In the late 1970s I assembled some of my historic postcards of American Chinatowns, including cards showing Chinese restaurants, into a presentation called A Postcard View of Chinatown. I gave this presentation a few times, including at the 1980 national Chinese American studies conference sponsored by the Chinese Historical Society of America and held at the Chinese Cultural Center in what was then the Holiday Inn in San Francisco Chinatown. In 1984, the papers presented at the conference were published in a book put out by the society, The Chinese American Experience. This is the text of the article in that book

A Postcard View of Chinatown

The picture postcard is the sort of everyday item that we normally don't give a second thought. Most people consider the picture postcard merely a convenient way to write the folks back home or a nice souvenir from a trip. But there is more to the picture postcard than meets the eye. As a pictorial reproduction, the postcard freezes an instant in time. And while it may not be accurate to consider picture postcards of the past to be historical documents, they are certainly of historical significance.

The picture postcard came on the American scene in the 1890's. Picture postcards had originated in Europe earlier in the 19th century, but did not really arrive here until the Columbian Exposition of 1893. The emergence of the picture postcard in the 1890s coincided with the emergence of Chinatowns as a tourist attraction. Consequently many pioneer era postcards depict Chinatowns and Chinese Americans.

The earliest examples of cards depicting Chinatowns and Chinese Americans are the so-called private mailing cards which were authorized by Congress beginning in 1898. Interestingly, it was illegal to write any kind of message on the backside of these cards--the back was reserved strictly for the name and address of the recipient. Consequently, personal messages were often written on the front of the card.

A few early cards reproduced drawings rather than photographs. As such, these cards are the exception, as most cards from the early 20th century are photographic reproductions, generally black and white photos colored by hand.

Until 1915 American cards were no longer printed in Germany where the postcard manufacturing technology was far superior. It was not unusual to see cards by American companies carrying the legend "Hand colored in Germany."

After 1915 American cards were no longer printed in Germany because of import tariffs and World War I. Cards from the era from 1915 to the 1930s are identified by their smooth surfaces and white borders. American cards from the 1915 to 1930 era era produced domestically are noticeably inferior to the German-produced cards from the earlier part of the century.

Since American color printing processes were of marginal quality, black and white photo postcards became more common. In addition, actual portrait photographs were produced with postcard markings on the back and if you look in your old family photo albums, you may see the words POST CARD rubber stamped on the back.

Around 1930 came the so-called linen postcard. They were penny postcards many of us remember being sold from the 1930s up through the 1950s. The linen cards were introduced because the process permitted the printing on high rag content cards and the reproduction of stronger colors. However the quality of the reproduction was not always the best.

In the late 1940's the chrome postcard began to become popular. By the late 1950's the chrome card completely supplanted the linens and continues to this day. Ths only change, besides a higher quality reproduction, has been the enlargement to the larger "continental" size.

As far as futuristic trends in postcards are concerned, the Japanese began producing 3-dimensional postcards about 10 years ago. However, the cost of these cards seem to have been too much for the American public, and after a brief apperance in the stores in the early 1970s, 3-D postcards have since disappeared in the U.S., though a few unsold remnants may still be found in some stores.

Postcards, to the extent they depict Chinatowns and Chinese-Americans as they were at some time in the past, are of historical significance. However, this significance is capability of being overemphasized for a couple of reasons. First of all, the cards do not present a balanced view of Chinatown, but rather show what people wanted to see. For example, the sensational side was more than well represented in cards depicting opium dens, highbinders and slave girls.

On the other hand, the public thought Chinese women and children to be interesting subjects so though Chinatown was primarily a bachelor society around the turn of the century, Chinese women and children appeared with a disproportionate frequency. In addition, cards mixed the sensational with the cute, such as a card showing a little Chinese boy standing guard wondering "Are The Police Coming".

The second problem with postcards is that the publishers made liberal use of artistic license in the product. For example, one postcard depicted a group of Chinese women and children at a Chinese mission doing their laundry. The card was originally properly described. But after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the publisher reprinted its line of San Francisco Chinatown cards to acknowledge the fact that Chinatown had been destroyed by the earthquake, and the Chinese Mission suddenly became "Chinese Laundry, San Francisco; went out of business on account of terrible earthquake and fire, April 18, 1906.

Chinatown Mission or Chinatown Laundry?

Other forms of artistic license include a street scene in one city's Chinatown being described that of another, entire background scenes changed, pictures superimposed on other pictures, and buildings, people and objects being drawn in or erased from a picture.

The best example of artistic license comes from a series of postcards revolving around a picture of a Chinese gentleman dressed in Chinese barb. A full length photo card of the man in 1915 describes him as a "Chinese Merchant." Two cards describe him (using the exact same photograph as "The Soothsayer" and ""A Chinese Professor." The same man in the same pose also appears standing on the street in a 1930 era view of San Francisco and, in the same pose, in the middle of Mott Street, Chinatown New York in a mid-1920's card.

San Francisco Soothsayer or New York Pedestrian?

Finally, while Chinese and Chinatowns were used to sell postcards, Chinese have also made us of the postcard themselves. The very earliest American postcards were advertising cards sent out by businessmen, and Chinese businesses have utilized the postcard to promote themselves. Around the turn of the century Chinese stores used postcards for advertising purposes, the most prolific issuer being the Sing Fat Company of San Francisco and Los Angeles. And Chinese restaurants from Maine to California and points in between have all immortalized themselves through the picture postcard.