The Chinatown History Project

FAIN: MT-290269-23

University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA 90089-0012)
William Deverell (Project Director: June 2022 to present)

Prototyping of a multiformat digital project on the history of Los Angeles’s Chinatown.

Los Angeles Chinatown was demolished in the 1930s to make way for Union Station Passenger Terminal. Based upon a cache of historic photographs made prior to destruction, this project brings historical research together with Augmented Reality tools. The latter will allow users, as they walk through the grand rail depot, to see a lost neighborhood. Because the imagery had been meticulously addressed, the Chinatown History Project can locate the images with geospatial accuracy across the throughout the byways of the station and its entrance esplanade. Historical research into census and immigration records, newspaper accounts, oral histories, and other sources further invites users to learn who lived in this or that building, who worked here, who once called this vibrant place home. In a fraught time of anti-Asian thought and behavior, the project invites the public to reflect on the history of the Asian American experience in Southern California and beyond.

Associated Products

Where You Stand: Chinatown, 1880 to 1939 (Exhibition)
Title: Where You Stand: Chinatown, 1880 to 1939
Curator: NA
Abstract: Union Station stands at the site of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown. This once vibrant community of families, businesses, and associations with roots going back to the middle of the 19th century was a place where residents persisted, grew rapidly, and thrived. Where You Stand: Chinatown 1880 to1939 invites participants into the center of the vibrant community through a multi-dimensional experience. Installed in the Union Station Waiting Room Gallery, view the exhibits' historic photographs and use augmented reality to see artifact materials superimposed within locations around Union Station. Audiences can explore the site’s historic layers, formerly a collection of alleyways, streets, and buildings, and home to thousands of Chinese residents in the late 19th to early 20th century Los Angeles.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/1e5f963472f4400da19fcb0e3ccfdd5e?item=1
Primary URL Description: This website covers the physical exhibition and supplements it with interactive maps and oral histories of people who were raised in Old Chinatown.

Celebrating in Our Ancestors' Footsteps (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Celebrating in Our Ancestors' Footsteps
Abstract: In the Union Station Waiting Room, this event celebrates the exhibition, Where You Stand: Chinatown 1880 to 1939. Kicking off with a dynamic performance of a traditional lion dance by local students of the East Wind Foundation, the event continues with an exhibition walk-through. Exhibition partners and several descendants of the families connected to the exhibition share personal stories and insights.
Author: Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
Author: Metro
Author: Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
Date: 02/15/2024
Location: Union Station, Los Angeles
Primary URL: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/metro-art-presents-celebrating-in-our-ancestors-footsteps-tickets-803451163057?aff=oddtdtcreator
Primary URL Description: Eventbrite rsvp for event with details.

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