Font size options
Increase or decrease the font size for this website by clicking on the 'A's.
Contrast options
Choose a color combination to give the most comfortable
contrast.
Register to attend online 147 Seats Remaining
This presentation draws on oral history interviews from the Arkansas Chinese Heritage Project.
Despite often being marginalized in the fields of Asian American studies and southern history, Chinese communities have called Arkansas home for over 150 years. Initially recruited as farm workers in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, immigrants from southeastern China eventually established a foothold in the rural towns of the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta as proprietors of cash grocery stores. This presentation draws on oral history interviews from the Arkansas Chinese Heritage Project to highlight the individual experiences and community resilience of Chinese grocers who raised families, built regional networks, maintained trans-Pacific cultural ties, and navigated the shifting racial politics of the Jim Crow South during the height of the period of Chinese Exclusion.
Zach Smith is associate professor of history and director of the Interdisciplinary Asian Studies Program at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway, where he also serves on the board of UCA’s Center for Chinese Language and Culture. He specializes in the cultural history of modern China, and his research on literacy and national belonging appears in Twentieth-Century China, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. At UCA, he teaches courses on modern East Asia, postwar Japan through film, and the global history of student protest. He has led trainings on Asian American history and AAPI inclusion for the Department of Education and K-12 teachers through his work as statewide director of the Arkansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia, and he currently serves as director of the Arkansas Chinese Heritage Project.
Legacies & Lunch is a hybrid program offering participants the opportunity to attend either in person or virtually via Zoom. To participate in person, join us at - NEW LOCATION - UA Little Rock Downtown (333 President Clinton Ave). Parking is available in the surface lot or the CALS Parking Deck which you can access from Rock Street. Parking will be validated. Bring your lunch; we will provide drinks and cookies. To participate virtually, register for the webinar using the button above. This program will be live-streamed to YouTube and the recording will be available immediately following the event.
Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas-related topics.