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The Immigrant History Trail is a multimedia public art project that activates Boston Chinatown's community archives to share stories about the neighborhood's working class immigrant histories.
Plaques will hang on the walls of buildings across Boston Chinatown, inviting visitors to navigate the neighborhood with curiosity. QR codes link to this website, which highlights relevant text, images, and audio fragments, and points to where visitors can learn more.
This project is a community stewarded resource that will be updated regularly with new contributions of sites and stories for the Immigrant History Trail.
Boston Chinatown is at a crossroads after absorbing decades of urban renewal, zoning injustice, and institutional expansion, followed by luxury highrise development. The future of the immigrant, working -class residential and small business core that has characterized the neighborhood for 180 years is at risk. Now, more than ever, there is a need to make working -class immigrant histories of Chinatown known, accessible, and celebrated.
Boston has a long history of neighborhood activism, and the Immigrant History Trail involves a similar grassroots and iterative mentality. We will engage local community members to collaborate with us as advisors and participants by contributing stories and memories, selecting sites for the Trail, creating archival resources, and more. We are committed to creating a participatory, non-linear Trail that emerges from community involvement. Residents, workers, small business owners, and organizers can all contribute stories, research, and audiovisual media, and engage their fellow community members.
We would like to thank Mass Humanities and the City of Boston Transformative Public Art Grant for support. We would also like to thank our partners including Boston Research Center and all current and past volunteer Immigrant History Trail Committee members.
While the Chinatown Community Land Trust is launching the Immigrant History Trail, the project idea originated during a conversation among many community partners held at the Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) in 2019, as community members discussed historic preservation for the 2020 Chinatown Master Plan. We would like to honor Tunney Lee (1931-2020), who was present in this conversation and enthusiastic about creating an iterative QR-code trail to show Chinatown's archival images to its visitors.
The core Immigrant History Trail team includes Daphne Xu, Lydia Lowe, Vivian WuWong, Lily Xie, Elisha Zhao, Franny Xi Wu. The website team includes Eric Han, Wei Qi, Diane Zhou. Fabrication and installation of physical signage is by Jaywalk Studio. The Immigrant History Trail has a volunteer Advisory Committee which works to continue building the Trail.
The Immigrant History Trail is funded in part by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture of the City of Boston, Mass Humanities with funding from the Barr Foundation, and by a grant from the National Trust Preservation Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Thank you to the members of the Immigrant History Trail Committee which advised the project, conducted research, wrote and edited text, found photographs, and performed many other tasks to begin building the trail: Christina Chan, Krista Chan, Collyn Chan, Chutze Chou, Stephanie Fan, Maria Fong, Olivia Fong, Dory Klein, Henry Ko, Michael Liu, Nancy Lo, Lydia Lowe, Feronia Mei, Joseph Nevins, Franny Xi Wu, Jean Wu, Vivian WuWong, Lily Xie, Daphne Xu, Hongyan Yang, Cynthia Yee, Kenneth Yee, Anita Yip, Elisha Zhao,
Thank you to Alice Kane and the Chinese Historical Society of New England; Kenneth Eng, Nancy Lo, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association; Dory Klein and the Boston Public Library; Giordana Mecagni and the Northeastern University Archives; Chloe Bordewich and Lydia Harrington of the Little Syria Project; and the Pao Arts Center for their partnership, advice, support, and sharing of resources as we developed the Immigrant History Trail.
Thank you to the interviewees who have contributed time to build and share their oral histories: Joanne Bethoney Carter, Eva Peter Chojnowski, Betty Lutfy Dimeco, Russell Eng, Ann Moy, Brian Moy, Marie Moy, George Salah, Rosanne Solomon, Jianhua Tang, Jeffrey Wong, Cynthia Yee
Thank you to Professor Hongyan Yang and her Boston College course Making American Landscapes: Building and Living in Asian America for extensive support in researching the following sites. 25-29 Beach Street: Ines Angara Hamilton A Areddy Jennifer L Bartlett Cassandra J Kavanagh Chinese Merchants Association: Maxwell K. Guan Ashton Kao Dan T. Nguyen Ethan Sun Globe Theater: Ric J. DeLyons Kaetlynn C. King-Velez Mary E. Zagrocki Hong Far Low Restaurant: Shirley J. Canales Kiran Hebert Claire Kildahl Aina Yamagishi John Assaf Home: Connor J. Capshaw Emma J. Cunningham Nicholas R. Rhodes Katelynn Wasta Kwong Kow Chinese School: Alisa G. Cufone Grace L. Concannon Hi'ilei G. Leong Kendall Torres Maryknoll Sisters Center: Isabella M. Ayalew Josiah S. Odhiambo Mica Quelle Saifya N. Stewart Shakespeare Inn: Jeremiah Alhassan Tommy Bi Ashley S. Choi Jenna Jiang Sofia Rugova Tunney Lee Home: Chelsea Lee Madeline G. Cunniff Mae S. Carroll Sophia C. Comparato
Thank you to Giselle Chu, Emily Hiltunen, and Rachel Liu, project assistants for the class. Thank you to their following advisors: Eddie Bonilla, Lynn Johnson, Michael Liu, Lydia Lowe, Steve Runge, Erin Scheopner, Vivian WuWong.
