown pastiche” changed the perception of Chinese in the U.S., Gow said.

“The general argument is that once the U.S. allied with China during World War II, there was geopolitical incentive to start treating Chinese people better. There’s a shift that happens overnight after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor,” he said. “But that’s not what happened at all.

“Chinese merchants laid the groundwork to make Chinese people more acceptable within the U.S. by creating this American-style Chinese culture.”

Gow’s research relied heavily on interviews with everyday Chinese Americans.

传统上，历史学家关注的是书面文件，但在研究边缘化社区时，情况并非总是如此。 高说，这是因为报纸和政府文件经常提供有偏见的报道和信息。

Media coverage of New Chinatown was minimal compared to the L.A Times-backed China City.

“If I relied on the L.A. Times and other written records, I wouldn’t know there was a New Chinatown,” said Gow, who looked at 165 oral history interviews conducted by UCLA students in the late 1970s.

但他和他的学生为“唐人街记忆”项目采访了40多人，从中发现了好莱坞的视角。

“It kept popping up,” Gow said. “I could not tell this story without those oral histories.”

Gow’s Ethnic Studies class at 囊状态 requires students to work in groups and interview Asian Americans in the community about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, there are 77份采访笔录和部分录音在网上公开.

“Oral history is my passion. It’s the wave of the future,” Gow said.