Stories from Pittsburgh's Chinatown

Featuring two short film screenings and a panel discussion, this event will vividly explore family and communal narratives from this long-overlooked neighborhood. Panelists (including community members, artists, and experts) will share their memories and research reflections on the history and legacy of Pittsburgh’s Chinatown.

Attendees will learn how Chinese Americans established businesses, started families, and created community despite the racism and discrimination that they faced. Participants will also garner insights into the decades-long partnerships and advocacy within the Chinese American community that has resulted in broader recognition of this history.

About the Panelists

Lena Chen

Lena Chen (b. 1987, San Francisco) is a Chinese American artist, writer, and scholar. Awarded Mozilla Foundation’s 2022 Creative Media Award and Best Emerging Talent at the 2019 B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, she has performed and exhibited internationally. She is a co-founder of JADED, Pittsburgh’s first Asian American artist collective. She earned a BA in sociology from Harvard University and a MFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, where her research examines race, sexual labor, and feminist performance.

Lydia L. Ott

Lydia Y. Ott is a recent graduate from the University of Pittsburgh studying Occupational Therapy. She is a 4th?generation Chinese American whose family has lived in Pittsburgh for over 100 years.?She grew up in the Wexford area and now currently resides in Squirrel Hill.? In her free time, Lydia actively participates in her local church, Pittsburgh Chinese Church, located in the North Hills.

Jacqueline Wu

Jacqueline Wu is a PhD student at Yale University studying race and migration in the United States. She received a BA in history and BS in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University, where her senior thesis on Chinese labor in the northeastern US won the Dietrich Humanities Prize and the Pennsylvania Historical Association’s William A. Pencak Award. Her current research projects center on Chinatowns and the politics of Chinese exclusion.

Shirley Yee

Arriving as a child immigrant during the Depression years, Shirley’s father Yuen Yee later became a leader for the Chinese community of Pittsburgh and the unofficial Mayor of Chinatown. He served the community through the mid-1980s by supporting the newcomers with bilingual translation, immigration matters, caregiving for elders, business advising, and public outreach with the local media. Shirley has archived artifacts of her father’s life and compiled his handwritten memoirs that tell the triumphs and tribulations of early Chinese settlers in a once-vibrant urban Pittsburgh neighborhood. Shirley teaches Visual Interaction Design at CMU.

Lydia L. Ott is a nonagenarian blessed with posterity which includes four great grandchildren. She earned a BSN from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently works part-time in her son’s dental office. She enjoys gardening, sewing, and serving in church especially with children.