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Public Health And The Mapping Of Chinatown By Nayan Shah

698 Words3 Pages

Throughout the informative paper “Public Health and The Mapping of Chinatown,” author Nayan Shah is able to convey the struggles that Chinese immigrants faced while living in San Franciso’s Chinatown and the impact it had on society as a whole. Shah begins by explaining that as soon as there were enough Chinese immigrants to develop Chinatown, there was an immediate concern and many sought out an investigation to prove the Chinese lived in filth. News intel, like the Daily Alta California, frequently reported on the national cholera epidemic and associated the blame with the Chinese, warning others of the danger they possess in spreading diseases. At the time, members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association worked hard to create …show more content…

William Rabe… demanded that the Common Council immediately investigate the Chinese settlement in the city” when there were only 2,000 Chinese individuals living in this area, yet this was enough to catch the attention of doctors and council officials (Shah, 171). Shah proves the American fear of the Chinese people by explaining “the city council’s unusual requirement that they build outside city limits… and in the end refused any plans for a Chinese hospital” due to the descriptions of the filthy living conditions alongside the plethora of rumors within the city (Shah, 174). The author explains that Bates, a health officer in a high position of power, created “comparisons to farm animals, feeding a perception not only of Chinese immigrant’s inferiority but also of their inhumanity” and uses visual descriptors to create an overarching image of the Chinese rather than purely uses fact-based evidence (Shah, 175). In addition, the writer disproves Thomas Logan’s investigation by his incorrect view of “behavior and body as both the cultural and biological heritage of the Chinese ‘race’” and how his “vivid and visceral narration of the midnight journey through Chinatown became one of the stand forms of knowledge used in both medical and popular accounts to establish the truth of Chinatown as the preeminent site of vice, immorality, degradation, crime, and disease (Shah, 177). It is explained that Logan’s eyewitness and use of overexaggerated descriptors were widely accepted without any real statistical evidence or proof. With all of these accounts of the Chinese spread throughout the city by health officials, city officials, and everyday people, the Chinese were viewed as more than dirty, but

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