And They Came to the Streets

That Were Paved With Gold

Chinese Immigration to California, 1850-1882

developed by

Kristen K. Lee

for the

Office of Technology Projects at the

UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies' Center X

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Teacher's Page | Bibliography

Introduction:

Why did Chinese immigrants come to California? What were their experiences once they came?

This webquest will introduce you to some of the Chinese immigrants who came to California, the reasons why they came, and the obstacles they faced once they arrived in California. You will be looking at web sites that contain maps, graphs, and excerpts from diaries, letters, and newspaper articles to help you learn about the people in their own words.

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The Task:

Your team consists of an historian, a reporter, a geographer, and a politician. Team members will visit their particular web pages. They will first print out the question sheet associated with their individual roles. Then they will visit the web sites listed on their web pages.

After each team member has answered his/her questions, the team will gather together to share all the data collected.

The team will then work together to create a HyperStudio or PowerPoint presentation (five card minimum) in which they are to imagine that they are Chinese men seeking to go to California:

Card 1: Why do you want to go to California? Include information about your life in China and what you expect out of life in California.

Card 2: How did you get to California? Show your route.

Card 3: What is your life like in the gold fields? Describe what happens when the Foreign Miner's Tax is enacted.

Card 4: What is your life like building the Transcontinental Railroad? What do you decide to do when it is built?

Card 5: How does the Chinese Exclusion Act affect you?

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The Process

To accomplish the above task, you will need to follow these instructions:

Complete the writing prompt that your teacher assigns you. (Teachers, you can find out about the writing prompt here).

Take a peek at each of your pages listed in the table below. Each page contains a link to the questions you will be answering as well as links to Internet resources to help you answer your questions.

Historian's Page Geographer's Page

Reporter's Page Politician's Page

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