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.

Appendix: The Chinese Exclusion Act Blackout Poetry

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first U.S. law restricting Chinese immigration. In this remix experiment, I created a series of blackout poetry from the words of the Act itself, as well as its description on the website of the National Archives of the United States. Regarding pragmatics, I intentionally omitted any negative or racially discriminatory phrase, such as ‘any Chinese laborer,’ ‘it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come,’ and ‘the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory.’ Instead, I chose to preserve more inclusive, positive, and striking phrases, such as ‘won the right,’ ‘preserve civil rights,’ ‘all people,’ ‘the master,’ ‘shall arrive,’ ‘free will,’ ‘remain,’ and ‘the same.’ This approach helps strip the original document of its exclusionary and discriminatory language. By blacking out the most hostile and sensitive content and selecting only positive words and phrases visible, the experiment subverts the original racist intent of the Act. The final blackout poetry transforms the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 into a new poem that expresses a message of resilience and hope.

The following images present the original text on the left and my blacked out copy on the right. The images are followed by the new poem, which was created by stringing together the remaining words on the blacked-out pages. All the words of the poem are taken,
in order, from the original text.

Table of Contents

In 1943

Repealed all the exclusion acts

Won the right

The most comprehensive change

A “flexible” worldwide cap

Affirmed a commitment

Preserve civil rights constitutional protections

All people

Unanimously passed

The same lawful, any Chinese laborer

Remain