Yellow face. 2013.
Chinese Camp Gas Station, Highway 120. En route to Yosemite National Park. (I've since learned the new owners no longer dress like this, nor do I know what happened to this guy.)
When my family stopped in, the now former put this hat on to welcome us. His hair was dyed black, and he had eye liner to give himself "oriental eyes." I kept a straight face and asked to take a photo before we walked out. We did not buy anything.
An estimated 5,000 Chinese immigrants once lived in this mining town called Chinese Camp in the 1850s during the Gold Rush boom. It had its own church, school and a post office that still exists today. A few miles away was the sight of the first Chinese Tong Gang wars involving 2,500 Chinese. The show Warrior touches on a lot of this.
I was once asked by a Taiwanese aquaintance why us "ABCs (American Born Chinese) were so offended when we were told to "go back to China." They don't realize the struggle it was for our ancestors to come to the US, where at one point we were essentially used as human dynamite to burrow the tunnels to expand the railroads. I've read stories about how they would ship remains of these laborers by the tons back to China, often in unidentifiable body parts...20,000 pounds at a time. This shit is our fucking history.
Shot on @kodakprofessional #portra on a #mamiya645pro
#film #120 #mediumformat #120 #stopasianhate #aapi #warriormax #chinesehistory
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