Exploring the Chinese American legacy in the Catskills.

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full length photograph of Chinese farmer c. 1918
In May 1938, local schools held a mini-World’s Fair in Roxbury, NY. The Catskill Mountain News reported that the children crafted a Chinese pagoda with Chinese paper lanterns, clay dishes, and animals with a scene of farmers plowing, and grain
In 1973 the Stamford Alliance church hosted missionaries stationed in Taiwan and other Pacific islands. The Rev. Richard L. Williams served many years in Taitung, home to the native Beinan (Puyama) people. By then, headhunting had long been eradicate
The marriage between Clarence Shu of Shanghai to Eva Dietz of Cobleskill made headlines in 1927: An intercollegiate, international and inter-racial marriage has been revealed in Albany…the bridegroom is a Chinese student at Union college.
In 1883, a steamboat carrying Chinese Sunday school students and missionary teachers traveled up the Hudson River to Iona Island, off Bear Mountain. The day trip was a PR stunt replete with firecrackers and live music to demonstrate that the Chinese
In 2008, Ang Lee shot “Taking Woodstock” on location in New Lebanon. The production enjoyed newly enhanced tax credits and boosted the local economy. The film portrays a NYC designer who returns to the Catskills to help manage El Monaco,
After the telegraph was invented, newswire technology helped local papers report on happenings elsewhere. The Hobart Independent reprinted a 1901 New York Tribune article about the trend of Chinese restaurants opening uptown beyond Chinatown: Chopst
In 1981, for the first time since the Cultural Revolution, Chinese educators traveled to the USA for a SUNY training program conceived by IBM engineer Harvey Yu, an immigrant from Beijing and 1949 graduate of Harvard Business School.   “Th
The Gilboa Monitor prints a gushing review of the China pavilion, the most popular exhibit at the 1904 World’s Fair. 「CURIOUS THINGS FROM CHINA. The Most Magnificent Beds Ever Seen Are Part of the Celestial Empire’s World’s Fair E
During the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, Chinese fashion shows became a way for Americans to support the civilian relief effort through their local communities. In 1941, the same year Madame Chiang Kai-shek penned a byline in Vogue (3 years after she lande
Dr. Carsun Chang (1887-1969) was a Chinese philosopher who argued against the two-party system (Communists v. Nationalists) and envisioned a country focused on human rights, freedom of speech, and social democracy. It has been reported that the CIA s
Chinese entertainers presumably passed through the Catskills starting as early as 1914, whenever the traveling circus performed in Kingston, New York. Circus parade wagons helped drum up interest in faraway lands. The Asia tableau (Slide 3) was ori
The Chinese Pagoda is a calcite formation in Howe Caverns, Schoharie County. Named such by local historian Chauncey Rickard for the attraction’s 1929 reopening, the flowstone stands 11.5 feet tall and 9.5 feet wide. Rickard pulled inspiration f
Trigger Warning: Contains Graphic Historical Imagery.
 In 1897, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad crashed in Garrison, NY, killing at least 19 individuals aboard. Roughly half the dead were Chinese. We can assume the train cars were segr
George Washington Appo (1856-1930) was a Chinese-Irish career criminal credited with inventing a new method of pickpocketing. Appo was born in Connecticut but grew up in the gang controlled Five Points neighborhood of New York City. An opium addict,
Chinese porcelain could be found in the British colonies as early as the 1600s but became more commonplace after the American Revolution with formalized trade. During the Qing Dynasty, porcelain, silk, and tea were shipped from China in exchange for
The victims of an unsolved 2014 quadruple murder in Guilderland, NY: Fujianese immigrants Jin Chen (39) and Hai Yan Li (38) and their American-born sons Anthony (10) and Eddy (7). May they rest in peace. The investigation was significantly hampered
In the Northeast, Joseph Pierce (1842-1916). Born in Guangdong, China and purportedly sold as a child, Pierce lived for a time with the Peck family in Berlin, Connecticut. Enlisted with a white regiment in the Civil War, fought at Gettysburg, and pro
During World War I, a prominent financier thought granting citizenship to immigrant Chinese farmers could help feed America. Nearly one century later, China City of America tried to bring in Chinese investors to revitalize the region. Both schemes so
Poughkeepsie’s Mid-Hudson Chinese Christian Church was founded in 1968 as a home Bible study group. Today it offers services in English and Mandarin in a permanent Wappingers Falls location. The Chinese Christian Church of Greater Albany like
New Century Films is a Falun Gong-affiliated non-profit movie studio in Huguenot, NY dedicated to “the core values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.” Since 2018, it has produced over 60 films and won over 180 awards (averaging

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