The Chinese Historical Society of New England (CHSNE) is a historical society located in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
that was founded in 1992. It was founded with the directive to document
Chinese American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
immigration in the
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
region.
In 2016, the CHSNE partnered with th
Tisch College Community Research Center (TCRC)of
Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life (originally the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, or UCCPS) is a college of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. The college was founded with the aid of a $10 million donation b ...
,
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
, an
Mass Humanitiesto present a series of programs and exhibits called “These Words,” designed to advocate for the return of a branch library in
Boston’s Chinatown. “These Words” included information about the original branch library in Chinatown, the Shanghai Printing company (showing the importance of the printed word), an Oxford Street Community Bulletin Board (considering how the community communicated), and current activism around the library’s disappearance. The curators decided “to bring the evidence out into the public square by digitizing... archival documents and photographs and displaying them as large outward facing panels on windows in the neighborhood.” At the same time, a
public art project featuring cutouts of residents of Chinatown, conceived by artist Wen-ti Tsen and also sponsored by CHSNE, appeared on the Chinatown streets: “Tsen said the project, called 'Home Town,' is meant to underscore how development continues to affect the community, which was founded in the late 1800s and has over 12,800 residents.”
Both projects became great examples of “
public humanities.”
References
External links
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Historical societies of the United States