Those people faced steep odds and would have faced intense racism along their path. But they built a resilient and stable support system. One such example was a complex Chinese economic network in Los Angeles built around pork butcher shops.

A recent study published in American Antiquity, a peer-reviewed journal, focused on Chinatown in Los Angeles and analysed how the “economy of pork” created a nutritional and financial safety net that allowed the Chinese community to circumnavigate the institutional racism they faced in the US.

Jiajing Wang, an anthropological archaeologist at Dartmouth College in the US and study author, told the Post: “Pork has long been a staple food for most Chinese migrant communities, so this business provided them with a stable source of protein.

“Analysis of pig bones from the Los Angeles Chinatown also suggests that the residents likely sold the more profitable parts to people outside Chinatown for additional income while consuming cheaper cuts themselves.”

During the Chinese Exclusion era, Chinatown in Los Angeles housed between 5,000 and 15,000 people. It was filled with Chinese-owned businesses like laundromats, herbalists, and vegetable shops.

Butcher shops – of which there were at least four in Chinatown – became essential to the village’s success and often created a social safety net for fellow Chinese immigrants.

Through bone analysis, the researchers could determine that the pigs likely ate slop made from domestic and commercial rice discards, borrowing practices that had become popular in southern China.

“Although it remains unknown whether there were rice farms in the Los Angeles region, the presence of rice-leaf phytolith lends further support that the pigs were raised locally by Chinese migrants,” said Wang.

The presence of rice suggests an extensive Chinese economic network in California that may have stretched as far north as Sacramento, over 600km to the north.

As the butcher shops found success, they experienced a racist backlash from white butchers who staged public protests to “take the pork trade out of the hands of Chinese”.

They would boycott businesses that worked with Chinese shops, fire Chinese workers, and spread unsubstantiated claims that the rice slop made Chinese pork inferior to corn-fed pigs.

Evidence suggests that the racist campaigns did make an impact, as some parts of California did experience a decline in the Chinese pork industry.

But despite – or because of – the headwinds, the butcher shops built a self-reliant network and would play a crucial social and financial role in Chinatown.

For example, a butcher shop called Sam Sing provided affordable housing and food to fellow Chinese, specifically people with the surname Wong, because it was the same as the owners.

Sam Sing would also provide testimony to prove that Chinese immigrants could return to America after visiting their homeland. A vegetable farmer named Wong Yee even kept his money at the shop when he visited China, suggesting that Sam Sing was providing banking services.

“These examples show how reliant Chinese migrants were on Chinese-owned stores for surviving in a society that was vehemently anti-Chinese,” the authors wrote.

The Los Angeles Chinatown peaked in 1933 and began a decline that was accelerated by external forces. Laura Wai Ng, a study author and assistant professor at Grinnell College, said: “The Chinese Exclusion Act ended in 1943, and much of the original Los Angeles Chinatown was destroyed in 1930 by the construction of the Union Station passenger terminal.

“Later, the construction of the 101 freeway in the late 1940s and early 1950s destroyed the rest of the original Los Angeles Chinatown.”

The destruction of Chinatown highlights how archaeology can be used to retell the histories of marginalised communities. The Los Angeles Chinatown is long gone, and history is usually written by those in power, meaning the stories of the earliest Chinese immigrants are often not told.

“However, archaeological studies of material records provide an alternative avenue through which historically marginalised communities can reclaim their voices,” said Wang.