Fairs

The "Chinese Village" at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition

135 demonstrators and performers were brought from China for the occasion, accompanied by another 42 Chinese performers who were already in San Francisco and by an Inspector from the Chicago office of the Immigration Service. Some of the 177, including the magician Ching Ling Foo (see 1898: A Chinese Magician) did not go back to China afterward.

Others of the performers were women: actresses, waitresses, "village ladies," and at least one seamstress. Most were young. In a sample of fifteen, four were 19, five were 18, two were 17, three were 16, and one was 11.

1884-05: The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans

纽奥良工業棉織博覧會

The Chinese government had already taken part in one international exposition in the U.S., that in Philadelphia in 1876. Its second effort to participate in such an exposition occurred in 1884, in a city that through the Missisippi was economically more closely linked to the Midwest than to either the West or East Coast.

The only visual evidence we have found of the Chinese exhibits in New Orleans is the catalogue shown below. The Chinese Commission for the Exposition was organized by Sir Robert Hart, the President of the China Maritime Customs. The "attendants" representing the Commission in New Orleans were Teh Ah-kew, Wang Ch'un-li, and J. L. Knoepfler. The catalogue is divided into two sections: Shanghai and Canton.

Extra space is given to the catalogue here because it is little known, and because it relates to a truly forgotten episode in Chinese-American relations.

After the close of the New Orleans’ World Industrial & Cotton Centennial Exposition, the entire Chinese exhibit was donated to the University of Michigan out of Angell’s ministry in China "as a gift on behalf of the Chinese government. The exhibit was duly set up in the university’s museum space at the time, and for forty years it was a center of interest to students and visitors." We do not know whether any of the exhibits still survive.

http://www.umich.edu/~bhl/bhl/exhibits/UMChina/China/history.htm

Replica of Tibetan Buddhist temple in Chinese style from Chengde, China, at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The Swedish explorer Sven Hedin had it built in China and shipped to Chicago. For more information on the so-called Lama Temple and other Chinese involvement with the Fair, click on the special Century of Progress page.

The "Chinese Village" at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (LPE)

Unlike Chicago's 1893 Exposition, the Chinese government gave its official approval to this one. The Imperial Chinese Commission was led by Prince Pu Lun. Exhibitors included a number of Canton (Guangzhou) firms, among them Kwong Mee Hong, Chun Kai Yuen, Cheong Woo, Wing Cheong, Wah Hing Lung, Tak Loong, and -- listed under "Canton" rather than Hong Kong -- the famed Sino-Scottish firm of Jardine Matheson.

Excellent photos of this and other Chinese attractions at the LPE may be found on a special website of the St. Louis Public Library

The Chinese Theater and Joss House [temple] at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, on the Midway in Hyde Park, Chicago. The theater with its privately-sponsored Daoist-Buddhist shrine may have been the first specially built Chinese structure of its kind in the Midwest. For more Information, click on Chinese-WCE.

CHINESE-AMERICANS AND WORLD FAIRS 華裔舆美國博覧會

The various world fairs held here in the Midwest played a major role in the history of local Chinese-Americans. Cut off from their countrymen on the East and West Coasts and back in China, midwestern Chinese found the world fairs to be not just business opportunities but ways to advertise their culture and to affirm their pride in their Chinese roots.

Chinese-Americans took part in four world fairs in the Midwest and in a fifth in New Orleans, located at the mouth of the Missisippi and thus intimately connected with most midwestern cities.

The five fairs are described briefly on this page. Two of the fairs, Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition and Century of Progress Exposition, have special pages, although they also appear here. Links to the special pages will be found below.

1893: The World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 芝哥倫比亞博覧展

The best-attended of any world fair in history, the WCE was a cultural success as well as an economic one. In protest against the Chinese Exclusion Act, the imperial Chinese government declined to participate. But a major Chinese exhibition was put together by Chinese-American businessmen from San Francisco and Chicago. More details on Chinese involvement may be found on the World's Columbian Exposition web page.

1933: The Century of Progress Exposition, Chicago

The second of Chicago's international expositions was smaller and less grand than the first one, but it may have been more important to Chinese-Americans. It was close to the South Side Chinatown, which meant that it brought a good deal of business to Chinese shops and restaurants. The official participation of the Chinese government meant that local Chinese, most of whom were barred by federal law from becoming American citizens and thus were still Chinese subjects, were not afraid to become involved. For all Chinese Chicagoans, it was a great event.

The strange-looking building shown here was the entrance of the Chinese Village. It had two gate towers, vaguely similar to those on the Chinese Theatre at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The architects were evidently European-Americans with a limited construction budget.

Although the trans-Mississsippi Exposition had at least some official support from China, the main Chinese exhibits were privately funded. Two companies shared the Chinese Village concession -- the Wang Chun Foo Co. and the Lan Hing Trading Co. Whether they made a profit is not clear.

Note: The statistics come from the "Correspondence of the Chinese Division" files of the National Archives and Records Administration, Great Lakes region, Chicago

CAMOC is now working on an exhibition about the East Asian presence in Chicago's two world fairs, to open in May 2006. Both of the Chicago fairs, in 1893 and 1933-4, marked important turning points in local Asian-American history. They also stimulated a sharp rise in East Asian cultural influence in America: in architecture, food, tourist attitudes, even political opinions. If you have suggestions or are interested in becoming involved, please contact us at office@ccamuseum.org. For more on the exhibition, click here