1.) During my reading of Gaiutra Bahadur, I learned her research process which was very difficult to the history records she found to be so one-sided. As a result of these limitations, she had to become creative in the way she’d find her sources/information which led to her going to her great-grandmother’s village among other ways. By going out of her way to find more information regarding her great-grandmother, Bahadur opened herself up to more ideas of what possibly led her great-grandmother’s journey from Calcutta to British Guyana. Now if I were to construct an archive for my own family history, I’d go to sources such as historical archives in Spain and the US since the Philippines was under the control of both countries for a long period of time.
2.) The person I watched be interviewed was Wilson Chow. He was originally from Hong Kong but he immigrated with his family in 1990 to the US. Prior to coming to the US, he was a dental assistant for quite some time. As for his oral history, I already knew that most immigrants, especially of Asian descent are always hardworking and to see it be a constant trait made me proud to be one. However, he confirmed an idea I’ve had ever since my freshman year here at BMCC and that is how immigrants really sacrifice so much in order to live a better life in a new country and yet still persist in the face of adversity. In conclusion, not much surprises me since I’ve read extensively prior to this class the conditions that Chinese railroad workers faced such as discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act which was brought up in the video.
Jericho,
For my family’s archive I included researching archives from Spain and Japan. My Dad’s side is from Cebu which was heavily colonized by Spain and as for my mother’s side, Iloilo was Japanese dominated in the Philippines. I agree a lot of Asian immigrants are hardworking. Reading Connie Young Yu’s interview solidified my thoughts on their relentlessness and determination as well.
Wow, that’s so interesting, Jericho! I completely forgot about checking out multiple countries for family records. I only thought of American history, but for me taking a look at Hong Kong records might be key as well. It’s really unfortunate that the reason you have to examine multiple histories is due to the Philippines history of control, I don’t know a lot about it, but know that it’s a complicated history.
I also listened to an oral history on the Chinese Railroad workers, because I’m Chinese myself and wanted to look more into my people’s histories! Immigrating to America is definitely really difficult, I couldn’t imagine the resiliency immigrant groups must have! The Chinese Exclusion Act was pretty horrific as well, which really throws another wrench in.