On February 9, 2025, the 1882 Foundation continued its tradition of hosting monthly Talk Story series with a presentation on new lesson plans regarding Washington D.C.’s Chinatown. The presentation was led by the Foundation’s Education Director, Ting-Yi Oei, and there were about 20 people in attendance, in-person and via Zoom.
These lesson plans stem from a series of videos made in conjunction with HumanitiesDC, filmmaker Penny Lee, and the 1882 Foundation, that focus on documenting the oral histories of people who grew up in D.C.’s Chinatown. The session began with a short “pop-quiz” to test the participants’ prior knowledge of Chinatown. Ting-Yi then launched into a mock lesson to imitate how these lesson plans could be implemented, guiding the audience through various activities, such as a roundtable discussion about childhood and memories and how that compares with the stories from Flashback. Having various generations in the audience allowed for an interesting discussion as to how communities have changed over time, mostly due to the rise of the internet.
The Flashback: Chinatown DC series were shown to be used as a launching point to connect to several different topics in school curriculums, whether it be immigration, local history, community building, this catalog of oral histories gives space to learn more about the Asian American community while also keeping in line with state curriculum. This was the first introduction of the lesson plans to the public. Ting-Yi and the Foundation intend to spread these lesson plans as a resource for teachers in the DMV area.
