Above: Entrance to Forgotten Chinatowns of Northern California.
By Marika Garcia
On September 7, 2024, the Chinese language American Museum of Northern California in Marysville opened its newest exhibit Forgotten Chinatowns of Northern California and accompanying public applications with assist from California Humanities via a Humanities for All Fast Grant.
Now on everlasting show, the exhibit showcases the background and historical past from ten areas of historic Chinatowns all through Northern California together with Auburn, Fiddletown, Folsom, Hanford, Mendocino, Crimson Bluff, Sacramento, San Jose, and Stockton.
Representatives from all ten websites have been on the opening reception and every gave displays on the significance of the preservation of their distinctive Chinatowns, the historical past of Chinese language settlement, the expansion of their respective Chinese language American communities, and the necessity for sources to take care of preservation of historic websites and public programming. By these displays, it was notable that a number of websites skilled disruption and displacement from repeated histories of burning, bulldozing, or “shifting” of Chinatowns which disbanded social and political unity inside Chinese language American communities. Regardless of these challenges, the perseverance and dedication of volunteer teams, descendants, and group leaders has saved these would-be-forgotten Chinatowns as related websites inside current day cities and cities.
A lecture by group historian David Lei, “Preserving Chinese language American Historical past: A Ache within the Butt” detailed the in depth efforts by historians, curators, and volunteers to doc the arrival and settlement of Chinese language immigrants all through California. 100 and fifteen individuals attended the ten displays and lecture, and despite the fact that there was solely sitting room for sixty, everybody stayed till the tip of this system.
Total, this undertaking clearly demonstrated a variety of collaboration amongst ten largely volunteer-run teams and organizations whose mutual targets goal to protect, improve, have a good time, and educate the general public on the existence and significance of Chinatowns inside their respective communities.
There have been moments the place youthful volunteers (beneath the age of fifty) inspired different teams who have been searching for participation from youthful generations, to permit and allow youthful people to steer initiatives, occasions, and initiatives that they wished and created, and never simply assign volunteers to present occasions or established initiatives.
The exhibit is housed within the Chinese language American Museum of Northern California’s latest house, which is the historic Suey Sing Society constructing in Marysville’s Historic Chinatown (303 1st Avenue).
The Museum is open the primary Saturday of every month from 12-3 pm.
Learn extra:
New Exhibit on Show on the Chinese language American Museum in Marysville (Attraction Democrat)
Northern California’s Chinese language Historical past on Show (Attraction Democrat)
