Hidden Voices of New York City: Wong Chin Foo Student Workshop (Grades 3-5) - 9:30am

Educators! Register your students in grades 3-5 for this virtual workshop to learn more about the life and activism of Wong Chin Foo, as the fifth installment of our Hidden Voices of New York City virtual series.  

Students who participate in this series receive access to a diversity of perspectives, develop historical thinking skills necessary to develop an understanding of the past and how it influences our present and future, and build skills in civic agency through exposure to the stories of people who organized within and beyond the city of New York to improve the city at-large for all New Yorkers. 

This 1-hour workshop includes an active chat for class participation and student activities to do during the program. Told like a story in “chapters”, Wong Chin Foo’s life, work, and legacy will be explored through a close examination of images and historic artifacts. 

About Wong Chin Foo 

Did you know that the city’s Chinese-born population today (395,000) is almost 160 times its size in 1890? In 1882, the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring new immigrants from China from entering the country with few exceptions. Wong Chin Foo (1847-1898) was a key leader in the Chinese American community at the time, giving public lectures and creating the city’s first Chinese language newspaper, the Chinese American, to counteract the harmful effects of anti-Chinese sentiment. 

About the Workshop 

In this virtual workshop, students will learn more about Chinese American life in New York City in the mid-to-late 19th century as a window for exploring the impacts of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the life of Chinese Americans living in the city and beyond. Students will learn about how Wong Chin Foo used portraiture and the media to educate the public about the cultural value Chinese people added to the larger society and to counteract insidious anti-Chinese rhetoric at the height of the debates around Chinese exclusion. 

Free. Registration required. Educators who register their class will be provided with a zoom link in the days before the program. This program is presented as a webinar for student privacy. Participants are not visible on camera and chat comments are visible only to the Museum. 

About the Hidden Voices of New York City Virtual Program Series 

Hidden Voices of New York City is a six-part virtual workshop series for grades 3-5 from the Museum of the City of New York that highlights and honors the individual and collective experiences of a diverse swath of New Yorkers.  

Students who participate in the Hidden Voices of New York City virtual student series will sharpen their historical thinking skills through engagement with primary and secondary source materials, hone skills in civic agency through exposure to the stories of people who organized within and beyond the city of New York, and gain an understanding of how the past influences our present and future.  

The professional learning portion of the Hidden Voices of New York City series is designed to support educators with the best teaching strategies to bring these stories into the classroom, including activities and discussion strategies for grades 3 to 5. Learn more about these changemakers through thought-provoking guest speakers and primary source analysis that will expose multiple perspectives about the era in which they lived, the challenges they faced, and the legacy they left in New York. The Hidden Voices project is aligned to the Passport to Social Studies curriculum.   

Learn more at www.mcny.org/hidden-voices 

Can't make the 9:30 am program? We are offering a second program on May 17th at 11:30am!

Sign up here: Wong Chin Foo Student Workshop – 11:30am