[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

I stumbled across an amazing set of photos on Twitter taken in old Chinatown, courtesy of The Hungtington. They're from a set of glass plates that were discovered in the 1940s and only recently digitized.



Link to Twitter thread with several photos.

Mid-Late 1890s? Most of the Chinese men appear to dress in the traditional Chinese way, and have long hair cues or pigtails. After 1900, more Chinese adopted Western dress, and started to cut their cues. The western women at left are dressed in a style characteristic of the 1895-1900 period, although the photo could be as late as 1905 or early as 1890. Most likely 1895-1900 in my opinion.

After 1910 few Chinese men in the U.S. except the most traditional, the elderly and new arrivals wore long pigtails. Cue cutting coincided with the rebellions in China against the western concessions and the imperial system, like the Boxer Rebellion and other uprisings by the oppressed "coolies" that eventually ended the the rule of the emperor.