By ALYWIN CHEW
in Shanghai
alywin@chinadaily.com.cn
A preview of a new historical documentary film The Chinese Exclusion Act was screened on Thursday for the first time outside the United States at the campus of New York University Shanghai. Directed by US filmmakers
Ric Burns and Yu LiShin, the documentary explores the Chinese Exclusion Act, a US law passed in 1882 that
restricted Chinese immigration and prevented Chinese from becoming naturalized US citizens. The law was
passed after an influx of Chinese laborers, seen by many in the US as a threat to their livelihoods. The Immigration and Nationality Act, or HartCeller Act, finally abolished immigration quotas based on ethnicity or race in 1965. The film features several prominent Chinese who during that time worked to oppose the act. The film is scheduled for release in May. “This documentary delves
deeply into a painful and important episode in the US and sheds light on its relations with China,” said Constance Bruce, director of External and Academic Events, NYU Shanghai. Yu said that in 1993, she and
Burns were working on a project about the US’ westward expansion. They learned that over 30 Chinese gold miners were murdered in 1887 by a gang of thieves and schoolboys in Oregon. The bodies were found floating in Snake River in Idaho territory. “It was just shocking that we had no prior knowledge of this. It was then that we asked ourselves: ‘Why is such an
event not known in the nation’s history?’” said Yu, an Emmy Awardwinning film editor who left China for the
US in the 1970s. “We … started on the project in 2012 when the New York Historical Society approached us to do a film about the Chinese Exclusion Act to accompany an exhibition they were planning.” Burns pointed out that the release of the film is particularly timely. “Questions related to who can be an American, what rights do we have, who can come to America and who can’t — these are some of the most burning political questions today,” he said.