Judy Yung, who died this year, was a librarian, who became an academic when she realized that there were no scholars studying the experience of Chinese American women in ordinary life. Seeing that hole in our history, she decided to fill it, eventually writing, or co-writing, or editing 8 books, including “Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.”
As profiled in the S.F. Chronicle, she was the fifth of sixth children born in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Her father was a union janitor in a Nob Hill hotel and her mother sewed clothes in Chinatown. She went on to graduate from Galileo High School, earned a B.A. from SF State and a master’s degree in library science from UC Berkeley.
In 1990, she became an assistant professor in the American Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz, eventually becoming the chair of the department. Her work included translations of the poetry written by Chinese immigrants on Angel Island, photography exhibits chronicling Chinese Women in America, and opening the first Asian public library in America.
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