This is the fifth presentation in a series of gallery talks that highlight a collage in its current exhibition, Artists in the Archives: Unseen Neighbors that explores themes with which members of our community have grappled historically, including race, difference, sexuality, and gender.

This talk is an overview of Chinese migration to the United States, as well as community-building by the Chinese in America, from the Gold Rush through the early 20th century. Examining the economic and political contexts that shaped both processes, it will discuss the experience of Chinese immigration as simultaneously exceptional and typical within American immigration history.

Professor Joyce Mao was born and (mostly) raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been a member of the Middlebury History Department since 2008. Mao teaches courses on recent American history explore topics such as the U.S. and the World since 1898, Pacific Rim relations, the Cold War, and Chinatowns. The author of Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism her research focuses on the intersections between American foreign affairs and national politics during the Cold War era, with special attention to US-Asia relations.