April 2026 Program
2026-04-08 17:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Golden Dragon Restaurant, 960 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States
Our April program is in-person at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Los Angeles Chinatown jointly sponsored by The China Society of Southern California.
Purchase your dinner tickets, $40/person, by selecting the number of tickets you would like to purchase and click on the Get Tickets button. The cost of the ticket includes a 3% transaction fee.

Speaker Bio:
Randel Urbauer is a photographer videographer with a BFA from Art Center College of Design. For over 30 years, he ran his advertising photography studio in the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles. His clients range from Cadillac to Cartier which took him to several international locations and dozens of cities within the US and Canada. In the early days of digital capture, he won the digital image competition held by the Advertising Photographers of America. He always enjoys sharing knowledge and collaborating within the arts community. In 2013 he created a short film documentary based on the Los Angeles artist Lynn Foulkes which screened at the Hammer Museum’s Bing Theater.

May 2026 Program
2026-05-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Eventbrite
Click to register

Speaker: David Chan
David R. Chan is a charter member of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (officially member #8). As a member of the Society’s Board of Directors, he also represented CHSSC with speaking and media appearances on Chinese American historical topics. After a decade long hiatus for his career as a tax attorney and familial responsibilities, he re-emerged as a writer and observer on Chinese food in the United States, weaving in aspects of our Chinese-American history into today’s Chinese foodie world.

June 2026 Program
2026-06-03 19:00 - 20:00 | Eventbrite
Program Title: The Sunset Route: Engineering and the Legacy of the Second Transcontinental Railroad
Program Description: This program details the strategic and technical challenges of building the Southern Pacific’s Sunset Route between 1869 and 1883. It highlights engineering marvels like the Tehachapi Loop and San Fernando Tunnel, while honoring the grit and sacrifice of the 3,000 Chinese laborers who made this transcontinental link possible.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Raymond Douglas Chong is a Professional Engineer, Senior Roadway Manager, and Public Historian. President of Generations, LLC, he is an acclaimed journalist, filmmaker, and poet. His work bridges technical expertise and historical research, focusing on transportation systems and the essential legacy of Chinese labor in America.
Click to register

July 2026 Program
2026-07-09 17:00 - 20:00 | Golden Dragon Restaurant, 960 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States
Our July program, jointly sponsored by The China Society of Southern California, is an in-person book talk with best-selling author Lisa See and her newest book, Daughters of the Sun and Moon at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Los Angeles Chinatown. Lisa See will sign copies of her book, available for purchase, starting at 5:00 PM. A dinner banquet at 6:00 PM is followed her book talk at 7:00 PM.
Purchase your tickets, $45/person. Select the number of tickets you would like to purchase and click on the Get Tickets button. The cost of the ticket includes a 3% transaction fee.
You can now purchase your tickets with credit card or PayPal.
If you prefer to pay by check, please mail a check, $45/person, payable to The China Society of Southern California, to:
Bob Lee
c/o Jin Hing Co.
412 Bamboo Lane
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Please mail your check prior to July 1 and include the name(s) of the people attending.
We will have Lisa’s new book for sale at the dinner and before July 9th at Jin Hing Co. in Chinatown. The book will be $28 cash/check, $29 credit card. The book is normally $29 plus tax.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Beloved New York Times best-selling author Lisa See draws on the vibrancy and turmoil of post-Civil War Los Angeles to tell the story of three Chinese women who managed to survive and, eventually, thrive, despite all odds.
In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles, Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain – America – where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English, and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed foot-binding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.
Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved. Petal desires freedom, and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined. Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance, and ability to “eat bitterness” to discover their voices, find freedom, and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa See is the New York Times best-selling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women.

Yosemite Pilgrimage 2026
2026-07-29 - 2026-07-30 | Yosemite National Park, CA, United States
In 2013, National Park Ranger Yenyen Chan, CA State Park Superintendent Jack Shu, and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California initiated the annual Yosemite Pilgrimage based on Yenyen’s ongoing research on the many contributions made by early Chinese in Yosemite National Park.
This year marks our 14th annual pilgrimage led by retired National Park Ranger Yenyen Chan.
It will be based in Lee Vining’s Gus Hess Park Solar Pavillion, located next to Yosemite National Park’s eastern entrance at the intersection of Hwy 395 and Hwy 120. It is a 30-minute drive to and from Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows. Attendees may choose to drive up on Tuesday, July 28, or one day earlier on Monday, July 27.
Click to view itinerary
Email Sam Chow (sam.chow@chssc.org) if you are interested in going.
Below is a schedule overview:

Yosemite Pilgrimage Celebration
2026-08-03 18:30 - 20:30 | Barnes Park Service Clubhouse, 440 S McPherrin Ave, Monterey Park, CA, 91754, United States
Join us for a “recap” of this year’s Yosemite Pilgrimage. Please RSVP so enough snacks are available.
Click here to RSVP

CHSSC Summer Picnic 2026
2026-08-15 12:00 - 14:00 | Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 411 Bernard St, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States
Join us for our annual summer picnic and admire our new paint job, hear our UCLA intern sing a little Cantonese opera, see the books we are giving away, and enjoy lunch with old and new friends.
Please RSVP info@chssc.org. Let us know who is coming and if you are bringing $20 cash/person or a main dish, vegetable dish, or salad that serves 8-10 people.
Hope to see you there!

September 2026 Program
2026-09-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Eventbrite
Click to register

BACKGROUND:
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has announced plans to close its San Bruno, California, and Chicago, Illinois, facilities within three years, with transfers potentially beginning as early as August 2026.
San Bruno holdings comprise 100,000 cubic feet of records, including Asian and Pacific immigration and naturalization materials; the original case file from United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 decision that helped establish birthright citizenship; Chinese Exclusion case files; German, Italian, and Japanese American World War II records; documents concerning the Tanforan Assembly Center incarceration; legal records related to the motion to vacate Fred Korematsu’s 1944 conviction; Japanese picture bride files; Alien Files containing visas, photographs, and family-history materials; records documenting Indigenous and Hawaiian communities; Mexican Land grant cases; and arrival case files for Russian Jews and other immigrants from throughout the world.
Chicago facility holds permanent records created by federal agencies and courts in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, including naturalization and genealogical records and Chinese Exclusion Act case files from Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Public access to historical records is under threat as demonstrated by the attempt to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences—the only federal agency dedicated to providing funding for the nation’s libraries—by executive order.
SPEAKER BIO:
Grant Din has been conducting research at the National Archives branch in San Francisco (located in nearby San Bruno) since the 1990s, finding countless treasures. Learn about some of the stories he has found there and at other regional branches, and why the regional archives should be kept open. Grant Din has been doing genealogy for family, friends, clients, and charity auction winners for over forty years.
He has been on the staff of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation and worked with or volunteered for many other nonprofits, and was the lead author of the Chinese American Historic Context Statement in San Francisco and the co-curator of the permanent exhibit on Angel Island, Taken From Their Families, about the WWII detention of Japanese immigrants there. Grant’s given online or in-person genealogy presentations for countless organizations and currently he’s spending a lot of time as communications co-chair of Save Our National Archives (saveournationalarchives.org), which is a coalition of people and organizations fighting to keep the National Archives branches in San Bruno and Chicago open and accessible to researchers.
MODERATOR BIO:
Rick Eng is National Executive Vice President of Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.), Past President of the L.A. chapter of C.A.C.A., and Program Manager of L.A. County’s L.A. vs. Hate agency.
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We need your support. Click to sign petition to stop the closure of the National Archives in Chicago and San Francisco.
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Asian Art Displays - Stephen Little
2026-09-03 16:15 - 19:00 | Golden Dragon Restaurant, 960 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States
Please RSVP: yvonnechang8@gmail.com if you are interested in attending.

Lang Station 150th Anniversary Commemoration
2026-09-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Lang Southern Pacific Station, 3210015903, Canyon Country, CA, 91387, United States
Celebrate the contributions of the Chinese American pioneers who helped to build the railroad tracks linking San Francisco with Los Angeles over 150 years ago.

Press release:

Address of the Plaque:
14212 Lang Station Rd, Canyon Country, CA 91387
Directions from Los Angeles:
Take I-5 N and CA-14 N to Soledad Canyon Rd. Take exit 11 from CA-14 N. Drive to Lang Station Rd.

Fashioning Chinese Women from Empire to Modernity
2026-09-10 19:00 - 20:00 | Eventbrite
This program is co-sponsored by The China Society of Southern California and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.
Click to register

Michaela Hansen, the curator of the current exhibition at LACMA, will discuss a century of evolution from of Chinese dresses from the late Qing Dynasty. According to our speaker, “The collection documents this period of incredible change that women are experiencing.” She will discuss the social liberation and mobility many women experienced following the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912.
Speaker Bio:
Michaela Hansen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Apparel Design at Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Design, Fashion Design at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was on the curatorial staff at LACMA for 10 years and has been an independent curator based in Connecticut since 2023.
