Fortune's Cookie

Social Studies Online

1. Using the information from their research and wall montages, each group creates a role play to show how Chinese miners were treated on the goldfields of New Zealand, Australia, and California.

   Suggestions for presentation of role plays:

   1. Hand puppet show
   2. Short play
   3. TV/radio interview
   4. Tableau or freeze frame

   Set time limits for both planning and preparing, and presenting the role play (eg. 20-30 minutes of class time for planning and preparing and 2-3 minutes for presenting). Allow time between the planning phase and the presenting session so students can collect props!

2. Students write two letters to the editor of a newspaper published in Otago in around 1870-80.
   1. The first is from a Central Otago European farmer and part time goldminer complaining about the hordes of Chinese on the gold fields.
   2. The second is a reply from a Dunedin based businessman who supported the Otago Provincial Council's invitation to Chinese miners to come to Otago.

   Possible answers include:
   The first letter could contain the following points:
   prejudice in some form;
   comments about the dress, appearance, language and working habits;
   the economic threat the Chinese immigrants posed once they had moved from gold mining to other occupations;
   the "non Britishness" of Chinese.

   The second letter could contain the following points:
   a reminder that the Chinese were invited to Otago by the Otago Provincial Council;
   since their arrival they have been hard working frugal and for the most part law abiding citizens;
   that they are contributing to the economy with their business skills and even providing employment for Europeans in dredging operations, and in a dairy company.

3. Individually or in pairs, students complete a Thesis Proof Chart analysing the statement:

   The effects of cultural interaction between Chinese and Europeans, was a negative one for most Chinese goldminers in the nineteenth century.