Chin Too family with unidentified Chinese consular official, unknown location in Rhode Island (private collection)

The Preservation Society of Newport County Fall Lecture Series
Exclusion, Rhode Island, Kinship: Making Your Own Chinese Family
Thursday, November 9, 2023
6:00pm – 7:00pm EDT
Live at Rosecliff and via Zoom Video Conference

In conjunction with The Celestial City: Newport and China exhibit at Rosecliff, this Fall Lecture Series explores different aspects of the Chinese-American experience and the many ways life in Newport and America was influenced and enriched by people of Chinese heritage.

This last lecture of the series invites Dr. John Eng-Wong, Visiting Scholar in American Studies at Brown University, to speak about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first time that people of a specific heritage were banned from immigrating into America. He will discuss how laws and social practices impacted Chinese family formation and reunification during this period and beyond. Drawing from adoption archives, Chinese Exclusion era documents, memoirs, articles and interviews with descendants, Dr. Eng-Wong will describe how exclusion unfolded in Rhode Island and illustrate how several Chinese-descent families from Providence and Newport negotiated these impacts. Almost everyone begins in a family. These chronicles explore the complications when the road forward from birth is disrupted, or not.

To learn more and register, click here.