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John Kuo Wei Tchen
John Kuo Wei Tchen is an Associate Professor of History and Individualized Learning in the NYU Faculty of Arts and Science and The Gallatin School. He is also the founding Director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute and former chair of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. Tchen is a historian and cultural activist. In 1980, he co-founded the New York Chinatown History Project that has enabled the largest Chinese settlement outside of Asia to document and explore their 160-year-long history.
Dr. Tchen's most recent book is the award-winning New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). He has authored Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown (1984) which won an American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) and he has edited and introduced Paul C. P. Siu's classic study The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation (1987). He has also written and spoken on museums, immigration, race relations, New York City, and cross-cultural studies.
Below are links to clips taken from Dr. Tchen's lecture given on April 8, 2005. The lecture was on the topics of developing the Chinatown history project, practices in participatory museology, and lessons learned from his work.
Promoting Understanding
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Preserving Community History
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2005 Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Museum. All rights reserved.