Facing History Hosts Community Conversation with Author Lisa See

On October 29th over 150 people attended our Community Conversation with Lisa See, author of the international bestseller Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and her latest, Shanghai Girls about two Chinese sisters who journey to California in the 1930s.
 
Through Shanghai Girls, as well as through her memoir On Gold Mountain: The One Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family, See preserves the memory and tells the often forgotten history of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles. See’s engaging talk highlighted stories of identity and illuminated little known aspects of our history such as U.S. immigration policies toward the Chinese.

The event took place in El Pueblo de Los Angeles across from the Chinese American Museum, which is the last remaining building from the original Chinatown in Los Angeles. Participants visited the museum's exhibits and had the opportunity to continue the conversation in locations where so much history has happened, including Sanchez Alley, site of the first mob riot in Los Angeles, called the "Chinese Massacre of 1871."

The Community Conversations series takes what happens in a Facing History classroom—where students recognize the importance of civic participation and learn from the courage and resilience of others —“on the road” to various communities and locations in Los Angeles. It was the ninth of the series in Los Angeles, which have explored topics ranging from upstanders of the civil rights movement, film as a catalyst for social change, and ending the genocide in Darfur.

Facing History has a number of print, video, and web resources to help students explore themes such as identity, community, immigration, and history. One resource, Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, is an acclaimed documentary film on the history of Chinese-American immigration. Facing History’s study guide for the film helps classrooms explore the universal themes presented in this particular history.

Facing History‘s China Project is a new initiative to bring its programs and resources to teachers and schools in China and to develop resources about China’s history for U.S. schools. Facing History’s newest study guide, Teaching Red Scarf Girl, is based on Ji-li Jiang’s Red Scarf Girl, an engaging memoir and insightful window into the first tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution in China. Exploring the choices made by Jiang, her family, and her peers provides an opportunity for students to gain awareness of a significant moment in world history and to reflect on their own role as members of families, schools, neighborhoods and nations.