THE MATRIARCH OF CHINATOWN Ou Shee Eng

What'sHerName

Dr. Katie Nelson and Olivia Meikle

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 538 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For 61 years, Ou Shee Eng's tiny apartment in Seattle's Chinatown was the heart of 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 taking family secrets to the grave. ____________________ 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:02.7	Hi, Olivia. Hi, Katie. I've got a question for you. Pretend I'm a stranger. Mm-hmm. And listeners, I'm asking you this also.
1:13.2	Hello.
1:14.3	Very nice to meet you.
1:15.6	Where are you from?
1:17.6	Ah.
1:19.9	I never know how to answer this question.
1:23.3	Uh-huh.
1:24.7	Why?
1:26.1	Because I don't feel like I have a place I'm from, I guess. I mean, I have a place I lived mostly as a child, but I don't identify with it very much anymore. I've been out for longer than I was in. And I, you know, I moved every two years most of my adult life that there wasn't really a place.
1:45.2	Now I definitely feel of where I live, but I'm not technically from where I live.
1:54.2	I don't have an honest answer to it.
	...

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