Him Mark Lai
Encyclopedia
Him Mark Lai (November 11, 1925 San Francisco – May 21, 2009) was an American historian. He was known as the “Dean of Chinese American
History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History.
in 1969, and also taught the same course at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies
Department in the 1970s.
Him Mark Lai’s most well-known work is “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910–1940”, written in conjunction with Judy Yung
and Genny Lim
. These three formed the History of Chinese Detained on Island Project (HOC-DOI) to translate the Chinese poetry
found on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station and to collect oral histories of detainees on Angel Island, based on the specific restrictions of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
. Their resulting manuscript was independently published in 1980, and published by University of Washington Press in 1991. Lai joked to a newspaper reporter that “that book is the only one that makes [him] any money.”
In 1991 Him Mark Lai and Albert Cheng created the In Search of Roots Program through a partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of America
, Chinese Culture Foundation, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office from Guangdong
Province, China. This year-long program trains a dozen Chinese American youths how to research their family history through National Archives and Records Administration
documents and oral history
during the Spring. Each Summer, the students visit their ancestral villages in the Pearl River Delta
region of China. Upon their return, the students create a visual display of their genealogy
and display it at the Chinese Culture Center
during Lunar New Year
.
In 2003, the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley announced their “Him Mark Lai Collection,” over 200 feet (61 m) of Lai’s private research material, which he donated to the library for use by other scholars.
In 2007, Him Mark Lai was diagnosed with terminal
bladder cancer
, yet he continued his research and writing. Lai died at his home on May 21, 2009.
The UCLA Asian American Center Press announced plans to publish his autobiography in 2009 or 2010, co-edited by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
, Judy Yung
, and Russell C. Leong. In 2010 the San Francisco Public Library Commission
voted to rename its Chinatown branch after Lai.
and Yuri Kochiyama
. Nevertheless, he was investigated by the FBI for his activities in Min Qing, as depicted in the 1991 film, The Chinatown Files.
Manuscripts
Editor
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History.
Life
Him Mark Lai co-taught the first college course on Chinese American history with Philip Choy at San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
in 1969, and also taught the same course at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies
Ethnic studies
Ethnic studies is the interdisciplinary study of racialized peoples in the world in relation to ethnicity. It evolved in the second half of the 20th century partly in response to charges that traditional disciplines such as anthropology, history, English, ethnology, Asian studies, and orientalism...
Department in the 1970s.
Him Mark Lai’s most well-known work is “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910–1940”, written in conjunction with Judy Yung
Judy Yung
Judy Yung is professor emerita in American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in oral history, women's history, and Chinese American and Asian American history.-Life:...
and Genny Lim
Genny Lim
Genny Lim is an American poet, playwright, and performer.-Life:She graduated from San Francisco State University, and from Columbia University in 1973.She teaches at the New College of California....
. These three formed the History of Chinese Detained on Island Project (HOC-DOI) to translate the Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
found on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station and to collect oral histories of detainees on Angel Island, based on the specific restrictions of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by Chester A. Arthur on May 8, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Those revisions allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration, and Congress subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of...
. Their resulting manuscript was independently published in 1980, and published by University of Washington Press in 1991. Lai joked to a newspaper reporter that “that book is the only one that makes [him] any money.”
In 1991 Him Mark Lai and Albert Cheng created the In Search of Roots Program through a partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of America
Chinese Historical Society of America
The Chinese Historical Society of America is the oldest and largest archive and history center documenting the Chinese American experience in the United States...
, Chinese Culture Foundation, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office from Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
Province, China. This year-long program trains a dozen Chinese American youths how to research their family history through National Archives and Records Administration
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
documents and oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
during the Spring. Each Summer, the students visit their ancestral villages in the Pearl River Delta
Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta , Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao in Guangdong province, People's Republic of China is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea...
region of China. Upon their return, the students create a visual display of their genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and display it at the Chinese Culture Center
Chinese Culture Center
The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, California, USA, is a major community-based, non-profit organization established in 1965 to foster the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American art, history, and culture in the United States.The facilities of the Center, totaling ,...
during Lunar New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
.
In 2003, the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley announced their “Him Mark Lai Collection,” over 200 feet (61 m) of Lai’s private research material, which he donated to the library for use by other scholars.
In 2007, Him Mark Lai was diagnosed with terminal
Terminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...
bladder cancer
Bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
, yet he continued his research and writing. Lai died at his home on May 21, 2009.
The UCLA Asian American Center Press announced plans to publish his autobiography in 2009 or 2010, co-edited by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
Ruthanne Lum McCunn
Ruthanne Lum McCunn is an American novelist and editor of Chinese and Scottish descent.-Life:She was raised in Hong Kong.She graduated from University of Texas, in 1968....
, Judy Yung
Judy Yung
Judy Yung is professor emerita in American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in oral history, women's history, and Chinese American and Asian American history.-Life:...
, and Russell C. Leong. In 2010 the San Francisco Public Library Commission
San Francisco Public Library
The San Francisco Public Library is a public library system serving the city of San Francisco. Its main library is located in San Francisco's Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street at Grove. The first public library of San Francisco officially opened in 1879, just 30 years after the California Gold...
voted to rename its Chinatown branch after Lai.
Organizations
Him Mark Lai was what Albert Lowe calls a "stealth organizer," who was involved in progressive organizations throughout his life, strategically disguised as an interested researcher and scholar, and did not face the same community popularity or governmental scrutiny as higher profile Asian American activists of his era, such as Grace Lee BoggsGrace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs is an author, lifelong social activist and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. She eventually went off in her own political direction in the 1960s with her husband of some forty years, James...
and Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama is a Japanese American human rights activist.Kochiyama was born Mary Yuriko Nakahara in San Pedro, California. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Kochiyama's father was imprisoned the same day...
. Nevertheless, he was investigated by the FBI for his activities in Min Qing, as depicted in the 1991 film, The Chinatown Files.
- Chinese League for Peace and Democracy, San Francisco Chapter
- Chung Sai Yat Po newspaper, volunteer (1949)
- Min Qing (Mun Ching), (Chinese American Democratic Youth League/Chinese American Youth Club), President (1951–1959)
- Chinese Historical Society of AmericaChinese Historical Society of AmericaThe Chinese Historical Society of America is the oldest and largest archive and history center documenting the Chinese American experience in the United States...
(CHSA) (1963–2009) - East/West: The Chinese American weekly (1967)
- Chinese Culture CenterChinese Culture CenterThe Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, California, USA, is a major community-based, non-profit organization established in 1965 to foster the understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American art, history, and culture in the United States.The facilities of the Center, totaling ,...
(CCC) - Chinese for Affirmative Action
- In Search of Roots Program (1991–2009)
Publications
Articles- “A Historical Survey of Organizations of the Left Among the Chinese in America,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Fall 1972)
- “Chinese on the Continental U.S.,” Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups
- Encyclopedia of Chinese Overseas and Huaquiao Huaren baike quanshu [Encyclopedia of Chinese and people of Chinese descent overseas]
Manuscripts
- A History of the Chinese in California: A Syllabus (1969)
- Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910–1940” (1980)
- A History Reclaimed: An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language Materials on the Chinese of America (1986)
- From Overseas Chinese to Chinese American: History of Development of Chinese American Society during the Twentieth Century (1992, written in Chinese)
- Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions (2004)
- Autobiography (forthcoming)
Editor
- Amerasia JournalAmerasia JournalAmerasia Journal is an interdisciplinary academic journal covering Asian American studies. It was established in 1971 by the Asian American Studies Center Press at the University of California, Los Angeles....
, editorial committee. - Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Editor (1987–2009)
Education
- Nam Kue School, San Francisco Chinatown
- Commodore Stockton Elementary School
- Francisco Junior High School
- Galileo High SchoolGalileo Academy of Science and TechnologyGalileo Academy of Science and Technology is a public secondary school located in San Francisco's Russian Hill and Marina District neighborhoods...
- 1945 Class Valedictorian City College of San FranciscoCity College of San FranciscoCity College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...
- 1947 BS in Mechanical Engineering UC Berkeley
Filmography
- The Chinatown Files (2001) (http://www.filmakers.com/index.php?a=filmDetail&filmID=1094)
- Him Mark Lai: The People’s Historian (2004)
External links
- Him Mark Lai Digital Archive Project (http://himmarklai.org), established on October 28, 2007 by the Chinese Historical Society of AmericaChinese Historical Society of AmericaThe Chinese Historical Society of America is the oldest and largest archive and history center documenting the Chinese American experience in the United States...
- Finding Aid to the Him Mark Lai Papers (http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7r29q3gq/) retrieved 3/24/2008
- Him Mark Lai Heritage Fund (http://www.c-c-c.org/support/hmlheritagefund/) retrieved 6/17/2009