Him Mark Lai

Him Mark Lai is an historian. He is known as the “Dean of Chinese American History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he is professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History. Him Mark Lai co-taught the first college course on Chinese American History with Philip Choy at San Francisco State University in 1969, and also taught the same course at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department in the 1970s.

Him Mark Lai’s most well known work is “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on , 1910-1940”, written in conjunction with Judy Yung and Genny Lim. These three formed the History of Chinese Detained on Island Project to translate the Chinese poetry found on the walls of the and collect oral histories of detainees on Angel Island, based on the specific restrictions of the . Their resulting manuscript was independently published in 1980, and published by University of Washington Press in 1991. Lai joked to a newspaper reporter that “that book is the only one that makes him any money.”

In 1991 Him Mark Lai and Albert Cheng created the In Search of Roots Program through a partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese Culture Foundation, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office from Guangdong Province, China. This year-long program trains a dozen Chinese American youths how to research their family history through National Archives and Records Administration documents and oral history during the Spring. Each Summer, the students visit their ancestral villages in the Pearl River Delta region of China. Upon their return, the students create a visual display of their genealogy and display it at the Chinese Cultural Center during .

In 2003, the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley announced their “Him Mark Lai Collection,” over 200 linear feet of Lai’s private research material, which he donated to the library for use by other scholars.

In 2007, Him Mark Lai was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer, yet he continues his research and writing.

Organizations

*Min Qing, , President
*Chinese Historical Society of America
*Chinese Culture Center
*In Search of Roots Program

Publications

*A History of the Chinese in California: A Syllabus
*Island
*A History Reclaimed: An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language Materils on the Chinese of America
*Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Editor
*From Overseas Chinese to Chinese American: History of Development of Chinese American Society during the Twentieth Century
*Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions
*Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Editor

Education

*Nom Kue School, San Francisco Chinatown
*Commodore Stockton Elementary School
*Francisco Junior High School
*Galileo High School
*1945 Class Valedictorian City College of San Francisco
*1947 BS in Mechanical Engineering UC Berkeley

Filmography

*The Chinatown Files
*Him Mark Lai: The People’s Historian