Asian Ceramics
Chinese pioneers worked as
miners at the Sulphur Bank Mine adjacent to the Elem reservation.
Arriving to take part in the 1850 gold rush, men from the coastal Guangdong
Province of China came to California in great numbers.
They were the most numerous of the gold rush immigrants and by the late
1800’s one of every 10 Californians was Chinese.
As a way of easing the
stress of being so far from home, many Chinese brought with them and imported
traditional foods, utensils, and personal items.
A sample of these items was found during the monitoring process.
 Stoneware (3)
Stoneware items included
pieces of one wide-mouth food jar and two Ng-Ka-Py jars.
These types of jars have been manufactured by hand in China for several
thousand years. The brown-glazed
wide-mouthed food jars had an unglazed stoneware lid that was cemented in place
with clay or plaster. These jars
held various food items such as tofu or salted duck eggs.
Ng-Ka-Py was a 90 proof
Chinese liquor that can still be purchased today and comes in a brown-glazed pot
with a flared pouring mouth. It is
sealed with a wooden stopper.
Porcelain (14)
Several styles of Chinese
porcelain were recovered during the monitoring process.
The most numerous represented two styles of dinnerware known as Bamboo
(5) and Four Seasons (3).
Bamboo ware was the least expensive of the Chinese porcelain and consisted of a
light gray/blue glaze with hand-painted stylistic darker gray/blue designs.
Although other vessels may have been created, this author has only
encountered footed rice bowls of this design.
Four Seasons was one of the more expensive of the Chinese porcelain patterns.
This design is a hand-painted polychrome stylized depiction of four
floral elements representing the four seasons.
The design is painted on a white glazed background and there is often a
maker’s mark on the base of larger bowls and plates.
The design is painted on the outside of bowls and on the inside of plates
and spoons. 
Two more Chinese porcelain patterns were recovered.
Two very fine porcelain pieces with a blue on white design were recovered
(0-196, 210) as were 3 pieces of polychrome ware (0-22 is most likely a
condiment dish). One plain white
glazed teapot fragment was also recovered.
Chinese Ceramic Distribution
The distribution map of Chinese ceramics
indicates at least 4 separate areas of use or discard.
As expected, the highest concentration is in the historic feature area
(discussed on another page). Chinese
materials were also found in the cul-de-sac at the southwest end of the
reservation, at the entrance road, and in the Lot 2 area in the northern part of
the reservation.
It is possible that the Chinese materials
arrived at the reservation through trade with the miners working and living at
the adjacent Sulphur Bank Mine. It
is more likely that these materials came to Elem along with some of the Chinese
miners who moved to the reservation to live with Elem families. It would be expected that Chinese miners would feel closer to
the people of the Elem community than to their “white” fellow miners.
During the late 1800’s, Chinese pioneers experienced widespread
discrimination at the hands of California’s “white” immigrants.
The “white” prejudice against the Chinese probably came from two
areas of perception:
- In the view of Caucasian immigrants, the
Chinese had a funny language, wore strange clothes, ate different foods, and
celebrated their holidays by making lots of noise with firecrackers, drums
and cymbals.
- California
was experiencing a high unemployment rate following the gold rush.
The rush had swelled the numbers of men in the state but had not
increased the number of jobs. White men needed someone to blame for their unemployed
situation. It was easy to blame
the Chinese.
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