"The poems at Angel Island are among the most dramatic finds in American literature" writes Karen L. Polster at the University of California, Riverside. Between 1910 and 1940, as many as 175,000 Chinese immigrants were detained and processed at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco, California. While interred under harsh conditions, many people carved poems into the Douglas Fir wallboards. More than graffiti, these poems have become a touchstone for aspects of the Chinese experience in California.
The Museum of Chinese in America, when planning their new building in New York City, chose to include a prominent reference to the poems at Angel Island. Cynthia Lee, VP of Exhibitions, Programs & Collections for MOCA, proposed creating a replica of an important poem in the Immigrant Station. While there are hundreds of poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station, a poem referred to as #69 is regarded as an especially fine example of classical Cantonese techniques.
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