Chinese Historical Society of New England - CHSNE

12/23/2025

CHSNE recently welcomed our former board member Professor Wing Kai To and his American Immigration History class at Bridgewater State University to our office. Photo credit: Cynthia Yee

12/13/2025

12/12/2025

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3335878/how-boston-chinatown-overcame-constant-threats-win-its-place-history

New England’s last surviving Chinatown, Boston Chinatown has long suffered hostile urban renewal but now its community is stronger than ever.

11/25/2025

Family histories featuring the stories of Amy Chin and Ava Chin. https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/ice-detentions-local-jails-history-new-york-s-21135489.php?utm_campaign=CMS+Sharing+Tools+%28Premium%29&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwY2xjawOR-OlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeVtuuSO70h9cEsHVk5NAUsNeqvBK_wgrqr_SFM9aFVae5k3142kKarRMsKO4_aem_Sm-BC08-eF67kirWfIVHtQ

Family searches through North Country jail ledgers recall a hidden history that shaped today’s ICE detention network.

11/14/2025

Check out the wonderful new documentary about Boston Chinatown directed by Lukas D**g featuring Cynthia Yee and Gwen Liu on GBH’s YouTube channel
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex9uk7HQ9bMe

As Historic Chinatowns worldwide are squeezed by shifting demographics and urban development, Boston's has cultivated a resilient spirit of self-advocacy emb...

11/11/2025

Check out filmmaker and popular Youtuber Freddie Wong’s latest video about Chinese takeout menus as he tried to recreate one from the 90s for his movie. Did you know that CHSNE also has a large collection of vintage Chinese restaurant menus from the Boston area thanks to the family of our board member Stephanie Fan whose family business Shanghai Printing printed many of them? Visit us and learn more

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ofkdTv39hywatofrn

Nail House crowdfund ending soon!➤ https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/rocketjump/nail-house?ref=menuvThe journey of creating an authentic takeout menu prop...

11/11/2025

Professor Chao also had strong ties to Boston - having received his PhD and taught at Harvard and his daughter Rulan Chao Pian (卞趙如蘭）was also Professor of East Asian Studies and Music at Harvard. He died in Cambridge MA in 1982.

“Chao qualified, in no uncertain terms, as a genius.” ✨

— The Believer magazine

Yuen Ren Chao, born on this day in 1892:

🇨🇳 Is known as China’s founder of modern linguistics

🍄 Translated “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” into Chinese, keeping the playful, whimsical language

🐻 Was a UC Berkeley professor

🥟 Helped coin the terms “pot sticker” and “stir-fry”
_____

✨ Learn more about Chao
🔗 ucberk.li/chao

📝 Chao’s papers are held by The Bancroft Library
🔗 ucberk.li/chao-papers

🗣️ Read Chao’s interviews with the Oral History Center
🔗 ucberk.li/chao-ohc

10/05/2025

Join us on Thursday, October 16 for Researching Chinese Ancestry with My China Roots!

My China Roots is a Chinese genealogy database available for free at the BPL. Join Clotilde Yap as she provides an introduction to Chinese family history research and how to get started using the tools on My China Roots.

Learn more about the event at: https://ow.ly/8tEs50X385a

09/22/2025

“Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story” is headed to Amherst!

On Wednesday October 8 at 7pm the film will be screening at Amherst Cinema in Amherst, MA, followed by a panel discussion with Director Jennifer Takaki and Executive Producer George Hirose, and moderated by C.N. Le, Senior Lecturer of Sociology and Director of the Asian & Asian American Studies Certificate Program at UMass Amherst.This event is presented in partnership with the Office of Equity andInclusion at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

For more information and the link to tickets, please visit: photographicjustice.com/screenings

09/17/2025

History stretching back to 1905

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Chan’s, the downtown restaurant famous for its Asian food and jazz music is up for sale.

John Chan traces his family’s connection to the restaurant back to 1946, when his father, Ben F. Chan, boarded a boat to China. On that voyage, Ben met Thomas W. Ark, a Woonsocket restaurateur who had co-founded the original Shanghai Restaurant in 1905 located on the second floor of 267 Main Street.

After a fire in 1938, the business relocated to the ground floor and reopened as the New Shanghai Restaurant. Ark eventually married a cousin of Chan’s mother, and the couple returned to Woonsocket to help run the restaurant, while Chan and his new bride remained in Hong Kong.

In 1961, the Chan family immigrated to the U.S., settling in Astoria, Queens. Four years later, Ben purchased the restaurant from the Ark family, along with the adjoining bank property, which included a drive-up window (later converted for takeout) and a vintage vault that still remains inside today.

Shortly after the purchase, John Chan began working at the restaurant when he was 15. Years later, while studying at Providence College in the 1970s, John discovered a passion for jazz. When he took over the business a few years later, he remodeled the dining room and added a stage, transforming the eatery into a renowned venue for live jazz and blues.

Now 74, Chan says he’s ready to retire after nearly 60 years in the family business.

Chan’s is celebrating 120 years of Asian-American food at that location by hosting daily happy hours from 3 to 6 p.m.

The property, nearly 7,000 square feet including a restaurant, bar, lounge, and off-street parking, is currently listed for sale, with the option to buy the business ($500,000) and building ($1 million) together or separately.

The restaurant will stay open while a new buyer is found.

08/28/2025

New article about our 2016 Sojourner Award honoree and longtime supporter Auntie Amy - she is a true inspiration for all!

https://www.sampan.org/post/a-century-of-serving-others-at-101-amy-guen-reflects-on-her-role-in-founding-a-key-chinatown-soci?fbclid=IwdGRleAMc_D5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHq-rH7BvKISwsYvJymmMspqOFHa755iCrdR-AgCF6J7Y_5Fk2mAxUZdsYxeU_aem_bA-0xqMFN-crQylxdSiONw

Amy Guen has been interviewed enough times to know how the process works. Sitting at Jiangnan, a Chinese restaurant near Boston Common, she gave a rundown of the early years of her life that no doubt many are familiar with by now: born in Boston’s Chinatown, Guen then spent 12 years in China and r...

08/23/2025

A statue of Yung Wing, Class of 1854, was moved over the summer from Sterling Library's Memorabilia Room to the exhibition corridor. Yung, later an educator and diplomat, was the first Chinese person to graduate from an American university. The bronze statue was donated to Yale by Yung's hometown, Zhuhai, in 2004.