Chinese-American Scholar's Work to be Digitized
- Many of 'accidental' historian's writings
have not been seen by public
by Momo Chang.
San Mateo County Times. 2007 Dec 2
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7616472?source=rss

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sitting in one of several rooms filled with books, Him
Mark Lai recounts how he became a scholar of Chinese-American
history. "I think the main thing is, I'm Chinese," said Lai, who
turned 82 on Nov. 1. "My past has been for China, for the Chinese, to
do well, to improve themselves. Then that feeling transferred to
(being) Chinese American."

Lai's passion for collecting books and news about Chinese Americans
makes him a unique -- and in some ways, accidental -- historian.

An engineer by trade -- he worked at Bechtel Corporation from 1953 to
1984 -- Lai has spent more than half his life as a pioneer scholar of
all things related to Chinese America.