Mei Wah Drum Corps led by Drum Majorette Barbara Jean Wong Lee, 1940. (The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens)
An online exhibition that explores and celebrates the history of Los Angeles’ Chinatown — the first community in North America to be planned and owned by people of Chinese descent — has launched at The Huntington Library, along with a fence-wrapped installation at a vacant lot in the heart of the community.
The kick-off of the “Stories and Voices From L.A. Chinatown” exhibition coincided with the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Curators from The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles chose dozens of photographs, documents, illustrations, restaurant menus and maps from the collections of The Huntington’s and the Los Angeles Public Library to tell the story of New Chinatown, which was created in downtown Los Angeles in 1938.
The online exhibition — at https://exhibits.lapl.org/chinatown/ — will include video interviews with 10 community members who will share their personal connections, memories, experiences, thoughts and reactions, officials said.
