Exclusion, Rhode Island, Kinship: Making Your Own Chinese Family
The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress in 1882, was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Rhode Island Chinese history scholar John Eng-Wong will discuss how laws and social practices impacted Chinese family formation and reunification during this period and beyond. Drawing from adoption archives, Chinese Exclusion era documents, memoirs, articles and interviews with descendants, he will describe how exclusion unfolded in Rhode Island and illustrate how several Chinese-descent families from Providence and Newport negotiated these impacts. Almost everyone begins in a family. These chronicles explore the complications when the road forward from birth is disrupted, or not.
Chin Too family with unidentified Chinese consular official, unknown location in Rhode Island (private collection)
John Eng-Wong
John Eng-Wong was a core member of the Brown University team led by students Angela Feng and Julieanne Fontana who mounted a storefront exhibit remembering the history of the Chinese-heritage community in Providence, R.I. Eng-Wong's interest in this topic decades ago sparked his research into the story of the Chow Mein Sandwich, which in turn blossomed into study of Chinese food's migration around the world including its manifestation in Rhode Island. Retired from a long administrative career at Brown, John remains on the university roster as a Visiting Scholar in American Studies.
More Tours, Events & Exhibitions
Beneath The Breakers Tour
Daily
10:00am
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time.
June 1 - September 1, offered at 10 am & 2 pm
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12 pm and 2 pm
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Servant Life Tour
Daily
10 am and 2 pm
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June 1 - September 1, offered at 10 am, 12 pm & 2 pm
Inside “The Gilded Age” Tour
May 2 – June 27, 2025
Fans of HBO’s "The Gilded Age" will love this guide-led tour of locations in four of the Newport Mansions where Julian Fellowes' historical drama series was filmed. Fridays only, May 2 through June 27.
