The seminar will explore the development of transnational resources and local culture in shaping the roles of Chinese American community in Boston from the late 19^th to the mid-20^th centuries. By utilising both western accounts in the press and missionary writings as well as local Chinese records, it reveals that Chinese in Boston were able to develop their own school and community associations after an initial period of exclusion. The talk will compare several historical accounts and episodes of Boston Chinatown in 1892, 1905, 1931, and 1952 in examining the evolution of the perceptions and roles of their community. Instead of addressing the more conventional legal and political perspectives of exclusion, Wing-kai To argues that the local Chinatown utilised both traditional Chinese and modern American networks in enhancing their community resources and social capital.

These community building efforts allowed local Chinese to build coalitions and stage protests to withstand the challenges of social exclusion and environmental degradation in the process of urban renewal.