Contact us and tell us your legal story as a Chinese American women
Contact us and tell us your legal story as a Chinese American women
HERSTORY
THE BURLINGAME TREATY
蒲安臣條約
袁廣鳴 GOANG-MING YUAN / 劉經倫 JUWIN LIU
/ 黃仲瑜 CHUNG-YU HUANG
Get It Here
Get It Here
1842年,中國打輸了鴉片戰爭以後,外國列強予取予求,強迫中國與他們簽署上百件的不平等條約。
中國被迫放棄領土、金錢和主權,才能停止戰爭。貧窮的農民無法找到耕地,只好賣女兒求生,這些女孩被賣到美國去做女奴,生不如死。
雖然所有的不平等條約在1945年以後都被廢除了,但是美國華人女性仍要面對社會種種的不公平待遇。
我們重建1858年的「蒲安臣條約」,它是中美之間第一個平等的條約,該條約鼓勵中國移民美國,華人女性因此得以來美。
但後來美國國內經濟不景氣,便宜又勤奮的華工成了白人工人的眼中釘,排華浪潮因之如火如荼的興起。
繼之,美國國會反對華工入境,海斯總統只好授權安吉爾在1880年跟中國重新訂約,1882年的「排華法案」等於廢除了「蒲安臣條約」。
「蒲安臣條約」希望以豔麗的火焰燒除所有的不公,並為華人女性創造一塊更明朗的天空。
After China lost the Opium War in 1842, foreign powers took advantage of a weakened China and signed hundreds of unfair treaties with the Chinese government. China had to give up land, money and sovereignty to end the wars.
Poor peasant families in China who could no longer find land to grow crops sold their daughters to the U.S. to work as slaves.
Although all the unfair treaties were abolished after 1945, Chinese American women still faced injustices in society.
We recreate the Burlingame Treaty of 1858 with all its glamour. The Treaty encouraged Chinese immigration to the U.S, including Chinese American women who left their homes to pursue a new life in America.
However, opposition in Congress to Chinese immigration led President Rutherford B. Hayes to authorize James Burrill Angell to renegotiate the Treaty in 1880.
The Treaty was reversed in 1882 by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Yuan Goang-Ming’s burning of the Burlingame Treaty is metaphoric.
It symbolizes the cremation of all the untold struggles endured by Chinese American women.