ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - 120 years ago this year, the world came to St Louis, when the The Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened in late April 1904 in Forest Park and ran through December.
Everyone in St. Louis know it of course as the World's Fair, but not everyone knows everything about the people who worked at the fair, including a large portion who came from China.
"This is the first time China sent Chinese officials to the World Fair," said Dr. Zhoa Ma, a associate professor of modern Chinese History and Culture at Washington University in St. Louis. "A Part of the Mission for the delegation to recreate the Chinese image for the American/Western audience, but also they were invited to come over to the city."
A new exhibition is set to open titled, “Gateway to the East”: China at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The exhibition, curated by Ma along with a group that includes Chinese Studies students, examines how various groups of people, including Chinese diplomats, members of the Chinese communities in St. Louis, and contemporary scholars and community historians, understand the meaning and legacy of the fair.
Ma discussed many aspects of the Chinese participation in the World's Fair, including how the country wanted to rebuild it's image to a Western Audience that has seen the country as a xenophobic nation.
"When the Chinese delegation arrived, it wanted to correct that image," Ma explains, "They wanted to show America that this is a China in a reform and they wanted to invite the Western world to come back to China and do business with them."
"The Chinese participation enabled the American organizers to tell this kind of American story.... America is also re-thinking about 'how do we portray Chinese?"
While many of the Chinese delegation will move on and the end of the fair and spread across the country, a lot of artifacts brought by the Chinese to the fair was still all around the country In the exhibition, Ma says through the help of private collectors and donations, they will show what the Chinese footprints looked like in the World's Fair.
"We're very happy to show (St. Louis community) the interesting memorabilia and event the segments and fragments of the Chinese prevalence (at the World's Fair)."
The exhibit will officially be opened to the public on Saturday, Jan. 27 and it will stay up until April 21. The exhibit will be on display at the John M. Olin Library in the Ginkgo Reading Room.