Mount Hope Cemetery Database Project

The Symposium was an inspiring way to kick off agreat year of CAPAY programming. The energy generatedat the Symposium inspired the planning team to dropmore knowledge. In December, CAPAY hosted a publicworkshop on consumerism. Youth from Chinatown,Dorchester, and Worcester discussed the importanceof creating culture. If our current generation loses thecultures of our parents, it will be difficult, if not impossible,to recreate those losses.And it doesn’t stop there. Keep an eye out formore programming in May to celebrate Asian PacificAmerican Heritage Month and beyond.Mount Hope CemeteryDatabase Projectby Laura NgChinese Monument at Mount Hope Cemetery(Photo by Frances K. Chow)This past year, I was given the task of creating asearchable database for the Chinese section of MountHope Cemetery that would integrate cemetery recordsand gravestone photos taken in 2007 by UMB AsianAmerican Studies Program students. Mount HopeCemetery is a significant site because it is the final restingplace for many of Boston’s early Chinese immigrants.Around fifteen hundred Chinese Americans were buried inthe cemetery between the 1930s and 1960s. Racism, evenin death, is part of the story why Chinese were buried intheir own segregated section of the cemetery.I used FileMaker Pro to create the database forMount Hope. So far, I have been able to input all of thenames and grave locations of the people buried thereas well as the gravestone photos from 2007. Not all ofthe gravestones were photographed, but I will be visitingMount Hope to finish that part of the project, and itshould be completed by the end of this summer. AnotherSpring 2010component of the database project is translating theChinese characters on the gravestones which often tell usthe Chinese name and village of the deceased individual.Suffolk University professor Da Zheng has helped translateChinese characters on some of the gravestones, but morevolunteers are needed for this project.Our collective work on the Mount Hope databasehas already aided one person researching his family’shistory. This April, I received an email from RaymondChong requesting the gravestone photo of ChongQuock Hung, a Chinese man who immigrated to Boston,died in 1964, and is buried at Mount Hope. I was ableto successfully retrieve his gravestone photo from thedatabase in just a few seconds and email it to Raymondwho was overjoyed.Chong Quock Hung is important to Raymondbecause he was the one who gave his father, Gim SueyChong, a “paper” name in 1932 which allowed him toimmigrate to the U.S. During the Chinese ExclusionPeriod, 1882-1943, only certain Chinese such as merchantsand their family members were able to immigrate to theU.S., so many pretended to be a merchant’s son and heldpaper names. Raymond wanted to present the gravestonephoto to Chong Quock Hung’s adult grandchildren whomhe will be visiting this summer when he makes a tripto their village in Kaiping (Hoiping), Guangdong, China.Having this photo in the grandchildren’s possession is verymeaningful because in Chinese tradition, it is importantto be buried with one’s family members and ancestorsnear the home village. As a restaurant worker in Boston’sChinatown, Chong Quock Hung was too poor to havehis bones sent back to his ancestral village in China. Itold Raymond to assure the grandchildren that in myfuture visits to Mount Hope, I would make sure theirgrandfather’s gravestone was well-maintained.Raymond’s searchfor a piece of his family’shistory shows us howimportant the database isfor preservation purposes,genealogical research, andhonoring the lives ofBoston’s early ChineseAmerican residents.(Photo from Mount HopeCemetery Database)Page 17

New Staff / FacultyAn Interview with Oiyan PoonInterviewed by Laura NgTranscribed by Molly HigginsOiyan Poon is currently aResearch Associate at theInstitute for Asian AmericanStudies and recentlyreceived her Ph.D. fromUCLA’s Graduate School ofEducation & InformationStudies. She was the first(Photo courtesy of Oiyan Poon)Student Affairs Officer inAsian American Studies atUC Davis, the first APA Student Affairs Director at GeorgeMason University, and in 2007, she was elected President of theUniversity of California Student Association.Laura: Where were you born and raised?Oiyan: I was born in Malden. My family lived in Somervilleand then we moved out to western Massachusettsto a town called Ludlow, right outside Springfield,and my grandparents were in Boston’s Chinatown.So, that’s where I grew up.Laura: Can you tell me what some of your researchinterests are?Oiyan: Primarily, I’m interested in questions of whereAsian Americans fit within race conscious policies.My dissertation was a campus racial climate study(of UCLA), looking at how Asian Americans areracialized. I was interested in how they learnabout race and racism, how they are treated interms of subversive and overt and not so overtracial experiences, and what students learn aboutracism from those day-to-day experiences.Laura: What did the research you conducted for yourdissertation tell you?Oiyan: That race and racism still play an importantrole in subordinating Asian American students in aracial hierarchy. The UCs (University of California),all nine campuses, do these senior surveys to askstudents various questions about their UCexperiences, and several of the questions askstudents about their sense of belonging oncampus. And the group that has always felt theleast sense of belonging is Asian Americans, eventhough on some campuses they make up almosthalf of the undergraduate enrollments. So, yeah,it’s surprising, yet not at the same time becausePage 18Laura:Oiyan:Laura:Oiyan:Laura:Oiyan:if you think about it, how responsive are thecampuses? Who runs the UCs? Even whenthere are people of color running our campuses,how responsive are they to students’ needs andtheir interests? But one thing that I found thatwas really hopeful was that students were doinga lot of different things to resist those experiences,through intentional organizing, working withcommunities off campus, addressing educationalinequalities, a lot of different things, even justinterpersonally. Some were creating film andmedia and art in response in an effort to educate.You’re currently a research associate with theInstitute for Asian American Studies. Can youdescribe some of the projects you’re working on?I’m primarily working on public health projects. Ireally enjoy making maps. Right now, one ofmy projects now is using GIS (GeographicInformation System) software to make ademographic map to show Asian Americancommunities in Massachusetts - the darker thearea, the more Asian Americans. And thenI’m going to have a layer on the map showingwhere community health centers are in the state.Imagine little hospitals, and the colors willrepresent the different services, like languagesspoken, or mental health, or dental and vision,and whatnot. The second map is a political map.The same demographic distribution map, then withpolitical district boundaries, and who their electedofficials are. Then we can make the argument, forexample, “Look, Congresswoman Tsongas, you havethis many Asian American voters in your district,and these are our issues, and we want you toaddress them.” Public officials need to know whothey work for, and we Asian Americans need toknow that we have power. This map will hopefullyserve to essentially map out our power. Anotherproject is with ATASK (Asian Task Force AgainstDomestic Violence). We’re talking about puttingtogether some type of community-based researchproject. Ten years ago, they did a study on violencein Asian American families and communities. We’relooking to maybe update that.Where do you see yourself five years from now?Hopefully, an assistant professor going up fortenure in Asian American Studies or Ethnic Studiesor Education.And my last question for you - LA or Boston?Being close to my family, Boston. Food, well, I getto eat my mom’s cooking, but other than that, LA.And weather, LA. Sports? Boston. Always.RIPPLES

Molly Higgins interviews herself.So, what do you do at UMass Boston?I started working here thissummer as an Americorps VISTA.I work mainly with the highschool students through CAPAY,the Coalition for Asian PacificAmerican Youth, but I do somestuff with Asian American Studies,too. You can always find me inthe Asian American StudiesProgram office — especially if youwant to know about the library. (Photo courtesy of Molly Higgins)I’m a library expert.Where do you come from?I just finished my BA in Asian American Studies at UCBerkeley, but I grew up in Boston. When people ask whyI came back, I tell them that California was too warm andfriendly, and the grocery stores only sell organic, locallygrown Twinkies.But Twinkies are made with beef fat. Ithought you don’t eat beef or pork products?Shut up.So, why did you come to work at CAPAY?I was part of CAPAY when I was in high school. It’s whereI came to terms with my identity as a multiracial AsianAmerican, and where I dedicated my future to smackinginjustice and ignorance upside the head. That’s why I cameback to CAPAY — to convince the next generation ofhigh school students that their histories and communitiesdeserve recognition and that justice deserves to be served.Do you like UMass Boston so far?There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Can I make ashameless plug for myself?Of course.Check out my blog atmovementsandmoments.wordpress.com!New AsAmSt-affiliated FacultyKiran AroraKiran Shahreen Kaur Arora, Ph.D., joins theUMB faculty as a tenure-track Assistant Professor inthe Graduate College of Education’s Department ofCounseling & School Psychology. Kiran received herdoctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy from SyracuseUniversity. Her research interests include understandingthe lives and relationships of survivors of torture and theconnections which exist between trauma and oppression.Spring 2010Her past research includes understanding the relationalimpact of the historical genocide of Sikhs in India, includingits impact on Sikh diasporafamilies, as well as examiningthe influence of human rightsin the therapeutic work oftherapists. Further, herinterests are composed ofa deep investigation intotherapeutic practice andtheory: exploring, documenting,and evolving the presence ofhuman rights in therapy,creating models of supervisionwhich invite liberatory theoriesand practices to therapeuticconversations and communities(Photo courtesy of Kiran Arora)of concern.Kiran is based in the Marriage & Family Therapygraduate program teaching Introduction to Family Therapy,Family Therapy Theories, Contemporary Family Therapies,and Internship in Family Therapy. Her courses punctuateideas of equity, specifically exploring the description,distinctions and overlaps of the ideas of self of thetherapist, diversity, social justice, multiculturalism, andcultural competency, in an effort to provide clinical serviceswhich are sensitive across all dimensions of diversity.Welcoming new Hmong AmericanDoctoral Student Mai See YangMai See Yang willenter UMB’s doctoral programin Gerontology in Fall 2010.An experienced mentalhealth community researcher,Mai See has assisted in thedevelopment of Culturallyand Linguistically AppropriateService for UC Davis andthe State of California.Her current projects arefocusing on antidepressantadherence in Southeast Asian(Photo courtesy of Mai See Yang)populations and researchingthe relationship betweenunderrepresented communities and clinical trialenrollments. Mai See’s academic interests are in mentalhealth, equality care, and aging in Southeast Asiancommunities. She is an alumnus from UC Davis andCalifornia State University, Sacramento. She enjoys cyclingand other outdoor activities.Page 19