China Town

Inspired by Chien-Chi Chang’s China Town film, this website provides information on Asian immigration in the US & Asians at Smith College.

Left Image: Pearl Harbor. Source: NPS Photos. Middle Image: Exclusion order in San Francisco (1942). Source: National Archives. Right Image: A newsstand in Oakland, California (1942). Source: Library of Congress.

Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka at the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA (1999). Source: UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

Vietnamese refugees on US carrier, Operation Frequent Wind. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

L.A. Riots Aftermath. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Asian Communities in the U.S.

These selected locations have strong Asian communities and histories. While this map aims to show different ethnicities and cities, this is not an exhaustive representation of Asian American geographic presence. 

Asian American Art at SCMA

This is a celebration of Asian heritage through the art at SCMA. Below are highlights of SCMA’s Asian American Art Collection. 

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References

A&E Television Networks. (2021, March 17). Asian American and Pacific Islander history. History.  https://www.history.com/tag/aapi    

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. (n.d.). Los Angeles-Koreatown, California. ACHP.  https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/los-angeles-koreatown-california 

Behnke, D. (2022, March 8). How did Hmong people find their way to Wisconsin? the answer has roots in America's Secret War. Crescent.  https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/special-reports/2022/03/08/hmong-arrive-wisconsin-after-serving-us-allies-secret-war/6830284001/  

Bellware, K., Liu, E., Branigin, A., & Liao, S. (2022, June 3). An American life: How Asian migrants built Unique Communities. The Washington Post.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/asian-migration-stories-america/ 

Burnett, J., et al. (2018, November 28). Decades after clashing with the Klan, a thriving Vietnamese community in Texas. Houston Public Media.  https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/11/28/313247/decades-after-clashing-with-the-klan-a-thriving-vietnamese-community-in-texas/ 

Calande, N. (2022, February 18). The history of WWII Japanese American incarceration in San Jose, CA. SJtoday.  https://sjtoday.6amcity.com/history-ww2-japanese-american-incarceration  

Cappiello, S. (n.d.). Pakistani immigration in a Changing America. Fable.  https://faculty.wagner.edu/lori-weintrob/pakistani-immigration-in-a-changing-america-2/  

Covid-19 fueling Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia worldwide. Human Rights Watch. (2022, August 16).  https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide  

Fawcett, J. T., & Gordon, L. (1987). Southeast Asian Refugee Migration to the United States. In Pacific Bridges: The new immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands (pp. 153–173). essay, Center for Migration Studies. 

Floyd Cheung, Vice President of the Office for Equity and Inclusion at Smith College.

The History of Chinatown. Peopling of NYC. (n.d.)  https://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/brooks10/chinatownhistory/index.html  

Im, J. (2022, May 27). The history of Koreatown: A heartbeat of Los Angeles.  https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/history-koreatown-heartbeat-los-angeles  

Lun, J. (2019, February 6). How and why did Cambodians settle in Long Beach, California. RespectAbility.  https://www.respectability.org/2017/09/how-and-why-did-cambodians-settle-in-long-beach-california/  

Lynn, K. (2022, July 13). Edison, N.J.: A diverse suburb in a convenient location. The New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/realestate/edison-nj-a-diverse-suburb-in-a-convenient-location.html  

Nagasawa, K. (2017, August 13). What happened to Chicago's Japanese neighborhood?  https://interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/chicago-japanese-neighborhood/  

The Asian American Education Project. The Asian American Education Project. (n.d.).  https://asianamericanedu.org/  

Smith College Special Collections Archives.

Tran, M.-T. (2007, December 21). Little Saigon lays roots in Houston. Los Angeles Times.  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-21-me-houston21-story.html 

Shama, F. (n.d.). Little Pakistan – Flatbush, Brooklyn. Little NYC.  https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/littlenyc/little-pakistan-brooklyn/  

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District New York, New York. National Parks Service.  https://www.nps.gov/places/new-york-chinatown-and-little-italy-historic-district  

Waxman, O. B., & Cachero, P. (2021, April 30). 11 Asian American history moments to know for AAPI month. Time.  https://time.com/5956943/aapi-history-milestones/  

Zhou, L. (2020, April 21). The long history of anti-Asian hate in America, explained. Vox.  https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/21/21221007/anti-asian-racism-coronavirus-xenophobia 

Credits and Acknowledgements

This website was researched and designed by Diem Nguyen '25, with supervision and consultation from Yao Wu, SCMA's Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art.

Special thanks to Jon Caris and Kate Nash from Smith College's Spatial Analysis Lab, Nanci Young and Leslie Fields from Smith College's Special Collections, and Floyd Cheung, Smith College's Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Professor of English Language & Literature and American Studies. Also thank you to Aprile Gallant, SCMA's Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and Richard Chu, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts.

Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka at the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA (1999). Source: UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

Vietnamese refugees on US carrier, Operation Frequent Wind. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

L.A. Riots Aftermath. Source: Wikipedia Commons.