Him Mark Lai (1925–2009)

Author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940

14+ Works 192 Members 1 Review 1 Favorited

About the Author

Him Mark Lai has researched Chinese American history, has written key articles and books, and has taught the first college level course on Chinese American history. Active in community cultural activities, he produced a weekly hour-long community-based Cantonese language radio program and was show more coordinator of the Chinese Culture Foundation's "In Search of Roots" program show less

Includes the names: Him M. Lai, H. Mark Lai, Lai Him Mark, Genny Lim Him Mark Lai, Judy Yung

Image credit: From http://www.asianamerican.northwestern.edu/images/newsletters/summer-2009/lai.jpg

Works by Him Mark Lai

Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present (2006) — Editor — 29 copies

A History Reclaimed: An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language Materials on the Chinese of America (1986) 10 copies

Becoming Chinese American, A History of Communities and Institutions (2004) 9 copies

Chinese American Transnational Politics (2010) 5 copies

Him Mark Lai: Autobiography of a Chinese American Historian (2011) 3 copies

The Chinese of America, 1785-1980 : an illustrated history and catalog of the exhibition = [Kan kʻu tsʻang sang liang… 3 copies

Chinese America: History & Perspectives, 2009: Seizing the Moment; 20th Century Chinese American Activism (2009) 2 copies

Thirty Years of the Chinese Cultural Foundation and Twenty-two Years of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco 2 copies

Outlines: History of the Chinese in America 2 copies

Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1995 (1996) 2 copies

Chinese America: History and Perspectives, 1988 (1988) 1 copy

Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions (Critical Perspectives on Asian Pacific Americans… 1 copy

History of the Chinese in America 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943 (1991) — Contributor — 23 copies

Tagged

American history (4) Angel Island (3) asian affinity (2) Asian American (4) Asian American history (3) Asian American Studies (8) bibliography (2) California (3) cat (2) charts (1) China (4) Chinatown Left (2) Chinese (3) Chinese American studies (2) Chinese Americans (12) Chinese diaspora (4) Densho Collection (3) documentary (2) documentation (1) E184.C5 L338 2010 (1) Fall 2015 (2) General History (2) history (14) immigrants (3) immigration (5) international politics (1) journal (1) LEH-A-PG4 (2) maps (1) miscellaneous reports (1) non-fiction (5) paperback (2) personal narrative (2) poetry (16) Roger Daniels Collection (4) San Francisco (3) sociology (2) The Chinese in America (2) to-read (2) USA (4)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1925-11-01
Date of death: 2009-05-21
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: San Francisco, California, USA
Place of death: San Francisco, California, USA
Cause of death: cancer
Education: University of California, Berkeley (BS - Mechanical Engineering)
Occupations: teacher
historian
activist
engineer
Organizations: San Francisco State University
University of California, Berkeley
Chinese Historical Society of America
Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco
Bechtel Corp
Short biography: Internationally noted scholar, writer, and “Dean of Chinese American History”. His ten books, more than 100 essays, and research in English and Chinese on all aspects of Chinese American life are published and cited in the U.S., the Americas, China, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

He graduated from Berkeley with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked at Bechtel Corp. until his retirement. Technically, his scholarship was an avocation and not his profession. Yet his scholarly achievements rival those of professional academics.

Every scholar working on Chinese American history today is indebted to his pioneering scholarship, particularly his use of Chinese language sources from Chinese immigrant communities. He also served for more than 30 years on the editorial board of Amerasia Journal, the first scholarly Asian American studies periodical.