China News Service, April 11. According to the US "World Journal" report, the Human Relations Commission of Pasadena, where nearly 18% of the Asian residents of Los Angeles County are in the United States, recently unanimously approved the revision of the Text on a memorial plaque on Mills Place.
It turns out that there was once a Chinatown in Pakistan, but it was violently destroyed and looted by a group of white men 137 years ago, and the government at that time also legislated to drive the Chinese out of the city; the new version of the text will describe this history in more detail.
According to the revised version approved by the committee, the new plaque will read "In memory of the Yuen Kee Laundry and the early Chinese settlers in Pasadena who helped build the railway, labored on citrus and grape farms, and created a successful Businesses. On November 6, 1885, a mob threw rocks at the laundry, smashed kerosene lamps and burned buildings. The next day, the city banned all Chinese immigrants from living in the city center.”
According to Commissioner Sandy Greenstein, the description was recommended by Pasadena Heritage.
Everyone is very satisfied with this wording.
While voting on the new content, the committee also consulted with Asian American organizations, including the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Chinese American Museum, to see if they agreed with the approved language.
Earlier this year, two Pasadena residents complained to Councilman Felicia Williams that the plaque's contents did not accurately reflect the seriousness of the events related to the 1885 fire, and the city's response to the plaque's information proceed checking.
According to historical records, a total of 100 white men took part in the riot after weeks of tension and threats of violence.
However, this was not mentioned on the previous plaque.
The existing plaque simply mentions "Mills Place was originally named Ward Alley in 1885. A fire here destroyed a laundry owned by Chinese settlers".
According to a 2015 article in Pasadena Weekly, when the fire was started by a mob of white men, it was reported that "turned Pasadena's Chinatown into hell and wiped it off the map, and years of Come, and erase it from the history books."
"In 24 hours, angry racists drove 60 to 100 Chinese citizens of Pasadena out of the city in an ordeal that started with a dropped cigar and ended with a massive The lynching threat ended," while the name of the perpetrator of the violence was never released, an event that led to the creation of the city's fire department and decades of segregation.
According to historical records, in 1883, shortly after the owner of Yuan Kee Laundry moved to Mills Place and leased the building, other small Chinese business owners also started operations in Mills Place.
By 1884, the Pasadena and Valley Alliance, the city's only newspaper at the time, began publishing racist articles describing the Chinese as "an objectionable class" whose immigration "should be restricted."
Later that same year, the paper also claimed that the deportation of the Chinese from Pasadena had "good reasons" and said it could be done legally.
It didn't take long for nearly 100 men to sign a petition pledging not to rent properties to Chinese.
On the day of the incident, a group of white people gathered near the laundry room to throw stones, overturned a kerosene lamp and caused a fire. After the Chinese residents fled for their lives, these people began to loot the laundry room.
After the fire, city officials drafted an ordinance banning Chinese from entering parts of the city, and Chinese were warned to leave the city within 24 hours or they would "convene the crowd and use force to drive the Chinese out."
(Li Xue)