• Login
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Documents
  • Activities
  • Activity Tools
    • All Tools
    • Analyzing Documents
    • Discussion Topic
    • Compare and Contrast
    • Zoom/Crop
    • White Out / Black Out
    • Spotlight
    • Finding a Sequence
    • Making Connections
    • Mapping History
    • Seeing the Big Picture
    • Weighing the Evidence
    • Interpreting Data
  • Popular Topics
    • See All
    • National History Day
    • The Constitution
    • Sports: All-American
    • Rights in America
    • American Indians
    • Women's Rights
    • American Revolution
    • The Civil War
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • The Vietnam War
    • 1970s America
    • Congress
    • Amending America
    • Elections
    • What Americans Eat
    • Signatures
    • Nixon and Ford Years
  • Resources
    • Getting Started
    • Document Analysis
    • Activity-Creation Guide
    • Manage Assignments
    • iPad App
    • Presentation Materials
    • Webinars
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Live Webinars
MENU
DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

Contextualizing a Photograph: On Exhibit at the "Chinese Village"

Focusing on Details: Zoom/Crop

Print
Created by the National Archives
Bookmark this Activity in My Activities:
Copy this Activity to My Activities for editing:
Contextualizing a Photograph: On Exhibit at the "Chinese Village"

About this Activity

  • Created by:National Archives Education Team
  • Historical Era:The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
  • Thinking Skill:Historical Analysis & Interpretation
  • Bloom's Taxonomy:Analyzing
  • Grade Level:Middle School
Start Activity
Please use a tablet or desktop computer to use this activity.
In this activity, students will contextualize a photograph and consider the experience of a young Chinese man who was exhibited as part of an ethnographic display at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia.
https://www.docsteach.org/activities/student/examining-a-photograph-of-lee-tso

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Use this activity during a unit on immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Act, imperialism, or while teaching the history of anthropology, "otherness," and living ethnological displays. For grades 6-8. Approximate time needed is 30 minutes.

Display the activity for the full class, or ask students to open the activity individually or in small groups. Students will see only the photograph of Lee Tso, not the whole document to which his photograph is attached (his identification paper to enter the United States).

Ask students to closely examine his face, body language, and any objects in the picture. They should then speculate as to the purpose of the photograph.
 
Next, they will learn that the photo is attached to a document. Click "Switch View" to see the full page and "View Entire Document" to read more.
 
Students should respond to:
 
  1. What new information have you learned about Lee Tso?
  2. What questions does this document raise in your mind?
 
Discuss students' responses as a class, then share the following background information:
Chinese Exclusion Act: 

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a law passed in 1882 that excluded Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. Initially, these restrictions on immigration were only valid for 10 years, but they were extended multiple times. Even after its repeal in 1943, a strict "quota" system effectively banned Chinese immigration until the 1965 Immigration Act struck it down. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first to exclude potential immigrants primarily because of their nationality, a clear example of anti-Chinese racism in Federal law. These laws did not just exclude potential immigrants — even U.S. born Chinese citizens were required to obtain special permission and certification to return to the United States after traveling abroad.

Living Exhibits and Chinese Village in the 1899 Export Exposition: 

The Chinese Exclusion Act occurred at a time when the United States and other mostly Western countries were using their power to conquer and control other societies around the world. This is known as imperialism – when a country exerts its power and influence over other countries or territories through diplomacy or military force. An extension of imperialism was the practice of living exhibits (also known as human zoos), in which non-Western peoples were displayed as proof of their "otherness" and of Western civilization's superiority.

Such an exhibit occurred at the 1899 Export Exposition in Philadelphia, in which Chinese laborers of varying occupations were imported for the purpose of being exhibited as part of a replica "Chinese Village" for the entertainment of fair-goers. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, those performers had to get special permission to enter the country. This document is the identification paper of Lee Tso, a 15 year old who was "on exhibit" at the fair.

Continue the class discussion by introducing the following questions:
 
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of this document as a source of information about the Chinese Village at the Export Exposition?
  • What can we know from studying this document?
  • What kinds of information are missing?
 
Return to the activity and ask students to respond to the writing prompt in the "When You're Done" section:

If you could interview Lee Tso with questions about his experiences, what would you ask him? Write a letter to Lee Tso including your questions and referring to specific details in the document.

Documents in this activity

  • Identification Paper of Lee Tso

CC0
To the extent possible under law, National Archives Education Team has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "Contextualizing a Photograph: On Exhibit at the "Chinese Village"".

  • Explore Primary Source Documents
  •  
  • Discover Activities You Can Teach With
  •  
  • Create Fun & Engaging Activities
Follow us on Twitter:twitter
Follow us on Facebook:facebook
Please enter a valid email address

View our webinars:youtube

Get our iPad app:apple
New Documentsshare
New Activitiesshare

The National Archives

DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives.

The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value. We hold in trust for the public the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — but also the records of ordinary citizens — at our locations around the country.
  • All Education Programs
  • Student Visits
  • Distance Learning
  • Professional Development
  • National Archives Museum
  • Presidential Libraries
  • Archives.gov
  • National Archives Foundation




Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.