Beneath the Steel: Chinese Railroad Workers, Lost Histories, and Art as Remembrance

Haoqing Yu

The histories, stories, and names of Chinese railroad workers who dedicated their lives to constructing the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad have remained in the shadows for over a century. Completed in 1869, the railroad was a monumental achievement in America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ during the nineteenth century. But despite their contributions, the Chinese laborers have not received the recognition they deserve. This project seeks to remember Chinese railroad workers via arts-based research methods (ABR). Archives are not merely repositories of the past but also products of political power. In this light, the project poses a key methodological question: How can art-making critically reconfigure the power of archives and lost history? We seek to ask questions, initiate a dialogue, acknowledge the absence, and give form to the invisible. Building upon the historical recovery work of previous scholars, we reconstruct fragmented pieces through remixed artworks. The current article highlights key artworks that demonstrate the scope and variety of a much larger project (Yu 2025b). We dedicate this work to the Chinese master railroad builders––to the great-grandfathers––whose stories and names demand remembrance.

China Wall

Figure 16: China Wall. Haoqing Yu, June 2024. Digital Art, Pattern brush, Apple pencil, Procreate, 4096 x 1714 px.

Inspired by the brick patterns on the photo of the ‘China Wall’ taken by Denise Khor (Figure 17), I imagined what the hand-carved rock ‘China Wall of the Sierra’ would look like during the harsh winter. I used pattern brushes and white colors to recreate the wall built by these ‘Asian Masters’ who left indelible marks on the history of California and the U.S. West (Chang 2019: 118).

Workers bored tunnels under the snow to the base of the ravine, where they brought excavated stone and built upward. Using chisels and a masonry technique employed in China, they hand-cut the granite to make blocks forty to fifty inches long and twelve to twenty inches tall. Smaller pieces fit in the gaps. The whole effort was a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, with stones interlocking to hold together

–– Chang, 2019

< Previous

Figure 17: The “China Wall.” A retaining wall built by Chinese workers to support the grade at Donner Summit. Photo taken by Denise Khor. (2016: 437)

Table of Contents

References

Next >

Tip

Tip