In 1985, Judy Yung curated Chinese Women of America at the New York Chinatown History Project (which later became MOCA), the first exhibition to foreground the history of Chinese women in America. As a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, Yung headed a team that spent two years traveling across the United States and China, searching for old photographs and documents while conducting oral histories with over 270 women. Oral histories proved a particularly vital tool for recovering the history of women, whose contributions were often otherwise omitted from the written record along with other marginalized groups. Her research and documenting efforts culminated in a seminal 37-panel photo exhibition which went on to tour nationally. The show illuminated the experiences of Chinese women in America over nearly 150 years— from the first Chinese women to arrive in the U.S. in 1834 to the pioneering women of the 1980s. Notably, the exhibition featured the largely unknown story of Polly Bemis (born Lalu Nathoy or Gong Heng), a Chinese woman who came to the US in 1872 as a slave and later gained her freedom. It also highlighted Sieh King King, an early activist who spoke out against women’s oppression in San Francisco in 1902. Her book, Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History, was an outgrowth and extension of the exhibit. Weaving together photographs drawn from family albums and archives with excerpts from her oral histories, the book brought to life women’s largely overlooked stories and provided an important platform for their voices to be heard.

Yung’s dedication to document and make visible Chinese American history—especially the stories of Chinese American women—extended far beyond the Chinese Women of America exhibition. She went on to serve as the backbone of the fledgling Asian American studies program as a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, while continuing to make prolific contributions to historical scholarship. Her landmark monograph, Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (1995), remains a foundational work in the field, solidifying her as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese American women’s history.