Happy Summer Solstice!
To mark the beginning of summer, we bring you some clips from our Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies collection. June 21, is the first official day of summer. This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Gee family took a lot of road trips, including to Promontory Summit in Utah. Golden Spike National Historic Site is where the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. A majority of the railroad workers were of Chinese origin, though no Chinese laborers were documented in a famous historic photo. “My dad loves trains and he really loves history (as you can see from our other home movies),” notes Brian Gee. “He was proud of Asian American’s role in the railroad, a great historical achievement in America. That’s what this trip and the other road trips were all about.” Footage courtesy of the Gee family on behalf of Brian Gee.
About Memories to Light
Through Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies, the power of collective memory and media will bring to life the experiences of Asian American communities from across the country and spanning six decades (1920s through the 1980s) of the 20th Century. We hope that this truly unique arts experience will collectively and aesthetically construct shared social, cultural, and political representations of Asian America directly from the community itself. At the heart of this project is how collective memory can be amassed and sustained through interactive participation. Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies demonstrates the importance of collective storytelling and will provide a greater understanding of the Asian American experience. Find out more about the project and how you can participate.
Main image: From the Ishikawa Family Collection, c. 1939 around Long Beach, CA.
– Post by Davin Agatep, Momo Chang, Stephen Gong and Lin Kung.
