U.S. group partners with philanthropists to preserve Chinese immigrants' history

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 (Xinhua) -- An advocacy group in California has partnered with philanthropists in China to preserve the lesser known history of early Chinese immigrants in the United States.

When the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in North America 150 years ago, the Chinese immigrants came to the San Francisco Bay Area looking for work. They set up camps fishing for shrimp on the northern shore of San Francisco Bay, which later became the China Camp.

"There used to be 26 such shrimping villages in the area, but the China Camp is the last one left," Ed Lai said Saturday. Lai is the former chairman of Friends of China Camp, a non-profit organization operating the China Camp State Park.

Following the passing away two years ago of the last resident of the village, Frank Quan, the group fears that the history of the village as well as the stories of early Chinese immigrants would fade away.

"The history of Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad is well known, but the story of the Chinese shrimpers is not," said Lai, who now serves as the treasurer of the group.

He said he didn't know about the history himself until 2008 when he and his wife visited the park.

The Chinese immigrants made great contributions to the United States and it's important to preserve the village so that more people can learn about this history, said Lai.

However, the park is in urgent need of funds for the repair and maintenance of the historic structures in the village, which is in the center of the park.

The park faced the danger of shutdown in 2011 due to budget cuts. The Friends of China Camp then took over the park and has since been raising funds.

Early this year, they launched the China Camp Preservation project, which involves repairing the piers and roofs and developing education programs for visitors.

Thanks to the partnership with Heidi Kuhn, founder of a non-profit, Roots of Peace, and Chinese philanthropist Frank Yih, Friends of China raised 1 million U.S. dollars for the project.

Invited by Yih, Kuhn went to China last month to meet the philanthropist community and promote the preservation project.

"We have received an increasing number of visitors from China in the past years. They had never heard of this history before. I could see from their faces how they appreciate the stories," said Lai. Enditem