President Nixon's Visit to China
尼克松总统访问中国

15 July 2019
Pan Am Travel Bag and a note written on Nov. 6th , 1989 by a child whose mom's uncle Jack was the owner of the
manufactory, courtesy of Roy Delbyck, Museum of Chinese in America (MCOA) Collection
泛美世界航空旅行袋和一个孩子在1989年11月6日写的关于这个旅行袋的卡片,这个孩子的舅公是生产这个旅行袋厂家
的老板。Roy Delbyck捐赠,美国华人博物馆(MOCA)馆藏

On this day 48 years ago, President Richard Nixon declared he would visit the People’s Republic of China, ending an almost twenty-five-year span of zero communication between the two countries. Nixon’s visit to Beijing in February 1972 became one of the most significant events in over two hundred years of U.S.-China history. Nixon’s visit not only resumed the bilateral relationship after a break of almost a quarter of a century but served as a foundational step in China’s economic boom.

For the Nixon trip, Pan American World Airways produced an unknown quantity of commemorative attaché bags. To create the design, Pan Am updated its iconic travel bag with the inscription “The Visit of President Richard M. Nixon’s to The People’s Republic of China.” Curiously, the inscription fails to mention the date of the trip. Why? Perhaps the date was top secret, or perhaps the certainty of the trip was too unstable to mark a precise date at the time of manufacturing. More abstractly, the lack of a date underscores the importance of the trip, as if to say that the trip was so remarkable its date should be known to all, or so universally significant that its date bears little importance.


48年前的今天,理查德·尼克松总统宣布他将访问中华人民共和国,这次访问结束了两国长达近25年的零沟通。1972年2月,尼克松访问北京,成为两百多年来美中历史上最重要的事件之一。尼克松访华不仅恢复了中断了近四分之一个世纪的双边关系,而且为中国后来的经济迅速发展奠定了基础。

为了尼克松访华,泛美世界航空公司(Pan American World Airways)生产了数量不详的纪念公文包。在设计中,泛美航空公司更新了其标志性的旅行袋,在上面印上了“理查德·尼克松总统访问中国”。奇怪的是,这句话并没有提到这趟旅程的日期。为什么呢?也许日期是绝密的,或者这趟旅程的具体日期不断改变,没有办法在生产旅行包的时候印上一个确切的日期。更抽象地说,没有日期更突出了这趟旅程的重要性,就好像在说这趟旅程是如此非凡,所有人都应该知道它的日期,再或者这次旅行如此举世瞩目,它的日期就显得并不重要了。

Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.

2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年,为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献, MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories! 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑,全国线上接力,以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事,敬请大家持续关注, 讲出华人自己的故事,回顾过去,立足现在,展望未来,共同书写美国历史,使之更加充实完整。

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