Him Mark Lai (麥禮謙) (November 11, 1925 - May 21, 2009) was an American historian. Born in San Francisco, he was known as the “Dean of Chinese American History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History.

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  • 1968-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • Him Mark Lai (麥禮謙) (November 11, 1925 - May 21, 2009) was an American historian. Born in San Francisco, he was known as the “Dean of Chinese American History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History. Him Mark Lai co-taught the first college course on Chinese American history with Philip Choy at San Francisco State University in 1969, and also taught the same course at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department in the 1970s. Him Mark Lai’s most well-known work is “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940”, written in conjunction with Judy Yung and Genny Lim. These three formed the History of Chinese Detained on Island Project (HOC-DOI) to translate the Chinese poetry found on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station and to collect oral histories of detainees on Angel Island, based on the specific restrictions of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Their resulting manuscript was independently published in 1980, and published by University of Washington Press in 1991. Lai joked to a newspaper reporter that “that book is the only one that makes [him] any money. ” In 1991 Him Mark Lai and Albert Cheng created the In Search of Roots Program through a partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese Culture Foundation, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office from Guangdong Province, China. This year-long program trains a dozen Chinese American youths how to research their family history through National Archives and Records Administration documents and oral history during the Spring. Each Summer, the students visit their ancestral villages in the Pearl River Delta region of China. Upon their return, the students create a visual display of their genealogy and display it at the Chinese Cultural Center during Lunar New Year. In 2003, the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley announced their “Him Mark Lai Collection,” over 200 feet (61 m) of Lai’s private research material, which he donated to the library for use by other scholars. In 2007, Him Mark Lai was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer, yet he continued his research and writing. Lai died at his home on May 21, 2009.
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  • Him Mark Lai
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  • USA
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  • historian, author, mechanical engineer
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  • 1968 – 2009
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  • Him Mark Lai (麥禮謙) (November 11, 1925 - May 21, 2009) was an American historian. Born in San Francisco, he was known as the “Dean of Chinese American History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History.
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  • Him Mark Lai
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  • Him Mark Lai
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