Boston’s Chinatown is known not only as a vibrant neighborhood –– it’s also a living archive of immigrant resilience, collective power, and community connection. This spring, visitors walking through Chinatown and onto the Rose Kennedy Greenway can engage with this history through two powerful projects that highlight stories so often overlooked in mainstream narratives: the Immigrant History Trail and its newest stop on The Greenway: the public art installation, Boston Busing in Chinatown, 1975 by artist Daphne Xu. (located in Chin Park on The Greenway)

Strolling Through Time: Chinatown’s Immigrant History Trail

The Immigrant History Trail is a community-driven, multimedia project telling the stories of working-class immigrants who have shaped this neighborhood’s history. Developed by the Chinatown Community Land Trust in partnership with local residents and historians, the trail uses photographic markers with QR codes placed throughout the neighborhood. These markers link to important archival images, first-person oral histories, and lived experiences that bring to life a layered history of immigration, struggle, work, and community building in Chinatown.

Rather than a traditional, static monument, the trail is dynamic and constantly growing. It honors diverse sites—from longtime local businesses like China Pearl and landmarks such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union—each representing the contributions and stories woven into Boston’s immigrant tapestry. Through thoughtful engagement with place and memory, the trail encourages visitors to explore Chinatown not just as a destination, but as an opportunity to experience living history.

Paying Tribute on The Greenway: Boston Busing in Chinatown, 1975

Just steps from Chinatown Gate in Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park on The Greenway, artist Daphne Xu’s installation Boston Busing in Chinatown, 1975 further enriches the conversation about community, history, and collective action. The exhibition, a series of photographic prints of archival and contemporary photographs, is on view through May 2026.

Using archival images from 1975 alongside contemporary photographs from a July 2025 reunion of former Chinatown parents, teachers, and students, Xu’s work tells the powerful story of Chinese immigrant mothers who organized during Boston’s court-ordered school desegregation. Faced with the challenge of busing their children to schools across the city—without adequate provisions for safety, language access, or representation—these women united to demand equitable treatment. Their highly successful boycott brought the Boston School Committee to the negotiating table.

This history, long absent from dominant accounts of Boston’s busing crisis, becomes visible again through the juxtaposition of past and present—creating what Xu and collaborators describe as a “living archive.” By celebrating resilience and inviting intergenerational dialogue, the exhibition aligns with the Immigrant History Trail’s core mission: to surface community knowledge, center overlooked stories, and challenge singular narratives about this neighborhood’s past.

Why This Matters

Together, the Immigrant History Trail and its newest stop, Boston Busing in Chinatown, 1975, demonstrate how public art and education can expand our understanding of a place, and connect a community back to its history. They transform everyday streets and park pathways into sites of reflection and learning, inviting everyone to engage with histories that have shaped the present. In a neighborhood where change is ever-present, these works remind us why shared memories, community, and storytelling truly matter.

Whether you’re walking through Chinatown’s historic streets or pausing in the park to view Xu’s photographs, these experiences offer a rich understanding of Boston’s immigrant past and the individuals who worked to make this space safer and more welcoming for generations to come.

Learn more about artist Daphne Xu and her practice here.

A Thank You To Our Supporters

Project support for Boston Busing in Chinatown, 1975  is generously provided by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s Un-monument initiative, supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. Thank you also to the Boston Arts Commission and the Boston Desegregation/Busing Initiative.

Thank you to all project contributors. These include teachers & activists Suzanne Lee, Cynthia Yee, Ann Moy, Michael Liu, and May Louie; mothers Sin Wah Lee, Suet Wah Lung, Anna Lee, Marie Yee, May Chan; students Howard Wong, Siu Tip Lam, Su Leung; Chinatown Community Land Trust members Suzanne Lee, Lydia Lowe, Vivian WuWong, Nora Li, Franny Wu, Ann Wong, event volunteers Elisha Zhao, Jonathan WuWong, Jenny Li, and supporting artist Wenhua Shi. In loving memory of Lai Mui Yu (1935-2025).

Public Art on The Greenway is made possible with major support from the Barr Foundation, Goulston & Storrs, and the Wagner Foundation, the Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation, the Mass Cultural Council, The New Commonwealth Fund, and Robert and Doris Gordon.

Additional support is provided by the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.

Thank you to project collaborators, Jaywalk Studio.