Diaspora in a Teacup: Materializations of Diaspora in the FS Louie Company of Berkeley, CA.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Diverse and Enduring: Archaeology from Across the Asian Diaspora" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The discipline of historical archaeology has not attempted to understand the Chinese Diaspora beyond the early 20th century. Therefore, dynamic geopolitical contexts and histories that mark 20th century Chinese (im)migration to the US have been ignored. In a contemporary archaeological study focused on the business dealings and products of Fawn S. Louie, we present a different lens through which to examine the Chinese diasporic webs across the Pacific. Louie’s restaurant supply business in Berkeley, California was founded in 1950 and remained very active until his death in 199*. He became a major supplier of restaurant wares for Chinese American restaurants across the US, coordinating ventures with American and Japanese restaurant ceramic manufacturers. These wares represent materializations of Louie’s business strategies but also clearly illustrate diaspora as a living and embodied experience, by rendering visible complex temporal, situational, and spatialized ties between businesses, families, and communities in the Asian Diaspora.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Diverse and Enduring: Archaeology from Across the Asian Diaspora   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology