Five Chinatowns Community History Project – September 2022 Program

CHSSC has been excited to host nine interns for the 2022 Summer Internship in Chinese American Community History for the Five Chinatowns project, which documents the five Chinese American communities that existed in Los Angeles during the period before 1965. Over the past ten weeks, our summer interns worked as a cohort, learning from community elders under the guidance of Dr. William Gow (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Isa Quintana (UC Irvine), Dr. Kelly Fong (UCLA) with expertise in Asian American history. Interns conducted interviews, transcribed interviews, cleared existing transcripts, and produced edited transcripts for publication. This paid internship was made possible based on the generous donations of our members, without whom this project would not be possible. For more information about the Five Chinatowns project, please visit https://chssc.org/five-chinatowns/.

Join us at our September meeting to learn more about our interns’ experiences, to hear stories of the various Chinese American communities in Los Angeles before the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act and to learn how you can support our project. To allow enough time for all of our interns to present on their internship, this meeting will run from 6:30-8:00 PM PT.

Project co-directors

Will Gow is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at Sacramento State. Entering his 20th year as a volunteer with the CHSSC, he previously oversaw the Chinatown Remembered Project in 2007-2008 and co-produced the CHSSC documentary Revisiting East Adams in 2004.

Kelly Fong is a Continuing Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA. She has been involved with CHSSC since 2005, and has served as CHSSC Board Member, Golden Spike Gala co-organizer, and member of the archives committee.

Isabela Seong Leong Quintana is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Irvine, where she researches and teaches about Asian American and Latinx women’s histories. She has been an author for the Gum Saan Journal and has participated in various CHSSC events over the years.