On September 24, 2025, The Serica Initiative partnered with the China Institute in America for a powerful evening with award-winning journalist and author Michael Luo, discussing his new book Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Story of Asian Americans to over 100 attendees.

The event opened with welcoming remarks from Andrea Louie, Executive Director of The Serica Initiative, who highlighted the importance of storytelling in reclaiming histories often left out of America’s collective memory. She emphasized Serica’s mission of amplifying AAPI voices across generations and communities, framing the evening’s conversation as part of that ongoing commitment.

The interview was led by Susan Yuqing Feng, Director of Programs at China Institute, who guided Luo through the historical and contemporary themes explored in his book, as well as emphatically reminded the audience of the Chinese resilience and determination to fit into this country.

Rediscovering Forgotten Histories

Luo illuminated the often-overlooked resistance and resilience of Chinese immigrants during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Far from being passive, Chinese communities repeatedly fought for their rights through legal challenges, labor strikes, and organized protests. He pointed to cases such as:

• The Eureka, California lawsuit, where Chinese residents sued the city for damages after being violently expelled.

• The railroad strikes, in which Chinese laborers leveraged collective action to demand fairer treatment.

• The story of Wong Kim Ark, whose landmark Supreme Court case established birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment—yet who continued to face harassment, detention, and the melancholy reality of dying in China, separated from the rights he had fought to secure.

  
  

He also shared the story of Joe and Mary Tape, who sued the San Francisco school system so their daughter Mami could attend a local public school. Though the ruling was in their favor, the city responded by establishing a segregated “Oriental School”—a reminder that progress was often met with new barriers.

Legacies of Exclusion

Luo traced the brutal reality of the “Driving Out” period of the 1880s, when as many as 168 communities expelled Chinese residents amid economic downturns and rising anti-immigrant sentiment. He spoke of massacres such as Rock Springs, where perpetrators were acquitted by grand juries unwilling to indict white aggressors.

Even after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, true immigration reform did not arrive until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which abolished discriminatory quotas and opened doors to new generations of Asian immigrants.

Belonging, Then and Now

Reflecting on both history and personal experience, Luo described the ongoing question of belonging in America. Whether in classrooms, newsrooms, or Silicon Valley boardrooms, Asian Americans continue to navigate feelings of being both inside and outside—recognized for their contributions but still marked as “other.”

“The fight for rights is never something given freely,” Luo emphasized. “It’s something communities have always had to demand, again and again.”

A Call to Remember

The evening was both sobering and inspiring—reminding the audience of the violence and exclusion Asian Americans endured, but also of the resilience and courage with which they claimed their place in American society. Luo closed by reflecting on oral histories, like those of historian Connie Young Yu, whose ancestors helped build the transcontinental railroad, as essential to preserving memory and identity for future generations.

The conversation left attendees with a deeper appreciation for the hard-won struggles that shape Asian American life today, and a renewed commitment to carrying these stories forward.

📖 Michael Luo’s Strangers in the Land is now available wherever books are sold.

Watch the full interview below!