The East Asian Library at Washington University in St. Louis has launched an interactive digital story mapping project that explores Asian American experiences in the area and contributions to the community since the mid-1800s.
In 2023, the Missouri Humanities Council granted $10,000 to Joan Wang, Wash U’s East Asian and Chinese Studies librarian, to digitize interviews and images about Asian life in St. Louis.
“Asia in St. Louis” documents the earliest known roots of Chinese immigrants in St. Louis, in 1857. The project includes narratives of the lives of children, families and entrepreneurs. It also lays out where Chinese American residents moved throughout the area to attend schools, open businesses and build families.
“We look at the local past history, and we think, ‘How can we have today's diverse community?’” Wang said. “We wouldn’t have immigration or citizenship applications, or equal opportunity for residents, employment and legal affairs [without] the people who paved the way for us.”
“Asia in St. Louis” was inspired by a 2022 Wash U history course, which Wang helped teach, that discussed Asian American history in St. Louis. The story map project picks up where students left off on research projects about Asian culture.
Wang worked with other librarians, researchers, historians and students to collect narratives, photographs, interviews and geographic information for the project. Wang and researchers also collaborated with special collections libraries at Wash U, the Missouri Historical Society, the State Historical Society of Missouri, the National Archives at Kansas City and the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
St. Louis residents and visitors to St. Louis should be intrigued by the past histories and experiences of East Asians in St. Louis, said David Romney, a librarian at Wash U’s East Asian Library.
“These essays are kind of like a gateway to greater understanding and appreciation for really the rich cultural fabric that we have here in St. Louis,” he said.
Researchers included an introductory history lesson on national and local efforts for Asian rights through political and social movements. The project touches on Supreme Court cases that helped Asian Americans attain an education and citizenship in the U.S. The interactive map also highlights Japanese American struggles during World War II and the forced relocation of many Asian Americans during the war.
The map also pays homage to notable Japanese American architects Gyo Obata and Richard Henmi, who both contributed to the development of the St. Louis area’s infrastructure.
Obata and Henmi are second-generation Japanese Americans who evacuated California with their families and were later forced to live in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. Henmi helped design affordable housing complexes in the area, high-profile hotels and the iconic Flying Saucer Building in Council Plaza off South Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue.
Although Obata’s family had to live in internment camps, Obata was exempt because he was able to relocate to St. Louis to study architecture at Wash U. Obata later helped design the James S. McDonnell Planetarium at the St. Louis Science Center. Conversations with Obata’s daughter about her father’s life can be viewed within the project.
“Here in St. Louis, they were able to find community, they were accepted by the people of St. Louis,” Romney said. “St. Louis really has a lot to kind of be proud of in the way that we accept diversity.”
Researchers and librarians plan to add content to the project over the years. They are looking to the Asian community and other individuals to provide additional history and materials for the story map. Wang said the project should encourage the next generation of Asian Americans in St. Louis and connect others to the community.
“I hope this project piques people’s interest and it inspires more efforts around Asian American history,” Wang said.
