Haoqing's Art Website
My brother and I
He barely 20 and I, 25 had survived harsh winters
Digging under tunnels of snow
Lowered in baskets
We chopped holes in granite cliffs
Setting dynamite
That tore a road out of sheer rock
Many of our friends died
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—FROM ALAN LAU, “WATER THAT SPRINGS FROM A ROCK,” 1991
Basket Story
Size: 9 x 12 in (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Media & Material: Chinese Ink & Paint, Water, Thin Brush, Toned Tan (Strathmore)
Date: May 2024
Creator: Haoqing Yu
Basket Story
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There is a legend of the baskets: Chinese railroad workers lowered themselves in the "bosun's chairs" to risk their lives working on the cliff face of Cape Horn. In the Sierra Mountains, they also used ropes, chairs, and woven baskets in road-bed construction work. However, there was no textual or visual evidence to prove the claim (Chang, 2019, p. 65).
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Some Accounts provide descriptions of the Chinese railroad workers in baskets
"The Central Pacific Railroad: A Trip Across the North American Continent from Ogden to San Francisco," published in 1870, provides a vivid description of the Cape Horn area:
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The swiftness with which the train flies down this tremendous incline, and the suddenness with which it wheels round the curves, produce a sensation not to be reproduced in words. The line is carried along the edge of declivities stretching downwards for 2000 or 3000 feet, and in some parts on a narrow ledge excavated from the mountain side by men swung from the top in baskets. The speed under these conditions is well calculated to try even the steadiest nerves. And as we sweep past each rugged height and grisly precipice it is impossible not to be stirred in one’s inmost soul by the grandeur of the moving spectacle.
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--- Gordon H. Chang, Ghosts of Gold Mountain, 2019, p. 66