Throughout the 19th and up to the mid-20th centuries, immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Philippines came to America through San Francisco. The end of the decades-long Vietnam War changed the modern Asian American demographics of the city, this time with refugees coming from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The San Francisco Bay Area remains a hub for Laotian American culture, history, and community resources, and it has been a center for Laotian American advancement since the early 1980s. After calling the United States home for more than 30 years and battling the scars of war, a new Laotian American society is seeking meaning from its past while moving forward with hopes of a better future as Americans.
Jonathan H.X. Lee is an assistant professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He holds a doctorate degree in religious studies and has published widely on Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Chinese-Southeast Asian American histories, folklore, cultures, and religions. Lee collaborated with the Center for Lao Studies and members of the Laotian American communities to write Image of America: Laotians of the San Francisco Bay Area. Images came from Laotian American community leaders, families, businesses, organizations, associations, churches, temples, and students majoring in Asian American studies at SFSU.
The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.
Jonathan H.X. Lee is an assistant professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He holds a doctorate degree in religious studies and has published widely on Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Chinese-Southeast Asian American histories, folklore, cultures, and religions. Lee collaborated with the Center for Lao Studies and members of the Laotian American communities to write Image of America: Laotians of the San Francisco Bay Area. Images came from Laotian American community leaders, families, businesses, organizations, associations, churches, temples, and students majoring in Asian American studies at SFSU.
The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.