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Dotchin or 'Chinese opium scales', with ivory beam and brass scale pan in a guitar-shaped wood/bamboo case.

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O7/S [CROWN] S/1496

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The dotchin is a small set of scales used to measure the weight of trinkets and commodities. These were largely used in China and other parts of Asia. During the California gold rush in the mid-19th century, the Pacific coast of the United States saw a rise in Chinese immigrants who came over in order to mine gold. Some brought brough their dotchins, which had been in use for many centuries. Despite not being connected to its use for the majority of its history, following Britain and America flooding China with opium in the 18th and 19th centuries, the dotchin became correlated with the drug and was nicked in the western world as ‘opium scales’.

Eventually, as opium usage and addiction grew in America itself, punishments for serving opium were made increasingly severe, and ownership of a dotchin became seen as proof that one had possession of opium. During this time, relations between white Americans and Chinese immigrants became more hostile, enhanced by economic downturns. The term ‘opium scales’ is proof of how stereotypes have been used in the past to demonise certain cultures and populations, with people of Chinese heritage being targeted in this instance.

Alexander Walker, Hidden Histories MA Project Researcher