Photo exhibition on Chinese Railroad Workers opens in San Francisco Main Library to celebrate Lunar New Year

(SAN FRANCISCO) Silent Spikes: Following in the Footprints of Chinese Railroad Workers, a photo exhibit to honor the Chinese railroad workers in the 19th century, has opened for public view and celebrate the Chinese New Year in the San Francisco Main Library.

The exhibit, which will be run from January 19 through May 22, is part of the events held by the San Francisco Public Library in celebration of Chinese New Year on February 1 and Asian Heritage Month in May.

The exhibit is free to the public and held in the Skylight Gallery on the sixth floor of the San Francisco Main Library located in Civic Center, 100 Larkin Street.

A number of the Chinatown leaders who have worked on the preservation of the Chinese railroad workers history attended the opening ceremony in the Main Library on the first day of the exhibit, January 19.

It is a team effort to make the exhibit happen, including the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association (CRWDA), Chinatown Historical and Cultural Association (CHCA).

Nancy Yu, the local curator of the exhibit for the CHCA, thanked for the support from the Public Library in hosting the exhibit project to honor the contribution of the Chinese railroad workers.

Ju Li, a Beijing-based freelance photographer, provides most of the photographs in the 30-panel photo exhibit. Li has chronicled the route of the Chinese railroad workers in the early days from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah.

Li is a retired engineer and was inspired by two photographers of the Old West, Alfred Hart and Andrew Russell, to trace its exact route, recreating each of their historic photos from the same precise location and angle.

Since 2012, Li has crossed the Pacific Ocean nine times to reclaim the images first captured in the 1860s by Hart and Russell.

The exhibit not only includes the original 1860s photos of Russell and Hart and Li’s modern pictures of the route, but it also includes photos documenting the efforts of Chinese Americans in modern days who are successfully restoring the central role of Chinese immigrants in the building of America.

It was estimated that 12,000 to 20,000 Chinese construction workers were brought in the United States to build the railroad and to connect the country from west to east.

“This is our history. This is Chinese history. Because of the shortage of workers in the U.S., it was how the Chinese laborers were hired and seen as low cost workers. But the Chinese railroad workers were not treated fairly. That was why there were strikes by the Chinese workers,” Police Commissioner and Chinatown leader Larry Yee narrated the history of Chinese railroad workers over 160 years ago.