Reading for 9/26

Assigned Readings:  Jigsaw Day

  • EVERYONE: Shah, Contagious Divides, Chapter 2 (p.46-77)

  • Group A: Shah, Chapter 3 (p.77-104): "Perversity, Contamination, and the Dangers of Queer Domesticity"

  • Group B: Shah, Chapter 5 (p.120-158): "Plague and Managing the Commercial City"

  • Group C: Shah, Chapter 7 (p.179-203): "Making Medical Borders at Angel Island"

  • Group D: Shah, Chapter 9 (p.225-250): "Reforming Chinatown"

  • EVERYONE: Shah, Contagious Divides, Conclusion (p.251-258)

    • Questions to guide your reading:
    Remember to include specific examples in your notes.

    Everyone: Chapter 2

    1. ContentThemes What mechanisms of regulation did SF agencies develop to control the spread of disease and uncleanliness within Chinatown? Were these mechanisms focused on reform or containment? How did agencies justify these actions? (or in Shah's words, "why did the medical knowledge of Chinatown and the Chinese race become inseparable from the operation of 19th-century SF's public health systems?" (48)

    2. Analysis & Critical Thinking What role does space / borders / borderzones play in the system of regulation and fear?

    Group A: Chapter 3

    1. ContentThemes What connections did white Americans draw between deviant sexuality and citizenship? Between nonnormative sexuality and public health?

    2. ContentThemes What figures did public health officials, politicians, and travelogue writers adopt to emphasize Chinese immorality and deviance?

    3. ContentThemes What role did space and the built environment play in these efforts to cast Chinese queer domesticity in such a negative light? (think about also how these spaces brought together whites and Chinese in illicit or "immoral" ways)?

    Group A: Chapter 5

    1. ContentThemes What mechanisms did SF use to prevent/contain the spread of disease and epidemics in Chinatown? How did Chinese men and women resist these efforts?

    2. ContentThemes How did SF view the connection between public health and commerce in SF? Did this change (and how so) after the 1906 earthquake?

    3. ContentThemes What role did space and the built environment play in these efforts to contain and prevent the spread of plague and disease in Chinatown and/or SF?

    Group A: Chapter 7

    1. ContentThemes What mechanisms did examiners and immigration officials use to inspect the bodies of Asian immigrants? How was this a product of this body of "knowledge" he described early in this book; and how did these inspections further solidify the scientific-nature of this "knowledge"? How were these procedures racialized?

    2. ContentThemes How did Chinese men and women resist these inspections (as well as other measures like vaccinations, detainments, etc.)?

    3. ContentThemes What role did space and the built environment play in these efforts to confront issues of "bodily contamination" and target public health issues before Chinese migrants reached the shores of SF?

    Group A: Chapter 9

    1. ContentThemes How did efforts shift from regulation to reform? What mechanisms did SF agencies use to create healthy, domesticated spaces for Chinese residents within the city?

    2. ContentThemes What was the Chinese response to reform efforts?

    3. ContentThemes What role did space and the built environment play in these efforts to reform Chinese homes and behaviors? What connections can you draw to larger American patterns of social welfare, reform, and segregation?

    Helpful Context

    Remember that you'll be responsible for teaching the chapter you read to your classmates. For this reason, it's more important than usual that you come to class prepared and with a good understanding of this chapter.

    Also remember that if you run into a name or another concept from an earlier chapter you didn't read, you can try to look it up in the index to learn more about it.


    See tips and reminders on reading/taking notes in this course.

    Shah