Conditions Governing Access
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Arrangement
Biographical / Historical
Preferred Citation
Related Materials
Scope and Contents
Conditions Governing Use
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Judy Yung papers
Identifier/Call Number: M2788
Physical Description:
55 Linear Feet
(131 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1960s-2020
Abstract: Research files, oral histories,
photographs, and writings from historian Judy Yung with a focus on Angel Island Immigration
Station and the experiences of Chinese American women in the twentieth century.
Physical Location: Special Collections and University
Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance.
Language of Material: English, Chinese (Mandarin,
Cantonese, Toishan)
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be
reformatted to a digital use copy.
Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Series
3, subseries 1 of Series 9, Series 10, and Series 15 are currently closed while copyright
issues are resolved.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was given by the family of Judy Yung to Stanford University, Special
Collections in 2022.
Arrangement
The collection contains eighteen series reflecting Yung's research and books. 1.
Biographical and Personal Papers; 2. Poetry on Angel Island; 3. Angel Island Oral History
Project; 4. Book:
Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America; 5. Angel Island
Archives; 6. Book:
The Chinese Exclusion Act and Angel Island: A Brief History with
Documents
; 7. Advocacy at Angel Island; 8. Angel Island Research Files; 9. Chinese
Women of America Project; 10. Chinese Women in California; 11. Books:
Unbound
Feet
and
Unbound Voices; 12. Book:
Chinese American Voices:
From the Gold Rush to the Present
; 13. Book:
The Adventures of Eddie
Fung
; 14. Book:
San Francisco's Chinatown; 15. Oral History Files -
Miscellaneous; 16. Chinese American History Research Files; 17. Him Mark Lai; 18. UC Santa
Cruz
Biographical / Historical
Judy Yung (1946-2020) was a historian of Chinese American history working in the Bay Area.
Born and raised in San Francisco's Chinatown, Yung earned a BA from San Francisco State
University and an MA in Library Science from University of California, Berkeley. Her first
job was as a librarian at the Chinatown Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, where
she became keenly aware of the lack of materials about Chinese Americans and specifically
Chinese Americans women. As a librarian with the Oakland Public Library, she helped build up
the first Asian American branch library in the United States. Collaborating with Him Mark
Lai and Genny Lim, Yung published
Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on
Angel Island, 1910-1940
(Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco, 1980) to
preserve the Chinese poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station by
former detainees. Yung's connection to Angel Island was a personal one, as her father had
been detained on the island in 1921. Yung began collecting oral histories as part of the
Island project and soon embarked on a much larger oral history project to
document the experiences of Chinese American women. In 1981, she received funding from the
Women's Educational Equity Program to organize an exhibit on Chinese American women, which
she then expanded into
Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History
(University of Washington Press, 1986). Yung returned to UC Berkeley to obtain a PhD in
Ethnic Studies in 1994 with her dissertation, which she expanded into
Unbound Feet: A
Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco
(University of California Press,
1995). In 1990, she was hired as a professor in American Studies at UC Santa Cruz. There she
taught Asian American history, women's studies, and oral history courses until her
retirement in 2004. Yung continued to research and write on the experiences and social
history of Chinese Americans, publishing
Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of
Chinese Women in San Francisco
(University of California Press, 1999);
Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, co-edited with
Gordon Chang and Him Mark Lai (University of California Press, 2006);
San Francisco's
Chinatown
(Arcadia Publishing, 2006); and
Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway
to America
, co-authored with Erika Lee (Oxford University Press, 2010). In 2003,
Yung married Eddie Fung, the only Chinese American soldier captured by the Japanese during
World War II. She recorded over fifty hours of interviews with Fung, resulting in the
publication of
The Adventures of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of
War
(University of Washington Press, 2007). After Fung's death in 2018, Yung moved
back to San Francisco's Chinatown to continue her public history work, where she passed away
in December 2020.
Preferred Citation
[identification of item], Judy Yung papers (M2788). Dept. of Special Collections and
University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Related Materials
Earlier archival collections pertaining to Judy Yung and her work can be found at the UC
Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library:
- Judy Yung research files, ca. 1980s (AAS ARC 2000/60)
- Angel Island Oral History Project, 1975-1990 (AAS ARC 2000/62)
- Chinese Women of America 1848-1982 project files (AAS ARC 2000/88)
The Judy Yung slide collection (97006) can be found at the Hoover Institution
Library and Archives at Stanford University:
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8f59s0s5/ Oral histories conducted by Yung's
students in the American Studies program at UC Santa Cruz can be found at UC Santa Cruz'
University Archives (UA 55): https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt067nd78v/
Scope and Contents
The collection consists mainly of oral histories and research files gathered throughout the
span of historian Judy Yung's career. Beginning in the 1970s, the collection mainly includes
research files and oral histories from Yung's two research fields: Angel Island and Chinese
American history. Much of the collection is made up of files Yung assembled on these two
fields, containing scans of primary resources, book chapters, written first-hand accounts,
and photographs. Series 1 focuses on Yung's personal papers and background. Series 2-8 stem
from Yung's decades-long involvement with Angel Island and includes files on her
collaboration with Him Mark Lai and Genny Lim on the engraved poetry left behind by
detainees on the island; documents about advocacy efforts for preserving the history of the
Immigration Station; and research and drafts of Yung's books on Angel Island. Series 9-16
include research on Chinese American history; correspondence and drafts of Yung's books on
Chinese American history; and biographical information about Yung's husband, Eddie Fung.
Series 17 contains papers about Yung's long-time collaborator Him Mark Lai and Series 18
covers her time as a professor at UC Santa Cruz. A large portion of the collection is
dedicated to Yung's oral history work, especially the Chinese Women of America Project,
which Yung directed during the 1980s. Series 9 contains paper files and original recordings
of the roughly 260 oral histories Yung and her team conducted. Approximately 150 additional
oral histories recorded by Yung and her colleagues are included throughout the
collection.
Conditions Governing Use
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to
examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made
available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction
beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or
assigns. Some series within this collection have additional or differing copyright
restrictions.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Angel
Island (Calif.)
Angel Island Immigration Station (Calif.)
Oral history
Chinese American women
Chinese poetry
Emigration and immigration law -- United States
United States. Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinatown (San Francisco, Calif.)