Our 2023 favorites: The long history of Chinese American exclusion and resistance

The Disrupted team has been welcoming the new year by choosing a few of the episodes we loved from 2023. We have so many favorites that we couldn't reair all of them, but these are a few that we wanted to listen back to.

This week is the last of our "2023 favorites" episodes. Producer Kevin Chang Barnum chose our episode on Chinese American exclusion and resistance not only because of how it highlights the discrimination that Chinese Americans face, but also because it shows something that isn't covered enough in the media— the way Chinese Americans have fought against that discrimination.

This hour, Ava Chin discusses how the Chinese Exclusion Act continues to impact people today as we interview her about her book 'Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.' And Russell Jeung, one of the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, talks about the historical precedent for the current wave of anti-Asian racism and how people who oppose it can take action.

GUESTS:

• Ava Chin: Professor of Creative Nonfiction and Journalism at the City University of New York Graduate Center and College of Staten Island. Her most recent book is Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming
• Russell Jeung: Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and a Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate. In 2021, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World along with his fellow Stop AAPI Hate co-founders

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Ava Chin's relatives at Bradley Beach in the 1930's.

Courtesy of Ava Chin

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Mott Street author Ava Chin's great-grandmother Lee Yulan was detained at Angel Island while traveling to the U.S. She and her two sons were separated from her husband while she was pregnant.

Courtesy of the National Archives at San Bruno

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Author Ava Chin's relatives Elva Foon (third row) and Dek Foon (third from left in second row) with Family in 1926. The couple were married in Hartford in 1902.

Courtesy of Alison Ho

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Ava Chin's relative Elva Foon was not Chinese, but because she married a Chinese man, she lost her U.S. citizenship by the 1907 Expatriation Act.

Courtesy of the National Archives at Boston

This episode originally aired on September 13, 2023.

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