BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Lewis & Clark//NONSGML v1.0//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20160313T100000 RDATE:20160313T100000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20161106T090000 RDATE:20161106T090000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20161013T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20161013T170000 LOCATION:Watzek Library GEO:45.450919;-122.669177 SUMMARY:Special Collections Reception for United China Relief Exhibit DESCRIPTION:When the "Yellow Peril" Became Just Like Us: How WWII Changed American Perceptions of China \; In the American mind\, the image of China has generally oscillated between two caricatures. One is of an alien\, exotic and ultimately unknowable land\, filled with equally inscr utable and strange people. This is a relatively benign China\, from which Americans were used to buying tea\, porcelain\, and silks\, and whose qu aint and backwards ways could be safely parodied for light entertainment. The other image is of an immediate threat to the United States\, an eter nal font of the "Yellow Peril\," teeming with untold numbers of Chinese e ager to displace American laborers\, impose an oppressive and anti-Americ an ideology\, and finally overtake the nation in greatness and power. Thi s is the China that inspired the Chinese Exclusion Acts in the 19th centu ry\, Mao's China of the 1950s and 1960s\, and\, arguably\, is the concept ion of China that many Americans hold today. This exhibit highlights the broad path of American thought about China from the 1800s to the 1950s\, as well a group of Americans who sought to convince Americans that China resembled neither of the above two extremes\, but was in fact a noble na tion worthy of respect and\, perhaps more importantly\, aid. In 1937\, th e forces of the Japanese Empire invaded China\, and the resulting war bro ught devastation\, misery\, and death to tens of millions of Chinese. Wit h the United States' entry into World War II after the Japanese bombing o f Pearl Harbor\, prominent American sinophiles including Pearl S. Buck\, author of The Good Earth\, and Henry Luce\, media tycoon and publisher of both Life and Time magazines\, seized the opportunity to galvanize Ameri can interest in aiding China. They spearheaded the merger of eight large China relief organizations to form United China Relief\, or UCR\, in orde r to better coordinate American charity dollars. A crucial part of the c ampaign was to change American perceptions of China. The message broadcas ted by UCR across its campaigns was that China was in many ways a proto-U nited States. Its people were vibrant and virtuous. They were enamored of freedom and aspired to democracy. Like the American colonists in 1776\, the Chinese were fighting for their independence against an imperial oppr essor. Above all\, UCR sought to prove to Americans that the Chinese peop le were ordinary and familiar\, not mysterious. In this exhibit\, visitor s will find countless examples of the kinds of goods\, from postcards and stamps to matchbooks and cookbooks\, that UCR and others used to "market " China to the public–all of them exceedingly pedestrian\, all of them ubiquitous in the daily lives of Americans in the 1940s. Visitors will le arn how UCR used commercial culture to market a non-commercial message\, presaging the increasing influence of commercialism and advertising in Am erican life for the remainder of the 20th century. This project has been supported by Lewis &\; Clark College's Presidential Strategic Initiat ive for faculty research\, a Lewis &\; Clark Faculty Research Grant\, the Mellon Faculty Development Fund\, the Mellon Arts and Humanities Rese arch Program\, and Lewis &\; Clark's Special Collections. The research \, writing\, and curating were done by Susan Glosser\, Associate Professo r of History\, Kevin Dadik (History '14)\, Sten Eccles-Irwin (Pamplin Fel low\, History '16)\, Drew Matlovsky (History '18)\, Heather Schadt ('17)\ , and Zachariah Selley\, Associate Head of Special Collections in coopera tion with Watzek Library Special Collections and Archives. X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
\;
In the American mind\, the image of China has generally oscillated
between two caricatures. One is of an alien\, exotic and ultimately unkno
wable land\, filled with equally inscrutable and strange people. This is
a relatively benign China\, from which Americans were used to buying tea\
, porcelain\, and silks\, and whose quaint and backwards ways could be sa
fely parodied for light entertainment. The other image is of an immediate
threat to the United States\, an eternal font of the "Yellow Peril\," te
eming with untold numbers of Chinese eager to displace American laborers\
, impose an oppressive and anti-American ideology\, and finally overtake
the nation in greatness and power. This is the China that inspired the Ch
inese Exclusion Acts in the 19th century\, Mao's China of the 1950s and 1
960s\, and\, arguably\, is the conception of China that many Americans ho
ld today.
This exhibit highlights the broad path of American
thought about China from the 1800s to the 1950s\, as well a group of Ame
ricans who sought to convince Americans that China resembled neither of t
he above two extremes\, but was in fact a noble nation worthy of respect
and\, perhaps more importantly\, aid. In 1937\, the forces of the Japanes
e Empire invaded China\, and the resulting war brought devastation\, mise
ry\, and death to tens of millions of Chinese. With the United States' en
try into World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor\, promin
ent American sinophiles including Pearl S. Buck\, author of The Good
Earth\, and Henry Luce\, media tycoon and publisher of both Life
and Time magazines\, seized the opportunity to galvanize A
merican interest in aiding China. They spearheaded the merger of eight la
rge China relief organizations to form United China Relief\, or UCR\, in
order to better coordinate American charity dollars.
A cruci
al part of the campaign was to change American perceptions of China. The
message broadcasted by UCR across its campaigns was that China was in man
y ways a proto-United States. Its people were vibrant and virtuous. They
were enamored of freedom and aspired to democracy. Like the American colo
nists in 1776\, the Chinese were fighting for their independence against
an imperial oppressor. Above all\, UCR sought to prove to Americans that
the Chinese people were ordinary and familiar\, not mysterious. In this e
xhibit\, visitors will find countless examples of the kinds of goods\, fr
om postcards and stamps to matchbooks and cookbooks\, that UCR and others
used to "market" China to the public–all of them exceedingly pedestria
n\, all of them ubiquitous in the daily lives of Americans in the 1940s.
Visitors will learn how UCR used commercial culture to market a non-comme
rcial message\, presaging the increasing influence of commercialism and a
dvertising in American life for the remainder of the 20th century.
This project has been supported by Lewis &\; Clark College's Preside ntial Strategic Initiative for faculty research\, a Lewis &\; Clark Fa culty Research Grant\, the Mellon Faculty Development Fund\, the Mellon A rts and Humanities Research Program\, and Lewis &\; Clark's Special Co llections. The research\, writing\, and curating were done by Susan Gloss er\, Associate Professor of History\, Kevin Dadik (History '14)\, Sten Ec cles-Irwin (Pamplin Fellow\, History '16)\, Drew Matlovsky (History '18)\ , Heather Schadt ('17)\, and Zachariah Selley\, Associate Head of Special Collections in cooperation with Watzek Library Special Collections and A rchives.
UID:20161013T220000Z-197163@college.lclark.edu DTSTAMP:20161003T114151Z URL:https://college.lclark.edu/live/events/197163-special-collections-rec eption-for-united-china LAST-MODIFIED:20161003T184151Z ATTACH:https://college.lclark.edu/live/image/gid/417/width/80/height/80/c rop/1/62737_first_to_fight.rev.1475519557.jpg X-LIVEWHALE-TYPE:events X-LIVEWHALE-ID:197163 X-LIVEWHALE-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles X-LIVEWHALE-IMAGE:https://college.lclark.edu/live/image/gid/417/width/80/ height/80/crop/1/62737_first_to_fight.rev.1475519557.jpg X-LIVEWHALE-IMAGE-CAPTION:1943. First to Fight. Artist Martha Sawyers. Un ited China Relief deployed this image frequently in its educational mater ials. X-LIVEWHALE-COST:Free X-LIVEWHALE-SUMMARY:Please join us on Thursday\, October 13th from 3-5 pm for the opening reception of the latest Watzek Library Special Collectio ns exhibit\, "When the "Yellow Peril" Became Just Like Us: How WWII Chang ed American Perceptions of China". \;Light food and drinks will be pr ovided. END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR