{"id":309,"date":"2025-11-18T16:12:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/?p=309"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:12:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:12:45","slug":"roots-unveiled-traveling-exhibit-highlights-history-of-chinese-americans-from-the-1700s-to-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/roots-unveiled-traveling-exhibit-highlights-history-of-chinese-americans-from-the-1700s-to-1945\/","title":{"rendered":"Roots Unveiled: Traveling Exhibit Highlights History of Chinese Americans from the 1700s to 1945"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above, Meiling Lung Newman, the granddaughter of Joe Lung, one of the first Chinese Americans to live in Austin, adds her family photos to the Roots Unveiled<\/strong> exhibit.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roots Unveiled<\/em> is an innovative, multidisciplinary exhibition which explores the history of Chinese Americans in Texas through art, video, photographs, and artifacts. First displayed at the Austin Public Library downtown in the summer of 2025, the exhibition is scheduled for the Julia Ideson Building at the Houston Public Library in 2027, and organizers are currently working on scheduling displays for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developed in partnership with the Austin History Center and the Austin Public Library, the exhibition traces the intertwined histories of China and the United States. It brings together new works by contemporary artists, including Gary Card, Philip Cheung, Li Wei, June Xu, Jing Yang, Lok Yiu, Xuhua Zhan, Michael Wei, Long Yunna, and Kong Ka Ying, alongside archival materials.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Artist June Xu is the driving force behind the Roots Unveiled<\/strong> exhibit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June Xu is the founder and president of the Asian American Art and Culture Initiative (AAACI), which created the exhibit. The AAACI, headquartered in Houston, was founded to preserve Asian American stories and to empower future generations, Xu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe AAACI exists to break down barriers, challenge misconceptions, and create a vibrant platform where art, history, and community action intersect,\u201d she said. \u201cThrough exhibitions, oral histories, youth programs, and collaborative projects, we preserve stories that risk being lost to time and inspire young people to carry them forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Roots Unveiled<\/em> exhibit, artists explored topics including the nearly 20,000 Chinese railroad workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad and the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its repeal in the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a more personal note, the exhibit explored the story of Chinese railroad worker Joe Lung, who settled in Austin in the late nineteenth century and was one of the first Chinese Americans in Austin; and his daughter Inez Lung, the first Chinese female student at the University of Texas at Austin. Inez Lung returned to China in the 1920s, teaching at a middle school there for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artist Lok Yiu travelled to Kaiping, China, to locate Long Hui Lou, the watchtower Joe Lung commissioned in 1917 with remittances from Texas\u2014a building he never returned to see. Working with curator Xuhua Zhan and drawing on a 1929 photograph from Inez Lung\u2019s biography, they not only traced the tower\u2019s exact location but also helped reconnect Lung family members in China and the U.S. who had lost contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Lung\u2019s grandchildren helped with the exhibit, sharing family photos for a photo gallery called Cousins <\/em>(part of Roots Unveiled<\/em>) that brought together images of the Lung family spanning more than a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had no idea that we would discover such a rich history just within this family,\u201d Xu said. She was surprised and delighted to find out that she is a distant relative of the Lung family, as their village in China is next to her grandparents\u2019 village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The painting “Dining,” by June Xu, is featured in Roots Unveiled<\/strong> and shows a multicultural community gathering.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the exhibition travels, each city will become a new site for research and collaboration,\u201d Xu said, \u201cuncovering local Chinese American histories and inviting communities to co-create content.\u201d She envisions Roots Unveiled<\/em> as not just a touring exhibition but as a chance to engage museums, artists, and Asian American communities in conversation about identity, memory, and cultural belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your library or museum is interested in hosting the exhibit, you can contact June Xu at june@aaartculture.org<\/a>. For more information about the exhibit, go to www.aaartculture.org<\/a> or follow them on Instagram at @aaartculture.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

— By Michele Chan Santos, Coordinator, Texas Center for the Book<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above, Meiling Lung Newman, the granddaughter of Joe Lung, one of the first Chinese Americans to live in Austin, adds her family photos to the Roots Unveiled exhibit. Roots Unveiled is an innovative, multidisciplinary exhibition which explores the history of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}