Stanford exhibit of San Jose’s lost Chinatown brings archaeology out of the laboratory

The "City Beneath the City" installation at the Stanford Archaeology Center combines history and art for an insightful examination of local Bay Area history.

Visitors to the Stanford Archaeology Center find modern glass cases filled with fragments of a lost city – wooden toothbrushes and combs, buttons and leather shoes, ceramic bowls and soup spoons. These are the remnants of the once thriving Chinatown community in downtown San José. Today, these archaeological findings populate City Beneath the City, an art installation designed by…

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Stanford anthropology team prepares fractured, historic objects for art gallery debut

Stanford students work with San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art staff and artist Rene Yung to reframe the mundane objects from Market Street Chinatown in the exhibition City Beneath The City.

Stanford students taking Barbara Voss’ anthropology classes have been sifting through San Jose’s 19th century Market Street Chinatown remains for years, but the thousands of artifacts that have been excavated have never been on view to the public, until now. A selection of 60 artifacts has been assembled to create City Beneath The City at…

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