CHCP Speaker Series Webinar: "Chung Mei: Growing Up in an All-Chinese Boy's Orphanage"

In the 1930’s – 50’s, where do you live, if you’re a poor Chinese boy who is a product of divorced parents, an orphan, homeless or just plain incorrigible? 

Racism against Asians was virulent, so in 1923, Dr. Charles R. Shepard founded Chung Mei, a home for Chinese boys after seeing dozens of hungry, abandoned Chinese boys in San Francisco’s Chinatown. “No other orphanage would take in children of color or Asiatic races.”  

Chung Mei was established in Berkeley and moved to El Cerrito in 1935.

Hear from a panel of alumni, including Richard Mar (Moderator), Phillip Chan, Paul Chan, Wing Soo Hoo, and William Lee as they share their personal experiences and memories of what it meant to grow up at this “unique orphanage” and how it has shaped their lives today.  Tom Panas, Past President of the El Cerrito Historical Society, will share rich photos and the history of the orphanage, which is now an historic building.

Click here to Register for the webinar.