The Chinese Radio Network

Chinese American radio is especially unique in that it was born out of struggle, need, and adaptation. Its legacy is a rich story of immigration, language preservation, political activism, community building, and diaspora that varies era-to-era and coast-to-coast. 

Early Era

Radio in America first took off on December 24, 1906, when Canadian-born physicist Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first long-distance broadcast of voice and music from Massachusetts to as far as Virginia. The late 1920s to early 1950s blossomed into the Golden Age of Radio, when comedies, dramas, variety shows, game shows, and music drew millions of listeners nationwide. Even after television arrived in the 1970s, radio remained a powerful cultural force.^¹

However, due to social, political, and economic barriers, radio as a medium for Chinese Americans lagged far behind and did not truly emerge until the 1940s. The first large wave of Chinese immigrants into the United States were Cantonese-speaking laborers, from rural villages of Taishan and Guangdong, who immigrated into California. During this era, Chinese-language media failed to take root as a substantial institution due to a number of factors, including low levels of literacy and Chinese proficiency and the limited scale of economies within burgeoning American Chinatowns. Highly segregated ethnic enclaves also meant that community networks largely depended on face-to-face interactions, rather than media that connected communities across more disparate locations. 

Moreover, the Chinese Exclusion Act, enacted in 1882, legally barred and isolated Chinese migrants from mainstream American life, including legal restrictions on marriage, property ownership, and citizenship. Building new media institutions was largely unimaginable at the time, and importing Chinese-language publications from abroad was difficult. As such, only irregular newspapers and magazines from China circulated among a small Chinatown elite, along with occasional community newsletters confined to the neighborhood.

In the wake of the 1882 Exclusion Act and rising tides of white racial resentment and economic anxiety, Chinese Americans faced a massive wave of white supremacist violence. The Rock Springs Massacre occurred in Wyoming in 1885, where white miners murdered 28 Chinese people and set fire to the entire Rock Springs Chinatown. Arson was a preferred tool for mob violence in this era, as segregation often compacted towns and cities' entire Chinese communities into just a few city blocks that could easily be targeted. Similar incidents and other anti-Chinese race riots happened across the West Coast: in Antioch in 1876, Denver in 1880, and Santa Ana in 1906, amongst many others. Despite the risks, during this time, many sought refuge in Chinatowns on the West Coast, while others fled east to New York, establishing a new Chinatown in Manhattan.^¹ 

1939: The First Chinese American Radio 

In 1939, Tommy Tong and his wife, May Chin Tong, created the first Chinese-language radio program in North America—The Chinese Hour—from the basement of their San Francisco radio shop, Golden Star Radio Company.^¹ Tommy, born in Shandong, China in 1912, arrived in the U.S. in 1915 and later adopted a Westernized name. May was a San Francisco native. Together, they ran a radio shop, recording studio, and record store. The late-night live broadcast aired for some hours six nights a week, mixing news, music, and entertainment. May anchored the show, cutting stories from newspapers and pasting them into scripts with scissors and glue, while Tommy handled the technical side and rounded up Chinatown advertisers.  

The Chinese Hour was not a fully fledged station, but rather a leased time segment on the commercial radio station KSAN: fifteen minutes of opera, fifteen minutes of news, a few Chinatown commercials, then Hong Kong pop music.^¹ However, this was still major. By 1953, The Chinese Hour had an audience of 25,000 Bay Area listeners, and the show continued serving the community for forty years before ending in 1979.^¹ 

1968: New York’s First Chinese Radio Program 中華商台

In 1968, Chung Wah Commercial Broadcast Company—the first Cantonese Chinese radio—was founded in New York by Chinese American Robert Y. Lee. The station aired up to 133 hours per week. Programs were purchased from Hong Kong and Taiwan or produced locally by volunteers, ranging from:

• News, 
• Chinese drama, 
• Public affairs, 
• Community information, 
• Educational programs, 
• Children's programs, 
• Historical programs,
• Chinese opera, contemporary Chinese music, Chinese orchestral music, 
• To religious programs. 

However, Chung Wah was not a wireless station. It narrowcast via special phone lines to receiver sets that subscribers rented for a monthly fee. The cost depended on distance, which limited the station's reach to listeners outside immediate Chinatown. Chung Wah paid for these programs by selling ads to small, local, cash-based Chinatown businesses (restaurants, garment factories, grocery stores, banks) to cover costs—but any profit was modest. Eventually, wireless competitors with far greater reach overtook Chung Wah. The station faded from the airwaves, and although its exact end date is unclear, its pioneering role as one of New York's first Chinese-language broadcasters remains.

1970s: Sinocast (華語廣播)

In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) abolished the longstanding national-origins quota system, shifting the US towards prioritizing family reunification and skilled immigration. The impact on the Chinese American population was immense. 

Chinese American numbers grew exponentially from 117,629 in 1950 to 1,648,696 in 1990.^¹ Chinese Americans' hometowns also diversified. Originally mainly from the southern Guangzhou region, more than half of this new wave of immigrants came predominantly from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.^¹ Many people within this wave came from Mandarin-speaking backgrounds, and they slowly outpaced the prior dominance of Cantonese speakers.^¹ While still diverse in socioeconomic background, the majority of newcomers came from urban, highly educated, and professional backgrounds. This group also tended to be more socioeconomically mobile and assimilated.

The bulk of the Chinese immigrant population remained relatively concentrated in Manhattan's Chinatown, but many new immigrants migrated to the outlying boroughs—especially Queens and Brooklyn—and increasingly to the suburbs of northern New Jersey. It was post-Hart-Cellar Act that Flushing began to transform into the Chinatown we know today. These changes in settlement patterns, linguistic backgrounds, and socioeconomic status dramatically transformed Chinese America and New York City’s Chinese community into what it is today. Critically, this new landscape created a more inviting market for those in the Chinese media industry, and Arthur Liu, seasoned Taiwan radio star and Josephine’s past colleague in Taiwan, took advantage of this opening. 

In 1972, Arthur Liu established the Sinocast TV. Four years later, he started Sino Radio Broadcast Corporation and began airing Cantonese programs in New York City on special receivers — not yet a true wireless station. Nevertheless, this was the first Chinese broadcaster to rent a full FM subcarrier channel to transmit programs. By establishing himself as a prominent Chinese media entrepreneur, Liu also paved the way for Josephine to seize her opportunities in Chinese American radio.

In 1980, Liu also founded the newspaper Sino Daily Express to help publicize his radio program. In 1982, after another station's license was suspended, he purchased 105.9 FM—making it the first Chinese-owned FM station in New York. By 1995, Liu managed to purchase his second New York radio station, as well as three AM stations (KAZN 1300, KMRB 1430, and KMNY 1600) in Los Angeles. Liu would ultimately go on to build Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc. (MRBI), a US-Canadian network of 44 stations broadcasting in over 30 languages on the West Coast and in Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Houston, as well as Toronto and Montreal in Canada, reaching a listenership of nearly 800,000. Sinocast Radio now airs on AM1480 and features predominantly Cantonese programming. You can listen to it live here. 

1986: Chinese American Voice (僑聲電台)

Around the same time that Arthur Liu was building his multimedia empire, another voice emerged in Flushing. In 1986, Richard Hsueh—a World Journal reporter who had arrived from Taiwan in 1979 and lived in Bayside, Queens—founded Chinese American Voice (CAV) out of a barebones studio upstairs from a bakery on Union Street. With just $60,000 in seed money from friends and investors, a staff of six paid employees, and makeshift, innovative equipment that included a Sony tape player capable of running ten cassettes consecutively, CAV operated like a 24-hour newsroom. 

At a time when there was no Chinese television programming and newspapers arrived at least a day late, CAV filled a critical void. Using Mandarin and Cantonese to meet the linguistically evolving Flushing community, CAV provided fresh, timely news on immigration, social services, education, health, and law. Its morning show covered local politics, while programs like "Women's Magazine" with MC Belinda Hsu broke boundaries and spoke on domestic violence—a taboo subject that Chinese housewives began speaking out about on air, with little institutional support available to them at the time. Other offerings included "Hometown Club" (music and local news), Chinese pop music, radio dramas purchased from Taipei and Beijing, and an evening news broadcast. CAV also helped mobilize Asian voters and promoted Chinese American political candidates, not only informing the community, but also offering a platform for advocacy.

CAV ended its broadcast in 2011. As Sinocast and CRN got their start, eventually, advertising and profits for CAV suffered. Later, CAV merged with Information Culture News (ICN), a Los Angeles based Chinese network. While CAV and Sinocast got an earlier start, CRN still has a place as the first and longest-standing Mandarin-dedicated radio to broadcast on an AM frequency.

Chinese American radio and media studies is still very understudied, and scholars have often failed to accurately capture its history. John Downy’s frequently cited 1990 study Ethnic Minority Radio in the United States claimed there were no Asian American stations in California or New York more broadly—a statement that completely ignored the aforementioned thriving brokered-time Chinese radio sector. Moreover, research on historical BIPOC communities’ media more broadly in America have focused primarily on audiences, so little is known about the producers and forces serving these communities.^¹ Much more work is still needed to fill this gap and explore the complexities of how identity, history, societal structures, and lived experiences inform and shape the reality of Chinese American radio.

Today, Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin, and other Chinese dialects) is the second most spoken language in New York State, with over two million speakers.^¹ Among Chinese New York City residents, immigrants account for more than two-thirds.^¹ As of 2023, over 55% of Chinese New Yorkers have limited English proficiency (LEP) —that’s about 329,600 New Yorkers.^¹ 

Just as CRN remains an important resource for Chinese immigrants today, it also served as a vital thread of connection during its earliest days. In the 1980s, there were 71,881 immigrants of Chinese background. By 1995, that number had grown to 83,540.^¹ The majority of this population were most likely LEP (limited English proficiency), because during the 1980s and 1990s, most Chinese immigrants— particularly from the Fujian (Fuzhou) and Taishan regions—came from rural villages with limited access to formal education, making English acquisition especially difficult. In 2000, out of 261,551 Chinese New Yorkers, roughly 75% were LEP.^¹ That’s nearly 196,000 people! 

Census data for New York City’s immigrant community only began in the 1980s through the Department of City Planning’s "The Newest New Yorkers" publication. However, Chinese New Yorkers—and Asian Americans more broadly—remain one of the most undercounted demographics.^¹ This means the real numbers for the Chinese immigrant community and LEP data were almost certainly much higher.

In other words, for early Chinese New Yorkers, CRN was more than a radio station: it was a lifeline. It helped to bridge gaps in healthcare access by partnering with hospitals, local nonprofits, and elected officials to disseminate multilingual resources on cancer education, domestic violence, and more. It also amplified local arts and culture, such as by supporting the Queens Symphony Orchestra or hosting signature events like a biannual Mother’s Day Chinese youth speech competition (which, excluding the years of the pandemic, ran between 2023 and 1997).

At the heart of CRN is its founder and director, Josephine Chain (Cheng Hui 程蕙)—a visionary who first helped revolutionize radio in Taiwan before bringing her passion to the United States, as explored in this exhibit's next section. But to me, Josephine isn't just a pioneer. She's also my auntie! My mom has worked at CRN even before I was born, so Josephine has always been a familiar friendly face, never without a smile and always ready to share a story. 

In 2020, I featured CRN in a storytelling campaign with Protect Flushing, a youth grassroots collective aimed at uplifting local Asian-owned small businesses amidst the height of anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In my interview with Josephine, she retraced CRN's beginnings and Flushing's evolution as a Chinatown, and she highlighted what drives her work:

For overseas Chinese, [CRN] is a kind of spiritual comfort food. […] That's the main reason I've persisted all these years […]  Besides being a source of income, this work has a more profound meaning. It requires not only passion but also wisdom and a sense of mission. It's a legacy—a job of passing something down. 

Platforms like CRN become what Josephine calls 精神食粮 for NYC’s Chinese diaspora—a “spiritual comfort food.” Just as food sustains our body, hearing our mother tongue sustains our spirit; it nourishes a deep longing for home, familiarity, and cultural connection in a foreign country where one may feel misunderstood and alienated. As Josephine said, CRN truly is a legacy of passing down culture and community. Her life’s work, innovating radio for the Chinese diaspora across the globe, is that legacy, richly lived.

CRN director and founder Josephine Chain Hui (程蕙) was born on January 28, 1951 in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Along with her mother, younger sister, and two younger brothers, she moved frequently due to her father’s military career—from Huwei to Chiayi, Donggang, Pingtung, and finally Kaohsiung. In 1968, she began studying Urban Planning at Chinese Cultural University in Yangmingshan. While in college, she started working as administrative assistant to the deputy station director of the Police Broadcasting System (PBS, 警察广播电台), where her standard Mandarin pronunciation—honed through her participation in speech and debate clubs throughout childhood—earned her a spot. As the oldest child, she initially took the job simply to support her family. But, it was there that she discovered her talent and lifelong passion for radio. 

Josephine recalls that PBS was initially established by the National Police Agency in the 1950s to improve police communication and emergency response. By November 1968—just as she began working there—the station had evolved into a quasi-public broadcaster with significant civilian listenership and 24-hour programming.^¹ In her second year, she began broadcasting the evening news, sometimes broadcasting classical music. When given the opportunity to fill the 9PM - 11:30PM evening slot, Josephine decided to start her iconic segment 今夜之歌 (Song of the Night). 

In 1973, Josephine graduated from Chinese Cultural University. Her friend's father worked at the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission under the government of Taiwan and helped her land a job as assistant to Mao Song-nian (毛松年) of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China government. Fortunately for her, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission was right next door to PBS, so she simultaneously pursued both jobs while building Song of the Night brick by brick. 

Live music broadcast was already rare at PBS and across Taiwanese radio as a whole. For Josephine, creativity in music came naturally. She recalls that as a child, even at five years old, her ballet teachers would pick her out for her accurate sense of rhythm. Her innate curiosity inspired her to do what no one else in the industry was doing—exploring the stories and the artists behind the music.  

She visited major record companies like Four Seas, Hai Shan, Ge Lin, UFO, and Polygram to learn how records were pressed and talent was discovered. These companies gave her physical records to broadcast and brought in emerging (and now iconic) singers like Wan Sha-lang, Feng Fei-fei, Lo Ta-yu, and Liu Wen-cheng as interviewees for Song of the Night. 

Among Josephine's earliest and most frequent interviewees was a teenage Teresa Teng—before she became a global household name and one of the most recognizable faces of Asian music worldwide. The two met at the PBS’s 'Aerial Song Hall,' where a fifteen-year-old Teng performed. Over time, Josephine interviewed Teng multiple times, photographed her, and even spoke with her mother. She witnessed Teng's transformation from a young girl supporting her family through song to an international star—all while fondly remembering her as simply "a tall girl with a baby face and a perfect ear” before the world knew her name.

In 1977, New Format Records, a budding label, approached her to help discover fresh, young talent. Josephine proposed taking the search to universities. On her show, she announced talent shows at campuses across Taiwan. That initiative became the Golden Melody Awards (GMA)—a series of live university concerts that gave college students a real platform. The project was a major success, reaching nearly every major university and helping launch new singers, and kickstarting the campus folk song movement , where students wrote and sang their own songs in dormitories and on campus stages. Although Josephine only hosted the first few iterations of GMA, her indispensable role endures as the spark that transformed Taiwan's music forever.

Prior to the 1970s, Taiwan youth had little to listen to outside of Western music and old-school Mandarin pop born from Shanghai’s nightclub era.^¹ Young people wanted their own language, stories, and craft–and thus, the campus folk song movement was born.^¹ It proved that original local music could sell, shifting the industry from "songwriter writes, singer sings" to singer-songwriters. This effectively created the distinct, musical voice of Taiwan today. Most histories narrativize the campus folk song movement as a youth-led phenomenon independent of the industry. However, Josephine’s account proves that there were other creative forces at hand, including radio, that helped make that possible. 

By the late 1970s, Josephine and Song of the Night had built a name for themselves. The show featured listener letters and dedications; listeners would call in, and many even brought Josephine flowers. She built a genuine relationship with her audience, becoming a soundtrack to their lives. In 2015, PBS broadcasted a special "homecoming" segment for Josephine and her peers. The YouTube comments are filled with people reminiscing that her intro jingle was the sound of their youth—treasured memories of late nights as college students. In 1981, the Golden Bell Broadcasting Awards, Taiwan's most prestigious and earliest broadcasting honor, awarded Josephine as top Host. 

In 1980, Josephine lost her husband to cancer, but her innovative spirit carried her through grief. That same year, she handed Song of the Night to fellow MC Fang Di and left Taiwan to build anew in New York.^¹ She settled in Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport. Her first job was reporting and producing a weekly segment called New York, New York for a Taiwanese production company affiliated with a television station back home. She hired a freelance cameraman and explored the city, reporting on interesting places, good food, high-end shopping, outlet centers, and when the big sales were. After work, she took evening English classes at Pace University.

Eventually, she reconnected with her current partner—a man she had first met in Taiwan, who now worked at Sino Broadcasting, one of the only Chinese radio stations in NYC at the time. The station leased time on AM frequencies and broadcast almost entirely in Cantonese. After her daughter was born in 1986, Josephine stopped working on New York, New York. But as she watched the growing Mandarin-speaking population outpace the once-dominant Cantonese community, she saw an opening. In 1988, she launched the Chinese Radio Network—New York's first 24/7 Mandarin-dedicated Chinese radio station. Why a network? Josephine envisioned that one day, CRN could expand broadly— to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco—so that “wherever Chinese people lived, they could hear our programs.” 

The station had humble patchwork beginnings. Josephine's apartment was next door, and the station was in an office upstairs. She leased a subcarrier from 105.9 FM and ordered equipment from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Then, she ran ads in the World Journal—a NYC-based Taiwanese broadsheet that is presently the largest Chinese-language newspaper in the United States, and one of the largest outside Greater China.^¹ Those ads brought in many different talents into CRN, including Yang Cheng-chun (演艺界), who was a veteran of Shanghai radio and CRN's first program manager. And also—my mom!

By the late 1980s, both mainland Chinese stations and Taiwanese stations were looking to collaborate with Josephine, and approached her to broadcast their programs overseas. But beyond just a business prospect, Josephine took this as a personal opportunity to finally reconnect her relatives. Her father was from Shandong and her mother from Anhui, and neither had spoken to their families since fleeing to Taiwan in 1949. For four decades, it was silent across the strait. So, during her first trip to China in 1986, she used her industry connections to help her parents find their parents and siblings. Her subsequent trips were about developing relationships with international radio stations. 

As the station expanded, in 1998, CRN launched WGBB-AM 1240, becoming the first Chinese radio station in New York to ever broadcast on an AM frequency, rather than subleasing. They didn’t just buy any frequency, either: WGBB has served Long Island since 1924, and is the oldest radio station on Long Island and one of the oldest in the country.^¹ A piece of American broadcasting history became a home for Chinese New Yorkers—a remarkable turn, given how long Chinese Americans had been sidelined from the evolution of American radio.

This major accomplishment supported CRN's goals of creating more resources and formal spaces for the Chinese New York community's culture, entertainment, and outreach. It paved the way for CRN to become an ideal, effective bridge between Chinese media and Chinese American listeners.

On the day of 9/11, the last person to leave the CRN office was veteran media professional Mr. Cheng Tiehui. At the time, the radio station was located at 45 John Street, just two blocks away from the World Trade Center. Fortunately, everyone managed to evacuate Manhattan safely. On September 12, under the leadership of then Program Director Yang Chengchun, the team split into two groups: one went directly to the headquarters of WGBB AM 1240 on Long Island to continue broadcasting, while the other went out into the community to conduct interviews, ensuring that local events were reported via radio in real time. Given that the roof of the World Trade Center housed a vast array of media transmission equipment—all of which was reduced to dust and rubble following the towers' collapse—the timely news and information broadcasted by AM 1240 proved to be absolutely vital disaster response media. 

In the aftermath of 9/11, CRN relocated from its Lower East Side location to its current base in Flushing—which brought the station right to the center of the newest, rapidly expanding Queens Chinatown that was heavily dominated by Mandarin speakers. Chain Hui recalled she had just registered for the very first World Chinese Media Forum: "It was six o'clock in the evening. I had just checked into the Nanjing Hotel when I was told that a terrorist attack was happening in New York and the World Trade Center was on fire." She was also one of the few attendees at the inaugural forum who came from New York, the site of the attacks.^¹

In 2009, China Radio International officially launched its partnership with CRN, making it the first such collaboration on the East Coast and fulfilling Josephine’s dream of CRN as a network connecting the global Chinese diaspora.^¹

Nowadays, Josephine is a renowned veteran of radio: in Taiwan, in New York, and across the Chinese-speaking world. Over the years, she has received countless awards from international Chinese-language media associations for her work bridging Chinese radio globally, as well as awards from local organizations and leaders for supporting the Chinese New York City community. My mom, a fellow longtime broadcaster, always speaks of Josephine with deep respect. Indeed, Josephine is a pioneer who revolutionized radio not once, but twice — first in Taiwan, then again in New York City. But the real legacy is not on the award plaques that line the wall. It's on the air — a voice that has never stopped speaking to the Chinese community, night after night, for nearly half a century.

My mom has been one of CRN's earliest staff members as an MC. Thanks to her work at CRN, Josephine sponsored her work visa and helped my family build a life in America. My mom also has a long history in radio broadcasting in Shanghai. Here are some of her reflections:

Director Chain Hui loves broadcasting. She loves the microphone. She has loved it her whole life. Now that she is older, sometimes she feels unable to do as much as she used to. But the moment she starts broadcasting — the moment she speaks in front of that microphone — she instantly regains her composure, full of spirit and energy! Whether she is introducing songs and music or interviewing people, her wisdom and humor always make her guests unconsciously open their hearts and speak freely.

This radio station has brought together media and broadcasting professionals from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and beyond. From Taiwan, there are 楊明 (Yáng Míng), 陳鐵輝 (Chén Tiěhuī), 張福民 (Zhāng Fúmín), 趙幼鳳 (Zhào Yòufèng), 羅千山 (Luó Qiānshān), 陳瑋 (Chén Wěi), 徐培文 (Xú Péiwén), 石儀環 (Shí Yíhuán), 陳偉智 (Chén Wěizhì), 劉曼 (Liú Màn), 朱明山 (Zhū Míngshān), 南麗 (Nán Lì), and others. From mainland China, there is the renowned voice actor 楊成純 (Yáng Chéngchún), the famous actress 嚴曉頻 (Yán Xiǎopín), as well as anchors from China Radio and Television: 韋華 (Wéi Huá), 郭麗卿 (Guō Lìqīng), 力揚 (Lì Yáng), 梅菁 (Méi Jīng), 凌立 (Líng Lì), 王炎 (Wáng Yán), 南珊 (Nán Shān), and others. And it would be impossible to forget their office secretary Anita. 

For decades, some have worked full-time, some part-time. On this radio platform, they have spread culture and spirit, delivering local news and interpreting policies and regulations for first-generation immigrants. Through Chinese-language radio programs, traditional opera, and Mandarin pop music, they have helped immigrants maintain their cultural identity in a foreign land and alleviate the anxiety of "cultural rootlessness."

And the hosts, under the leadership of Station Director Chain Hui, work together in unity. At the core of that feeling, perhaps, is that "complexity is allowed to exist." Everyone is able to express their own views, even when they have different opinions on the same issue.

Most of the staff at this radio station have received a good education in the United States and possess a strong sense of responsibility along with an immense love for broadcasting. This environment has cultivated a kind of professional "translation" ability — not language translation, but contextual translation. Helping mainland Chinese readers understand a certain sentiment in Taiwanese society. Helping Taiwanese listeners interpret the logic behind mainland Chinese policies. Helping Hong Kong colleagues translate both contexts into a framework that resonates with overseas Chinese. This is the sense in which everyone works here!

My mom's words capture something essential about Josephine — and about everyone who has ever worked at CRN. They come for the love of the microphone. They stay for something larger: the quiet, daily work of keeping a community connected to itself. 

Even before my mom was pregnant with me, she worked at CRN. When I was seven, I would finish swim class at the Boys Club next door and run straight to my mom in the broadcast room. Josephine always jokes that she still remembers when I was just a belly bump: "You grew up so fast!" CRN isn't just a historical landmark; it defines what home means to me. CRN — and organizations like it — must be honored for their indispensable work of culture-building and community-building.

This summer, with the support of my alma mater Haverford College's Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, I interned at CRN to help preserve its history. I conducted oral interviews with Josephine and the two other remaining staff members — Zhang Fumin and Anita. When I asked Zhang and Anita if I could interview them, they both told me, "I don't really do much. I'm not worth talking to. I don't have anything important to share." Anita casually mentioned that 9/11 occurred during her very first days at CRN. As I probed more, she recalled vivid details — like her best friend's frantic call asking if she was okay. Later, she told my mother how she hadn't thought about those memories in years; if I had never asked, she might have forgotten them.

My elders dismiss their lives, their struggles, and their cultural touchstones as unremarkable, when they are anything but. Unlike what Anita and other elders may jokingly tell you, and unlike the spotty data that prominent scholars have recorded of these communities, they have — we have — so much worth remembering. This self-erasure must end, because the AAPI community's ongoing and historic systemic oppression in the United States can no longer go unseen, unheard, and forgotten.

I am grateful to have received archiving guidance from APIAHIP, Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation, a group dedicated to preserving AAPI place-based history. But the fact that this organization is so new (only gaining official 501(c)(3) status in 2023), and that the majority of their existing history collection is West Coast-dominant, reveals much more work still needs to be done.

Nowadays, radio is a dying art, and CRN is not immune to that reality. 

As mentioned earlier, Josephine herself spoke candidly about what lies ahead:

I'm not young anymore, really, so I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. My daughter isn't very interested in it. I hope that one day, more friends who are interested will carry on this radio station.

What dies with radio are not just frequencies — it is the memories, the communities, the acts of home-making that radio made possible. The story of diaspora and media networks, of local history with global roots, of elders who deny the significance of their own narratives — CRN reminds us that these are themes we ought to consider and probe further.

Thanks to AAARI and the Localized History Project, this history has a home. Now it is up to us to remember. 

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