This study examines the visual representation of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. Statistical Atlases from 1874 to1925. Compilers of the Atlases used a variety of visual strategies to facilitate rhetorical inclusion and exclusion, and by creating particular visual emphasis, constructed Chinese immigrants as being alienated, racialized, and low in the ethnic hierarchy. The visual constructs of the Chinese population reflected and reshaped the state’s policy of immigration restriction in the 19th and 20th centuries. © 2019, © 2019 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing.

Chinese immigrants Visual rhetoric data visualization statistical atlases Immigration Racism Ethnic identity

Chinese immigrants statistical atlases visual rhetoric Technical writing Communication ethnic identity Data visualization immigration racism