About the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC) was organized at a founding meeting on November 1, 1975, called by Paul Louie, William Mason, and Paul De Falla. Its stated purpose has not changed in fifty years: to promote the heritage of the Chinese and Chinese American community in Southern California and to share what it learns with the public. The society is run by volunteers and marked its 50th anniversary in 2025 with a gala at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown.
In 1994 the society purchased two Queen Anne style houses on Bernard Street, built in the late nineteenth century by Phillip Fritz and occupied by the Fritz family for more than a century. The society restored them as the Chinatown Heritage Center, which now serves as its headquarters, research center, library, and exhibit space. Displays include artifacts from Old Los Angeles Chinatown unearthed during construction of the Metro Red Line at Union Station, and an exhibit on the Chinatown Drum and Bugle Corps, the youth group formed in 1954 and nicknamed the Imperial Dragons, which competed nationally over a thirty-year run.
CHSSC has also carried out preservation work beyond its own walls. It restored an 1880 shrine and the surrounding Chinese burial ground at Evergreen Cemetery, and it is a community sponsor of the annual commemoration of the Chinese Massacre of 1871 held at the Pico House. Its members march in the Golden Dragon Parade each year, and the society's publications include Duty & Honor (1998), on Chinese American veterans of World War II, and the Portraits of Pride biography series.
Collections and Research Services
The Chinatown Heritage Center welcomes students, scholars, and the public to work in its archives, use its library, and talk with resident historians. The physical library, cataloged online through Libib, concentrates on Chinese American and Asian American history, with additional holdings in diaspora studies, Chinese culture, literature, and children's books. A separate Grey Literature Database indexes the center's periodicals, papers, reports, newspapers, and student projects. Library visits are by appointment; email info@chssc.org to arrange one.
Much of the collection is available without a visit. The CHSSC Digital Archive includes named collections such as the Robert Nash, Evans-Chace, Patricia Etter, Julia Costello, and Fritz collections, and a set of society artifacts is hosted by the USC Digital Library. The Chinatown Remembered Project, carried out in 2007 and 2008 by high school and college interns, recorded oral histories with Chinese American elders who grew up in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s; the interviews have since been transcribed and cataloged. Scholarly articles appear in the society's Gum Saan Journal, and the News 'N Notes newsletter archive is searchable online. If an ancestor passed through Los Angeles, our guide to free family history research explains how to pair a society like this one with census and immigration records.
Planning Your Visit
The Chinatown Heritage Center is at 411 Bernard Street, on the north edge of Los Angeles Chinatown. CHSSC is open to the public every Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 PM; tours and research appointments at other times can be arranged by phone at (323) 352-8824 or by email. A bookstore on site sells the society's publications. Program listings, including book talks, dinner programs, walking tours, and Ching Ming observances, are posted at chssc.org.
Two related stops elsewhere in California: the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park, and in San Francisco the Chinese Historical Society of America, which documents the Chinese experience in Northern California.
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