My final project is to track the early Chinese immigrants to the United States, where they came from in China and where they ended up in the United States. As my dissertation is to write the first Chinese woman who obtained a college degree/medical degree in the U.S., this research on early Chinese immigrants will help me understand the immigrant flow which reflected the social history of both China and U.S.
The source is the Chinese Exclusion Files. In 1882, the Congress passed an act that banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. It was built on the Page Act of 1875 which banned Chinese women from immigrating to the U.S. So, each Chinese entering the U.S. during 1882-1943 had a file at immigration office. They were asked many questions before the inspector decided if they could or could not enter the U.S. So the Files have abundant records of these early Chinese immigrants.
I plan to use Kepler.dl to visualize their routes, like the screenshot above. The screenshot was on the migration of American slaves. It was from a project of this course during the semester. I would like to make a similar one showing the early Chinese immigrants.
