Segment from They Might Be Giants

Trade Winds

Historian John Haddad examines how early American trade with China grew from buying luxuries like tea and porcelain to smuggling opium into China, and the impact of the opium trade on both sides.

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Perilous Prose

Historian Gordon Chang tells the hosts about The Last Days of the Republic, a 19th century novel which predicted the downfall of the United States at the hand of Chinese immigrants.

00:05:28

Trade Winds

Historian John Haddad examines how early American trade with China grew from buying luxuries like tea and porcelain to smuggling opium into China, and the impact of the opium trade on both sides.

00:09:27

Southerners True and True

Historian Joe Orser has the story of Chang and Eng Bunker, and how their efforts to assimilate illuminate changing attitudes towards Chinese immigrants across the 19th century.

00:06:25

Borderline

Lisa Morehouse reports from Mexicali, Mexico, a border town which is home to a surprising legacy of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

00:07:44

Minority Report

Scholar Madeline Hsu tells host Brian Balogh how earlier attempts to exclude Chinese immigrants gave rise to the image of Chinese-Americans as a ‘model minority.’

00:07:40

History on Parade

The hosts field a call from an American listener in Xiamen, China who wants advice on bridging a historical divide with his Chinese family.

00:04:49

Dancing in the Dark

Author Nicholas Griffin has the story of the backchannel diplomacy that eventually lead to Nixon’s historic visit to China.

00:11:43

Web Extra: Island of immortals

A segment originally from our show ‘Island Hopping’: Chinese immigrants held on San Francisco’s Angel Island in the early 20th century carved poetry deep into the walls that confined them. Judy Yung walks us through that story, and some of the poetry her work has helped to recover.

00:08:49

Web Extra: Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

Originally from our show ‘Where There’s Smoke’: Reporter Chelsea Davis has the story of how San Francisco’s thriving Chinatown emerged from the ashes of the 1906 Earthquake and the fires that followed, despite efforts to suppress it.

00:10:51