View the recording of the press conference held by U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin with the Save Our National Archives (SONA) organization, announcing efforts to stop the planned closure of the National Archives at San Francisco facility (NARA-SF) located in San Bruno, Calif.

Demonstrators opposing the closure of the National Archives at San Francisco facility listen to a speaker during a news conference on Aug. 24, 2026, where U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin (CA.-15) announced efforts to stop the planned closure of the facility located in San Bruno, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

More than 100 rousing community members showed up waving protest signs, and displayed images of family photographs, historic documents, and heirlooms housed at NARA-SF, materials related to community-regional history documenting immigration, military, tribal, statehood, and citizenship experiences.

CHCP Treasurer Elizabeth Lee and CHCP Member Sue Lee were among the demonstrators attending the press conference, showing their support to keep the National Archives open and for historical records to remain available to the public.

For more information and to sign the petition: Save Our National Archives

On August 10, 2026, Professor Selia Tan, from Wuyi University in China, gave a fascinating lecture entitled “Echoes Across the Ocean” at the Chinatown Branch Library in Los Angeles. Dr. Tan is a leading expert on the history and impact of Cantonese migrants – on their home villages.

Dr. Tan explains that the Cantonese pioneers not only built the American railroads and developed agriculture and commerce in California, they also impacted the development of Southern China. The remittances migrants sent back not only eased family and regional poverty, it also helped modernize China and fund the War of Resistance against Japan (1931-45). Dr. Tan shows several slides of huge high schools (or translated as “middle school” 中学) built in Guangdong in the early 20th century. Dr. Tan claims that Kaiping alone built 17 libraries. There were also newspapers, aviation, road systems, and other modernization made possible by the surge of funds from overseas Chinese. Dr. Tan insists that ¾ of the funds for the War of Resistance came from overseas Chinese. In Kaiping, a collection of some 50,000 qiaopi (remittance letters) show a tangible trail of the impact of Chinese Americans on their home villages. These letters that date back to 1883 have been recognized by UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

By Chris Jochim, CHCP Vice President of Education

About 100 members of San Francisco's Asian American Elderly Humanitarian Society were accompanied to San Jose by Kansen Chu, a member of the California State Assembly from 2014 to 2020, and his wife Daisy Chu. They arrived in two chartered buses to visit two locations in San Jose’s History Park: the Chinese American Historical Museum (CAHM) and the Japanese Friendship Garden. Later they would visit the Chinese Cultural Garden in Overfelt Park and San Jose’s Rose Garden. Serving as CAHM docents were three CHCP Board members (Chris Jochim, Brenda Wong, and Liz Chew) as well as CHCP Student Intern Allie Fuller and CHCP member Bauchin Lin Jochim.

They expressed great appreciation and satisfaction with the presentations they received in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. (Aren’t we amazing?) With an average age of 78, they also appreciated the use of CAHM’s recently repaired elevator. Moreover, they decided to use the Lillian Gong-Guy Plaza as a place to have lunch before heading to the Japanese Friendship Garden. In a kind gesture, they shared their simple but delicious dim sum items with CHCP volunteers: yum, yum, yum. It was a joy for us to sit and visit with this group of adventurous seniors on one of the many outings they have during the year.

Local San Jose organization, Chinese Historical and Cultural Project (CHCP), partnered with the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) for their “Lion Dance Across America” program, where more than 40 lion dance teams across the United States committed to performing in their local Independence Day parades as part of the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. CHCP participated in a spectacular way with both Lion and Dragon Dancers in San Jose's 4th of July Rose, White, and Blue Parade, to share Chinese culture with the Santa Clara County community while celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

Lion and dragon dance, a vibrant Asian cultural tradition, is now practiced in 43 states. Asian Americans have participated in July 4th celebrations for more than 170 years, with documented appearances in San Francisco as early as 1852, reflecting a long history of civic engagement and patriotism across the nation.

The following are excerpts from SONA's 6/28/26 Press Release:

By Anna Eng and Grant Din, SONA Communications Co-Chairs

NATIONAL ARCHIVES IN SAN BRUNO THREATENED WITH IMMEDIATE CLOSURE;
ACTION ALERT TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Save Our National Archives (SONA) is working to prevent the imminent closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) San Francisco center in San Bruno, California and also opposes the closure of its site in Chicago, Illinois. The NARA website states that the San Bruno facility will be closed within three years and we understand the move could begin as soon as this August, 2026. SONA has been involved since 1998 to ensure continued public access to these vital archival documents at the San Bruno location. These are invaluable resources, important to the region and the communities documented in them and should not be removed from the region and moved anywhere, in effect cutting off researchers and public access to these vital sources of American history.

[...]

Direct access to the physical documents and artifacts often belonging to families and communities in these case files is critical, as are the expert staff in San Bruno who are extremely knowledgeable about the holdings and how and where to locate items. Many of the documents are large and fragile, and digitization is unfeasible and would damage them. Within these archives are personal family photographs, family letters, maps of home villages, original wedding, marriage, and birth certificates from countries of origin, tribal artifacts of Native Americans and Native Hawaiian communities, and other sources of community history.

Long-standing agreements between the National Archives and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were made to ensure that historical documents and artifacts important to family history will be made available to the public and not moved from the San Bruno location. This must continue to hold true. To make these materials inordinately inaccessible to the American people would be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act and to make them disproportionately unavailable to the communities from whose histories they document would be a violation of the 14th Amendment for Equal Protection under the Law.

With concerns that files may be moved soon, SONA has launched an immediate letter writing campaign to contact the Archives and is asking writers and organizations to CC their Congressional representatives and ask them to take immediate action. (If possible, email a copy of your letter to us at saveournationalarchives@gmail.com).

Please express your opposition by writing to:

Edward Forst, Acting Archivist of the United States
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

email : ArchivistOfTheUnitedStates@nara.gov

[...]

For more information and additional sources, please follow us on:  FacebookSONA

To read a KQED article from June 26, 2026: follow this link.