Preserving Chinese Gravesites at Valhalla Cemetery

Update on 08/19/2023:

We have received a donation (personal check) from Mr. D. Ko, a respected member of St. Louis Chinese community who is well connected to the St. Louis Chinese history. We have exceeded our goal of raising $2540, to receive the. matching donation (of $1500). Congratulations to the student volunteers!

____________________________________________________

Update on 06/07/2023: Our fundraising team (Cal, Ivy, Maggie, Max, Dr. Liu and our new member Megan--we are missing Yijia!) donated $1000 to the MO Historical Society's Chinese American Collection Initiative. Dr. Jody Sowell, President of the MO Historical Society, Mr. Chris Gordon, head of the initiative, received the donation from our student team.

We received a generous offer from an anonymous donor who pledged to match a donation of $1500, IF the students can fundraise to $1500. That will be our new goal! This will give us a total of $3000 to use towards the preservation of Chinese graves at Valhalla~!

As of June 8, we have raised $1760. After the $1000 donation, we have $760. For us to get to $1500 needed to receive the $1500 matched donation, we need to fundraise another $740. We have updated our fundraising goal to $2540 (old goal of 1800 plus 740).

____________________________________________________

Update on 06/05/2023: We are excited to welcome a new collaborator to our fundraising team. Ms. Megan Liu is a rising senior in St. Louis County and her interests include writing music and advocating for cultural diversity and awareness!

____________________________________________________

Update 05/24/2023. We continue to fundraise and have now scheduled a time for our first donation to MO Historical Society--June 7th in the afternoon! We are excited to be able to hand over that check to the lead person for the Chinese American Collection initiative!

____________________________________________________

Update 05/10/2023. Wow--what a wonderful 18 hours has it been since our last update! Our fundraiser has again exceeded our goal ($1200). Our plan includes: 1) increase our fundraising goal again, and continue to spread the word; 2) schedule a donation with the Missouri Historical Society's Chinese American collection initiative, (contact person Mr. Chris Gordon) before end of May; and 3) schedule another upkeep visit to the cemetery before end of May. Questions/inquiries can be sent to Min Liu at [email redacted]

____________________________________________________

Update 05/09/2023. We have met our original fundraising goal of $800, thanks to all the generous donors. We have increased our goal and will continue to fundraise. At the same time, we will make plans 1) to donate funds raised to the Missouri Historical Society's Chinese American collection initiative and 2) to work out a plan to upkeep the original burial plots at Valhalla. Further updates will be posted on this Gofundme.

____________________________________________________

Hi we are students in the Asian/Chinese American History initiative of AACS (www.asianamericancivicscholars.com; instagram #civicasians). One project we've been doing is to study, clean, archive, and eventually help preserve the Chinese graves in Valhalla Cemetery, located in St. Louis on St. Charles Rock Road. Chinese community members have been buried since the 1920s, at a time when many other cemeteries would not accept them due to exclusionary policies/sentiment. Many notable early Chinese leaders are buried there, including several "Mayors" of St. Louis Chinatown (often referred to as Hop Alley), presidents of the St. Louis Ong Leong Merchant and Laborer's Association, business leaders of well-known establishments such as the Asia Cafe, and members of the Leong family, Hong family, to name a few. Our group wants to fundraise to help document that history.

Half of the funds raised will go towards preserving the graves in the earlier plots at Valhalla, including that of a 6-year old Shirly A. Y., whose burial marker is at risk of being washed off due to weather related decaying conditions; little Shirley was laid to rest there 70 years ago and we'd like to make sure her permanent rest place, as well as that of hundreds other STL Chinese Americans, is well taken care of.

The other half of the funds raised will be donated to the Missouri Historical Society's Chinese American Collecting Initiative (https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2023-02-23/retelling-the-story-of-st-louis-chinatown-through-the-experience-of-those-who-lived-there).

Preserving Chinese Gravesites at Valhalla Fundraising Team: Ivy Liao, Yijia Mao, Cal Wang, Max Zeng, & (faculty advisor) Min Liu