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On April 18, 1906 a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Northern California, destroying a large part of San Francisco. The earthquake had also spawned large fires that ravaged the city and took four days for firefighters to extinguish the fire. However, the fire had an unintentional benefit to a certain population living in San Francisco: The Chinese. The fire had destroyed City Hall and with it important documents about the Chinese living there. The Chinese used this to claim residency and citizenship, creating a backdoor to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and bringing a thriving Chinese-American community that still exists strongly in San Francisco today. I will be writing about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and how the resulting fire had impacted the lives of the Chinese-American community living in San Francisco at the time. I would title this paper proposal “The Dragon Rises: Chinese-American life after the Great San Francisco Earthquake”. My questions that I hope to answer in my final paper include: How did the fire impact the lives of the Chinese-American community and how did the destruction allow the Chinese-American community to rebuild. I would like to use firsthand accounts from those who were affected by the earthquake and fire. These sources would help me greatly understand how the Chinese-American community was impacted by the earthquake and fire and how they emerged from the destruction a much greater force and presence in San Francisco.