DREAMS TO ASHES

A recounting of the 1871 riot that left 18 Chinese immigrants dead in Los Angeles.

Using fire as a metaphor, Blackburne asks readers to consider the causes and effects of flashpoints in history before exploring the factors that led to this massacre. Her account begins decades earlier, when, due to war and disaster, thousands of Chinese men migrated to California in hopes of making a fortune in gold before returning home. When “gold proved elusive,” they sought other jobs. By 1871, 172 of these men had formed a settlement in Los Angeles; the author focuses on three in particular: a doctor named Gene Tong, musician Tong Won, and cook Wing Chee. Blackburne poetically juxtaposes descriptions of these men (“Immigrants. Humans”) with the buildup of xenophobia (“Aliens. Rats. Barbarians”). Words and violence continued to escalate until “a spark” of a gunfight feud ignited the fuel of hate. A mob looted stores and killed 18 people, including the three men introduced earlier. As the narrative wraps up, Blackburne considers the injustice perpetrated and the hypocrisy of newspapers that condemned the deaths but that had fanned the flames of racism; she ends on a hopeful note as she ponders how a country can learn from its past. Questions posed to readers throughout allow space for reflection, while Xu’s art, created with ink and Photoshop, illustrates the action and the emotion with varied compositions.

Deftly brings to light a lesser-known horror in the context of America’s history of racism against Chinese immigrants.