John Kuo Wei Tchen is
an Associate Professor of History and Individualized Learning in the
NYU Faculty of Arts and Science and The Gallatin School. He is also
the founding Director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program
and Institute and former chair of the Advisory Committee of the Center
for Folklife and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. Tchen is a historian
and cultural activist. In 1980, he co-founded the New York Chinatown
History Project that has enabled the largest Chinese settlement outside
of Asia to document and explore their 160-year-long history.
Dr. Tchen's most recent
book is the award-winning New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism
and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882(Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1999). He has authored Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's
Old Chinatown (1984) which won an American Book Award (Before Columbus
Foundation) and he has edited and introduced Paul C. P. Siu's classic
study The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation (1987).
He has also written and spoken on museums, immigration, race relations,
New York City, and cross-cultural studies.
Below are links to clips
taken from Dr. Tchen's lecture given on April 8, 2005. The lecture was
on the topics of developing the Chinatown history project, practices
in participatory museology, and lessons learned from his work.