Ethan Tan

Baltimore’s Chinese community has historically gathered at restaurants, but not just for dinner. According to senior Ethan Tan’s research, Baltimore’s Chinese restaurants have provided immigration help, income, job training, community, and even housing for new Chinese immigrants to the United States.

The idea for the research grew out of assistant history professor H. Yumi Kim’s class History Research Lab: Asian Diaspora in Baltimore. There aren't any books or archives focused on Baltimore’s Chinese community. To supplement readings, Kim invited community members to share their personal perspectives. Tan, a history and medicine, science, and the humanities double major, was intrigued by the conversations, and kept interviewing community members after the class ended. The core of his research is first-person stories he’s gathered about living and working in Baltimore throughout the 1900s, often at restaurants like the White Rice Inn in Chinatown or the New China Inn in Old Goucher.

Those stories are tied to changing 20th-century immigration laws that often barred Chinese immigrants entirely. At some points in the early 1900s, Chinese restaurateurs were classed as merchants and could sponsor future employees. This meant they were the only part of the community aside from American citizens able to get paperwork for new immigrants. Sometimes workers lived at the restaurant until they could find or afford a place of their own.

This research has been a learning experience for Tan on the value of community-based research. He plans to investigate the importance of other social organizations while completing his BA/MA history degree.