In the spirit of a "Constellation of Inspirations" (Alice Yuan Zhang), here are a range of people, projects, writings, and ideas which have inspired and shaped my work:
Future Through Memory by Lilian Leung; virtual storytelling through Toronto’s Chinatown, including community-produced 3D scans of important sites.
https://www.longtimenoseechinatownto.com/ envisioning Chinatown futures (Toronto)
https://www.pbs.org/video/local-usa-a-tale-of-three-chinatowns-trailer/
https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/346740
We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was, by Jamelle Bouie, discusses the limitations of understanding the lives of those enslaved during the trans-Atlantic slave trade through data-driven records and the accounts by enslavers.
Venus in Two Acts, by Saidiya Hartman (content warning: extreme violence and dehumanization)
Prarie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, is accompanied, on her website, by a Native American resource guide compiled by author and educator Andrea Page (Oceti Sakowin Hunkpapa), about the Oceti Sakowin people of the area in which the book is set.
Cynthia Copeland: Restoring Seneca Village - Lessons for Snowtown (incl. archaeological dig, ground penetrating radar, core samples, search for descendants…)
Connie Young Yu is a historian, archeologist, activist and author on the Chinese experience in America. 2010 interview, Community Balance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XtvCaiKbcQ
"Denver’s destroyed Chinatown is getting a mural dedicated to the once-thriving area’s past, present and future." https://denverite.com/2022/11/02/denvers-destroyed-chinatown-is-getting-a-mural-dedicated-to-the-once-thriving-areas-past-present-and-future/
"San Jose apologizes for destruction of Chinatown in 1887" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-28/san-jose-apologizes-for-1887-chinatown-destruction
"L.A.'s memorial for 1871 Chinese Massacre will mark a shift in how we honor history" https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-10-22/how-a-planned-monument-marking-the-chinese-massacre-of-1871-begins-to-fill-historical-gaps
"An L.A. mob once massacred 18 Chinese people. Now, a push to never forget the racist assault." https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-20/los-angeles-1871-chinese-massacre-memorial
"Report of the 1871 Memorial Steering Committee." https://civicmemory.la/report/1871/ & https://civicmemory.la/PDF/
"Request for Ideas: Memorial to the Victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre" https://culturela.org/programs-and-initiatives/rfi-memorial-1871-chinese-massacre/
"Broken News." A project by Adit Dhanushkodi, Broken News portrays the deeply troubling vein of anti-Chinese sentiment in the popular press – as relevant today as it was in 1871. https://www.unionstationla.com/happenings/broken-news
http://takachizu.org/treasure/takachizu-zine-1
Remembering the Forgotten Chinese Railroad Workers by Veronica Peterson
How Tacoma’s small Chinese community reckoned with the city’s anti-Chinese history discusses the story of the Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park.
NARA has an interesting page on harmful content in archival records: https://www.archives.gov/research/reparative-description/harmful-content