Dear Friends: I can’t believe that the year 2022 will soon be over and we start anew. It will be a challenging year, but the heart of our work remains our Talk Story programs. Whether at the Summit Tunnel in California, or at educational workshops in DC and Richmond, or among federal and private financial supporters of heritage and history, we will be guided by Talk Story principles –uncovering our stories, preserving them, and telling them in our own voices across generations. Our community is strengthened by that process. Your constant support is much appreciated.
Marking and revitalizing places are also important, and much of this year’s programming will revolve around “Chinatowns.” First, to launch a series of events under the theme of “stories and place,” we plan to have a webinar in February between community leaders from Philadelphia and DC on real time issues of professional sports arenas in Chinatowns, followed by another webinar on the “concepts” of Chinatown. These webinars prepare for conferences in May in DC (at our annual 1882 Symposium) on “Urban Chinatowns in Plain Sight” which will be about Chinatowns from largely urban planner perspectives and later in late summer 2023 or Spring 2024 in Utah on “Rural Chinatowns and Buried Sites” about Chinatowns from largely archeological perspectives.
Working together and collaboration, they are keys. Our plans this year include a March 21 event at the Kennedy Center. This will be the first of four events we plan through the Center’s “Culture Caucus” over a two year period. The March 21 event will be a film screening and reception. We want to bring national attention to efforts to register China Camp at the Summit Tunnel a National Historic Landmark. As President Biden’s office recently said, it is time to diversify our National Monuments.
We have also moved forward on a Chinese American Women in History (CAWH) conference for September 2023. It will reprise a conference organized three years ago with the Chinese American Museum of DC. We are in the midst of calling for papers and presentations and arranging venues and schedules with collaborators at the National Portrait Gallery and MLK Library. The theme will be “Kinship: Across Generations, Time, and Place.”
The new year promises to be extremely busy and challenging, but your constant support and confidence are encouraging. They are our best Christmas presents.
Sincerely and Happy Holidays,
Ted Gong Executive Director
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