Teaching Relevant Chinese Histories: Canada, the United States and Mexico

This clinic will address historic issues and make contemporary connections to Chinese experiences in the Americas. Speakers will provide perspectives on U.S. and diasporic histories, multicultural education, civil rights, race relations, voting rights, law, and Chinese culture.

Teaching strategies--using the Concepts of Historical Thinking--will be presented. An educational package will be provided, including classroom-ready lessons, a list of resources, and primary document. There will also be book giveaways.

John Jung will talk about Chinese in the Deep South and how they preserved traditions and customs despite their cultural isolation. Judy Lam Maxwell, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver BC, will focus on the Chinese in Canada. Rebeca Lau will discuss her book, Mami, her paternal Chinese grandmother's journey from southern China to her married life in Tapachula, Mexico in the early 20th-century. Bettie Luke, The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle, WA, will report on the Chinese Expulsion Remembrance Project organized to mark the 125th anniversary of the Chinese being driven out of Seattle. Sharyne Shiu Thornton will discuss her mother, the only Chinese American woman to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II.

A bus will bring you to The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. The clinic will include presentations, discussion, lesson plans, break-out groups, a historical tour of Chinatown, a dim sum lunch, and a Chinese lion dance.