Drama on the Streets 1873 and 1882

Guan Gong, legendary protector of those who make their living by traveling. He was the sustainer of the touring theatrical troupes and of the immigrants they served, especially the seamen and migrant farm workers, then a major part of the Chinese community in America. In 1886, thirty thousand Chinese made up 88 percent of California's farm labor.

Guan Gong's image was in every green room and heart in Chinatown. The theatre's role as spiritual sustenance of the community was especially important during the anti-Chinese campaign organized by demagogues during the mid-1870s' economic crisis. Chinese were made the scapegoat for mass unemployment. Thirty thousand Chinese, fleeing riots in other towns, found a refuge in San Francisco's Chinatown. The theatres sustained their spirits.

Climaxing this racist campaign, Congress passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banning immigration of Chinese workers and naturalization of any Chinese.

In the 1870s, the Chinese immigrants continued to contribute their skills and strength to the building of San Francisco and the development of the West in construction, and industry, agriculture and fishing, shipping trade and railroad building. Most Chinese here were men without their families. Chinatown was little more than a rickety slum of bachelor hostels, shops and eating places.

Many immigrants were "sojourners" intending to return to China once they had "made their pile." They were not too fastidious about where they lived temporarily. Just as in China, however, they had to have their opera to "feel at home." They supported three or four opera houses, their main centers of entertainment, education and community get-togethers in Chinatown.

Chinatown bachelor audiences, like San Francisco audiences in general, delighted in historical operas with gorgeous costumes, and romantic tragedies and comedies. Acrobatics, martial arts episodes and folklore operas pleased everyone.

Continuing their touring tradition to serve the overseas Chinese, Cantonese Opera troupes regularly toured the China Camps and Chinatowns of gold miners in the Sierra Nevada and points between them and San Francisco. Some, like Sacramento and Columbia, built theatres.