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A color photograph of a contemporary street scene in Chinatown, San Francisco. Signs with Chinese characters are on the building and marquees, the biggest of which is for Canton Bazaar. A couple dozen red paper lanterns hang on wires that cross the street
Chinatown, San Francisco, California. Photograph by Carol Highsmith, 2012, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Research Inspired by Fiction and Fiction Inspired by Research: Exploring San Francisco’s Historic Chinatown

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Ever since I started working at the Library of Congress, I always pull up loc.gov/collections when I’m reading historical fiction to find relevant real-life photographs, newspapers, and documents. Recently, I read Malinda Lo’s Young Adult historical fiction novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club. The story follows Lily, a Chinese-American teenager living in San Francisco during the 1950s, who questions not only her sexuality, but what citizenship means during the course of the novel. At the 2022 National Book Festival, Lo joined a panel of writers to recognize the book’s achievement as the winner of the National Book Awards 2021 for Young People’s Literature. In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we invite you and your family to watch this conversation, then use Library primary sources to explore the vivid San Francisco Chinatown community that Lo draws from in the novel. Finally, inspire the budding writers in your life with a writing and research activity.


Timestamps

0:33-1:41- Moderator Dhonielle Clayton introduces the panel and expresses her delight at seeing diverse books win awards