Immigration, The Gold Mountain And A Wedding Photo
Jul 21, 2012 19:28:06 GMT -5
Post by helen on Jul 21, 2012 19:28:06 GMT -5
Immigration, The Gold Mountain And A Wedding Photo
The Wedding Photograph
The black and white photo from 1926, which is now featured in the National Archives exhibit, shows Lee's grandparents looking straight into the camera.
Her grandfather, Yee Shew Ning, is smiling in his tuxedo at the entrance of a Chinese Methodist Church in Guangzhou, China. Her grandmother, Wong Lan Fong, is wearing a collared-silk dress and wedding veil. She looks like she's trying to smile. She has one arm wrapped around her husband's and is carrying a bouquet of flowers.
Bruce Bustard, senior curator for the exhibit, says the photo looks like a typical wedding photograph — until you look a little closer. A five-digit number on a corner of the photo is Fong's immigration case file number and also the number of the steamship that Lee's grandparents arrived on 85 years ago.
"Chinese immigrants really looked to the United States. They called it Gum Saan, or Gold Mountain," Lee said. "The United States was seen as the place where you could make your dreams come true."
www.npr.org/2012/07/21/156188519/immigration-the-gold-mountain-and-a-wedding-photo
The Wedding Photograph
The black and white photo from 1926, which is now featured in the National Archives exhibit, shows Lee's grandparents looking straight into the camera.
Her grandfather, Yee Shew Ning, is smiling in his tuxedo at the entrance of a Chinese Methodist Church in Guangzhou, China. Her grandmother, Wong Lan Fong, is wearing a collared-silk dress and wedding veil. She looks like she's trying to smile. She has one arm wrapped around her husband's and is carrying a bouquet of flowers.
Bruce Bustard, senior curator for the exhibit, says the photo looks like a typical wedding photograph — until you look a little closer. A five-digit number on a corner of the photo is Fong's immigration case file number and also the number of the steamship that Lee's grandparents arrived on 85 years ago.
"Chinese immigrants really looked to the United States. They called it Gum Saan, or Gold Mountain," Lee said. "The United States was seen as the place where you could make your dreams come true."
www.npr.org/2012/07/21/156188519/immigration-the-gold-mountain-and-a-wedding-photo