1903年12月17日上午10点钟35分，经历了一千多次失败的尝试后，美国莱特兄弟“飞行者一号”成功飞上了北卡罗来纳州基蒂霍克（Kitty Hawk）的天空，掀开了世界航空史上辉煌的一页。
天空，不再是鸟儿的世界，人类自诞生以来梦寐以求的向往终于实现了！
一百多年过去了，有多少人还记得在那激动人心的岁月里，在做着飞天梦的人群中，有一位来自中国的华裔
他就是冯如。为了实现飞天梦，他刻苦钻研，不断尝试，甚至不惜牺牲，在世界和中国航空发展的进程中做出了彪炳史册的贡献。
美华史记 | 华裔人物：志在飞行-旅美华侨的航空梦 Read More »
在近现代中国航空史册上，有一些伟大的先驱者们同样值得我们永远怀念和景仰。比如王助和巴玉藻是北洋时期公派留洋学生，他们都是毕业于美国麻省理工学院高材生，因飞行游戏与航空结下了“不解之缘”，归国后协力研制出中国第一架国产水上飞机王助的一生，伴随着辉煌的中华航空史，多年来人们对此却知之甚少，被尘封在历史的遗迹之中。
美华史记|华裔人物：志在飞行-从留学生到近代中国航空先驱 Read More »
上集讲到1879年美国海军“珍妮特号”北极探险舰上有两位华人：林通盛（Charles Tong Sing）和阿山（Ah Sam）。1884年为营救受困北极的格瑞里（Adolphus Greely）等共25人，林通盛再次随美国海军出征北极。
美华史记 | 林通盛重返北极搜救格瑞里 Read More »
提到阿拉斯加，你立即会想到的是什么？ – 遥远边疆，游轮胜地，第49个州，壮观冰川，北美大陆的最高峰，绚丽奇异的北极光，也许还会有人说杰克伦敦的《白牙》，拉雪橇的狗。如果我问：你知道阿拉斯加华人的历史吗？他们的生活、故事， 他们对这块最后的边陲之地有过哪些贡献？
真的吗？那么我们出发，一起去寻找阿拉斯加华人的历史足迹，从淘金年代开始。
美华史记 | 淘金年代 ：中国乔和探矿人 -阿拉斯加华人故事 之一 Read More »
2017年10月，一位生长在阿拉斯加东南部海边的女士塔拉 尼尔森（Tara Neilson）写了一篇关于她家乡的文章。她家所在地曾经是阿拉斯加一百多个鲑鱼加工场地之一 (1)。 她在文中写道：“在阿拉斯加偏远的优联湾（Union Bay），在被烧毁和废弃的鲑鱼罐头厂废墟中长大，这总让人感觉我的童年像是远古史诗中的一段。那时我们与外界隔绝，只有家人在一起。直到最近我才知道，我们成长的老鲑鱼村与中国近代史上关键时刻的一个著名事件密切相联。这个事件在大学课堂上讲，也在电影里演。”
这事件发生在抗战结束后的1946年，在中国西南部的城市昆明。
美华史记 | 鲑鱼年代:李公朴和罐头工 -阿拉斯加华人故事 之二 Read More »
飞机被大规模应用于战场，始于第一次世界大战期间。未来的空军该如何发展，成为一战后各国军方争论不休的话题。德州农村长大的陈纳德没有机会亲历第一次世界大战，却对空战有着独到的想法。可是，在军中服役期间，他却不得志，被长官认为好高骛远、离经叛道，因而愤然从美国陆军航空队退役。
1941年6月，陈纳德受中华民国蒋介石委员长之邀，到中国协助培训中国空军，而投身到抗日本战争中。陈纳德在中国天空找到了施展的舞台，率领闻名天下的“飞虎队”屡建奇功，他的飞行事业达到巅峰，也为世界反法西斯战争的胜利立下了不可磨灭的丰功伟绩。
美华史记 | 陈纳德和他的“飞虎队” Read More »
一百年多年前，国父孙中山(1866－1925)在为挽救民族危亡，领导中华民族推翻封建帝制的革命过程中，获得众多海外华侨在经济和道义上的大力支持。“华侨是革命之母，没有华侨，就没有中国革命。”这是孙中山先生对华侨在近代民主革命中的历史地位和功勋所做的高度评价。此赞誉在不同历史背景下经历过无数人的解读，但海外华侨、华人始终是连结母国的桥梁，这一点是确凿无疑的。
而在这些“革命之母”中，就有知名美国华侨侨领容嵩光（1870—1950）家族。容氏乃广东香山县斗门龙坛村人（如今的珠海斗门区）。父亲容泗卓是当地的小摊贩，性格温和又略通医术，常为村民们排难解忧，深受乡亲们的拥戴。伯父容斯馨曾资助太平天国，起义军失败后被迫逃亡。容嵩光自幼受伯父革命思想熏陶，1881年，年仅11岁的少年容嵩光以“契约劳工”身份，跟随伯父远涉重洋赴美谋生，其间历尽了人间疾苦。
美华史记 | 华裔人物：血脉相承 军中豪杰 Read More »
Polly Bemis, also known as Lalu Nathoy, was reputed to be the most famous Chinese woman in the Pacific Northwest. Born to a poor farming family of Northern China, she was smuggled into the US in 1872 and sold to a Chinese saloon owner in a mining camp, now Warren, Idaho. She was illiterate and, due to her different dialect, could not even communicate with other Chinese miners. Polly met Charlie Bemis who later became her life-long companion. By 1880, she had obtained her freedom and was running a boarding house. Polly and Charlie married in 1894 and moved to a place 17 miles north in the Salmon River wilderness. Together, Charlie and Polly Bemis filed a mining claim, built a house, cultivated a garden and an orchard, and hosted visitors from the town and river travelers at their ranch. In 1911 a stream flowing through the place was named Polly Creek. After their home burned down in 1922 and Charlie’s death two months later, Polly took the initiative to have her house rebuilt. She continuously lived by the river until three months before her passing away in November 1933. With her pioneer spirits of courage, perseverance, and diligence, Polly Bemis overcame the extreme hardship throughout her life. She was a true trail blazer not only for settlers in the rugged Salmon River, but also for many Chinese American women. To recognize her unique and significant contribution, Polly Bemis was inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame in 1996.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was an experimental physicist who is best known for her work on the Manhattan Project in WWII. She helped two colleagues win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 based on the Wu Experiment. She was both the first Chinese American to be elected into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and was the first female president of the American Physical Society. She was also the first living scientist to have an asteroid (2752 Wu Chien-Shiung) named after her. Her awards include the National Medal of Science by President Ford in 1975.
Her birth centenary was celebrated in her hometown of Liuhe(浏河镇), Taicang City(太仓市) in Jiangsu Province (江苏省) in 2012. Her tombstone bears the inscription “Forever Chinese/永恒的中华气质.”
ABSTRACT
Ah Cum Kee (1876 – 1929) was a second-generation Chinese woman. At age ten, she was left behind when her prosperous parents decided to return to China when anti-Chinese sentiment swept Carson City, her birth place. When she was fourteen, she got married and moved to Hawthorne, a railroad hub where she became a homemaker and a restaurant/boarding house operator. With few Chinese people in her vicinity, Ah Cum not only intermingled with local European immigrant families but also befriended Native American Paiute tribe members. When her husband died in 1909, she continued to manage the family vegetable farm as the first Chinese American female farmer in Nevada.
Compared with her contemporaries, Ah Cum took an active role to assimilate into Euro-American society, and enjoyed the fruits of her efforts. She devoted her life to pursuing a brighter future for her six children, led them into different cultures, and encouraged them to engage in the mainstream society. Under her influence, a daughter bravely broke the inter-racial marriage barrier, and two of her sons joined the US army, fighting in both WWI and WWII. The path she trailblazed exemplifies the gradual but successful transformation from a Chinese person living in America to becoming a Chinese American.