August 11, 2006
Angel Island Poems
Historical Background
The Angel Island Poems are a group of more than 135 poems written by Chi
nese immigrants detained between the years of 1910 and 1930 at the immigration detention center on Angel Island, located in the San Francisco bay (Lai 8). The poems were discovered in 1970 by park ranger Alexander Weiss who noticed the calligraphy on the walls of the abandoned detention center. Through Weiss’s efforts along with those of Paul Chow and the Angel Island Immigration Station Historical Advisory Committee (AIISHAC), the dilapidated barracks was saved from demolition and special legislation was passed granting $250,000 to preserve and restore the barracks (“Immigration Station”). Written mostly by Cantonese villagers trying to immigrate to the United States, these poems express the hope, despair and frustration of detainees awaiting the outcomes of medical examinations and immigration paperwork. (Read the article)

Comments(2)