About Us

Co-Founders Gerrye Wong and Lillian Gong-Guy

The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project (CHCP) is based in Santa Clara County, California. It was founded in 1987 by the late Lillian Gong-Guy and Gerrye Wong as a non-profit organization to promote and preserve Chinese American and Chinese history and culture through community outreach activities. The leadership of the organization is comprised of volunteers — Officers, Board of Directors, and Advisory Board. A Board of Trustees oversees the major maintenance of the Chinese American Historical Museum (aka the Ng Shing Gung Museum) with the City of San Jose and History San Jose.

CHCP’s first major project was to reconstruct the Ng Shing Gung, a religious and community center originally built in 1888 in San Jose’s “Heinlenville” settlement, the last Chinatown of San Jose. In 1991, CHCP donated the Ng Shing Gung Museum to the City of San Jose, making it available to the community at History Park, located in Kelley Park, San Jose. The museum building lower floor serves as a Chinese-American Museum telling the stories of the early Chinese pioneers in Santa Clara Valley. The second floor showcases the original 1888 gold-gilded altar and the five gods. The short documentary movie of the last Chinatown in San Jose, Home Base: A Chinatown Called Heinlenville, was directed by Jessica Yu, an Oscar-award winner, and can be viewed upstairs at the Ng Shing Gung Museum.

Mission and Programs

Promote, Educate, and Preserve Chinese and Chinese American history and culture in the Santa Clara County.

In addition to the care and sharing of the Chinese American Historical Museum (CAHM) in the Ng Shing Gung building at History Park San Jose, CHCP shares our stories with Outreach Activities. Outreach Programs include:

• Heritage Education Link Program (HELP) Grants
• Immigration Program Grants
• Lillian Gong-Guy Memorial Scholarships
• Student Docent Cultural Ambassador Program
• Pioneering the Valley Traveling Exhibit
• Golden Legacy Curriculum
• Informational Booths at various venues: Spirit of Japantown, Hakone Gardens, Cubberley Community Center, Saratoga History Museum, Children’s Discovery Museum, Oakridge Mall, Westfield Valley Fair Mall

To see more of CHCP’s programs and activities, watch the video created by CHCP in 2017 in celebration of its 30th anniversary:

Tagline:  

History is for Living ~ Learning is for Life !

2021 CHCP Officers, Directors at Large, Trustees & Advisory Board Members

Board of Directors at Large
Thomas C. Stutzman, JD
Brenda Hee Wong
Erwin Wong
Jonathan Wong
Judy Wong
David Wu
Peter Young

Trustees
Debbie Gong-Guy
Anita Wong Kwock, Governing Trustee & Parliamentarian
Allan T. Low
Gerrye Wong, Co-Founder

Advisory Board Members
Anita T. Chan, Ron Chan, Hon. Cynthia Chang, James Chiao, Helina K. Chin, Lee Liu Chin, Lee Min Chong, Sylvia C. Eng, Carol Fong, Pinki Fung, Steve Gilbert, Gloria Hom, PhD, Gloria Chun Hoo, Yucaipa Kwock, Hon. Patrick S. Kwok, Sharon Lai, Michael Lau, Jeffery Lee, DDS, Susan Lew Lee, RPh, Nathan Louie, Arthur W. Low, OD, Maria Lu, Kelly Wong Matsuura, Steve Quon, Marion Katzenbach Rosenbaum, Gerry Low Sabado, Randy Sabado, David Shen, DDS, Candice Kwok Smith, Teddy Sue, Irene Tang, Shirley Cui Tarantino, Mona Ten, Adam Tow, Christine Tran, Robin Wang, Aaron Wong, Ann Wong, Elyse Wong, Eva Wong, Karyn Luke Wong, Liza Wong, Shirley Wong, David Yick-Koppel, Julie Yick-Koppel, Carol Yiu, Vicki Young, Connie Young Yu, Emily C. Yue, RDH, Joshua Zhang

AWARDS AND COMMENDATIONS

Golden Legacy, a 300-page set of curriculum materials on Chinese and Chinese American culture, produced as a joint project of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project and the San Jose Historical Museum (now History San Jose), won the 1994 Santa Clara County Reading Council Award. (These materials are now available on CD-ROM for a donation.)

Home Base: A Chinatown called Heinlenville, by Jessica Yu, an Oscar-winning producer of documentary films, was sponsored by the American Film Foundation in cooperation with CHCP and received the Bronze Apple Award at the 1992 National Educational Film and Video Festival, the American Association of Museum’s 1991 Silver Muse award, and CINE’s 1991 Golden Eagle award. (Home Base may be viewed here and may also be ordered separately or as a part of the Golden Legacy curriculum for a donation.)

In 1998, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) named CHCP the recipient of the Albert B. Corey Award, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of local, state and regional history. The Albert B. Corey Award is reserved for very deserving, small, primarily volunteer-operated, historical organizations. This award is granted only when an organization meets the high standards of excellence set by Albert B. Corey, a founding member of the AASLHF, and therefore, is not awarded annually.

In 1999, CHCP received the following commendation from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors:

WHEREAS, the Chinese Historical Cultural Project began in 1987 specifically to raise funds for the replication of Ng Shing Gung, the community and spiritual center of San Jose’s lost Chinatown called Heinlenville; and

WHEREAS, the Chinese Historical Cultural Project dedicated the Ng Shing Gung to the community in 1991; and

WHEREAS, the Chinese Historical Cultural Project, in 1993, produced the “Golden Legacy” curriculum based on Chinese cultures that provided enrichment to those Santa Clara County public elementary students it was donated to; and

WHEREAS, the Chinese Historical Cultural Project sponsors the annual Chinese Summer Festival; and

WHEREAS, the Chinese Historical Cultural Project established the Heinlen Award in 1995, designed to honor those from outside the Chinese American Community who have worked tirelessly within the Chinese community.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara does hereby commend the

CHINESE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PROJECT

PASSED AND ADOPTED, this Eleventh Day of May, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-nine by unanimous vote.

In 2016, the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Chinese American Historical Museum, CHCP received the following commendations from the California State Assembly, the City of San Jose, and the City of Saratoga (click on each commendation to enlarge):

In 2017, the 30th anniversary of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, CHCP received the following commendation from the California State Assembly (click on commendation to enlarge):

In 2019, CHCP received the following two commendations from the California State Assembly (click on each commendation to enlarge):