花辨直播官方版_花辨直播平台官方app下载_花辨直播免费版app下载

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Culture
Home / Culture / Music and Theater

The hidden histories of the 'far country'

By Mingmei Li | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2024-05-20 07:33
Share
Share - WeChat
Scenes from The Far Country, a drama by Lloyd Suh about Chinese immigrants at San Francisco's Angel Island detention center between 1910 and 1940, performed during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Immigrants are brought from dark dormitories to the interrogation chamber, where they answer the same tactical questions in strict examinations and investigations enforced by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. CHINA DAILY

Lloyd Suh's play sheds light on the experiences of Asian immigrants arriving at San Francisco's Angel Island, Mingmei Li reports in New York.

The narrow confines of a dim interrogation chamber, where the hours stretched into eternity and relentless inquiries abounded were often the first impression Asian immigrants had of that "far country", America.

Undergoing the process over and over again was how they spent their time at San Francisco's Angel Island detention center. The detention facility opened in 1910, with buildings to house and care for detainees, a pier, a hospital, and regular boat service to the mainland.

Returning to the crowded and dark dormitory, immigrants were then brought back to the interrogation chamber, where they answered the same tactical questions again. Under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which persisted until 1943, Chinese immigrants faced even stricter examinations and investigations than other Asian migrants, and Angel Island was the entry point for most of the approximately 175,000 Chinese immigrants who came to the United States between 1910 and 1940.

Recounting the story of a chosen family coming together, carrying invented biographies and poems of longing on an arduous journey from Taishan in Guangdong province to the US, Lloyd Suh's The Far Country, one of the finalists for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, was performed during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

1 2 3 4 Next   >>|
Most Popular
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US