Dr Xin Peng is a film and media historian whose work explores how race and gender shaped the development of media technologies in the early twentieth century. During a research trip to the University of California, Berkeley, Dr Peng consulted key archival materials for a book project on the Chinese telephone exchange in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a landmark that closed in 1949 with the advent of automatic dialing. Among the most significant finds was a previously overlooked 1975 Cantonese-language oral history interview with operator Choy Chan, recorded by historian Him Mark Lai and preserved on cassette. Dr Peng is now working with the Asian American Studies librarian to digitise the tape for community access.
While at Berkeley, Dr Peng completed a prize-winning essay—recipient of the Race and Histories of Technology Prize from the Society for the History of Technology—which examines how perceptions of the Chinese language as “noise” shaped early telephony and broader attitudes toward racialised communication. The research underscores how race and gender influenced what counted as intelligible or valuable communication.
The visit also enabled valuable connections with scholars in Asian American, film, and East Asian studies, and in-person meetings with descendants of telephone operators previously only contacted online. These exchanges reinforced the significance of uncovering family and community histories long overlooked.
In addition, Dr Peng began gathering materials for a future book on Chinese American cinematographer James Wong Howe, including rare oral histories and press clippings housed in Berkeley’s archives. The trip also included site visits and engagement with local cultural institutions such as the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and BAMPFA.