What'sHerName
THE MATRIARCH OF CHINATOWN Ou Shee Eng
Published: 27 April 2026 at 05:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
For 61 years, Ou Shee Eng's tiny apartment in Seattle's Chinatown was the heart a community of women. Possessing the rare ability to read and write Chinese, Ou Shee was the reader and scribe of everyone's letters. What was happening in China while this circle of women lived quietly in America, and why did they never speak of it?
Join Katie on location at the Wing-Luke Museum in Seattle, with guest Elana Eng Lim to contemplate belonging, kindness, and the once-noble act of taking family secrets to the grave.
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Join us on our next women's history adventure! TOURS OPEN NOW
Read Elana Lim's poignant essay My Grandmother's Hand HERE.
Music in this episode: "Lau Tzu Erhu" by Doug Maxwell; The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto; "Under the Moon" by Annette Hanshaw; "Spirit of Fire" and "The Sleeping Prophet" by Jesse Gallagher; "Popularity March" by Victor Band 1923 at the Library of Congress; "Long Road Ahead" by Kevin MacLeod; "Please" by Wayne Jones." FDR's Pearl Harbor speech in the public domain.
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