Ann Elizabeth Chan, Full Interview

Collection: This recording is part of the Queens Memory Collection at the Archives at Queens Library: Ann Elizabeth Chan and is available in digital audio.

Date: Time Period: 1950's; 2016-06-06; Interview recorded: June 6, 2016 Material: Digital audio recording made using H2 Zoom digital recorder. Dimension: Total running time: 0:40:51

Creator: Ann Elizabeth Chan Identifier: aql:18451 qmp-aec-full-000002

Description: Ann Elizabeth Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1935. She immigrated to America with a foster family who settled on White Plains Road in the Bronx, where her foster parents opened up a laundromat and operated other entrepreneurial ventures including a Chinese restaurant. Ann describes her childhood as a constant struggle between hard work and making ends meet. Her mother's sudden death as a teenager pushed her into adulthood. Ann married an engineer Howard "Howie" Chan and moved from the Bronx to Long Island with her younger brother. Their struggles continued as their new family faced racist housing covenants that restricted their upward mobility. Ann persevered eventually graduating vocational school and working under the United States Mission to the United Nations. She talks considerably about her friends in the Chinese and Chinese American communities and how their relationships have strengthened each other.

Title : Ann Elizabeth Chan, Full Interview

Collection : aql:20455; aql:18486

Creator : Ann Elizabeth Chan

Date : Time Period: 1950's; 2016-06-06; Interview recorded: June 6, 2016

Summary/Description : Ann Elizabeth Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1935. She immigrated to America with a foster family who settled on White Plains Road in the Bronx, where her foster parents opened up a laundromat and operated other entrepreneurial ventures including a Chinese restaurant. Ann describes her childhood as a constant struggle between hard work and making ends meet. Her mother's sudden death as a teenager pushed her into adulthood. Ann married an engineer Howard "Howie" Chan and moved from the Bronx to Long Island with her younger brother. Their struggles continued as their new family faced racist housing covenants that restricted their upward mobility. Ann persevered eventually graduating vocational school and working under the United States Mission to the United Nations. She talks considerably about her friends in the Chinese and Chinese American communities and how their relationships have strengthened each other.

Subject : Chinese Americans; Emigration and immigration; Chan, Ann Elizabeth

Relation : This recording is part of the Queens Memory Collection at the Archives at Queens Library: Ann Elizabeth Chan and is available in digital audio.

Rights : Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.

Coverage : Locations discussed: Chinatown New York City, Hong Kong, New Hyde Park, NY, Wantagh; White Plains, NY Chinatown (New York, N.Y.) Hong Kong White Plains (N.Y.) New Hyde Park (N.Y.)

Type : Oral history

Format : Digital audio recording made using H2 Zoom digital recorder.; Total running time: 0:40:51

Identifier : aql:18451 qmp-aec-full-000002