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1853: Oong Ar-showe of Malden (immigrated in 1850 to South Boston) marries Louisa Hentz of South Boston. Their union is believed to be the first between a Chinese person and an American. Oong was baptized along with his son, William, in 1854 at which point Oong changed his name to Charles. He owned a Tea of Coffee store at 25 Union Street as well as a carriage shop. The Ar-showes were wealthy and highly visible in Malden social and political affairs. Oong personally paid for a fireworks display in 1876 to celebrated the centennial anniversary of American Independence. When his wife died that same year, he gave her the largest funeral in Malden's history. In 1878, Oong returned to China.

1854: Yung Wing becomes the first Chinese student to receive a college degree in the United States. Later, he married an American woman and urged Chinese officials to send Chinese students to the United States to study modern science and technology.

1868: United States ambassador to China, Anson Burlingame, brings The Chinese Mission to Boston. Burlingame negotiated the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 which guaranteed rights of immigration between China and the U.S. including reciprocal rights for education and residence for migrants.

1870: 75 Chinese laborers from California are hired by C.T. Sampson's shoe factory in North Adams, Massachusetts to act as strike breakers. In the face of industrial mechanization, the skilled shoemakers formed the Secret Order of the Knights of St. Crispin and went on strike demanding shorter hours and better wages. The ownership responded by recruiting Chinese workers on three contracts for $23 a month for the first year and $26 a month after that. On June 13, the Chinese workers crossed the hostile picket lines. Management hired 50 more Chinese workers.

1872: Yung Wing brings a group of Cantonese students to New England to study, the first of hundreds of students to come to the United States to study. However, increasing racial discrimination eventually leads to the discontinuation of the exchange in 1881.

1875: The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) is founded to preserve Chinese culture, maintain ties with China, and act as a liaison with American groups.

1875-1882: The Chinese community clusters in Chinatown as a way to preserve tradition and avoid rampant discrimination against them. The community is overwhelmingly uneducated males. Most men consider their stay temporary. They remit money home to their families to maintain their traditional lives in the rural farmlands of Southern China (particularly Canton)

1879: Ko Kun-hua arrives in Cambridge to teach Mandarin Chinese at Harvard. This upper class, Confucian intellectual was the first Chinese faculty member at Harvard.

1880: Ting I-hsin becomes the first Chinese student admitted to Harvard. He had graduated 3rd in his class from Holyoke High School during the years of the Educational Mission sponsored by Yung Wing. Unfortunately, I-hsin was recalled to China in 1881 and did not receive a degree from Harvard.

1880s: Former North Adams shoe factory worker, Lue Gim Gong, moves to Florida where he creates hybrid oranges and grapefruits which can endure much lower temperatures.

1882: Liang Cheng leads the Phillips Academy Andover baseball team to victory over its sister school and arch rival Phillips Academy Exeter. He later becomes a diplomat in Washington and receives many international honors including an honorary doctorate in law from Amherst College. Also, the Chinese Exclusion Act is passed barring all Chinese immigrants except for the wives and children of skilled workers already in the United States.

1890: Approximately 200 Chinese are in Chinatown. The Chinese Monthly News begins publication.

1892: Tseung Chan Loon becomes the first Chinese graduate from Harvard. At the same time, Chinese immigrants must carry identification cards due to the passage of the Geary Act.

1900: After the Boxer Rebellion in China, Chinese students are readmitted to schools in the United States. There are approximately 500 Chinese in Chinatown.

1903: "Tong Wars." The tongs were secret social societies who along with the family associations (who assisted with helping people of the same surname immigrate and acclimate) and other community groups, managed the Chinese community in the absence of formal government. The On Leong Tong and Hep Sing Tong clashed resulting in the death of one man. Boston police swooped in and arrested 258 men fueling an already negative image of the Chinese community in the eyes of greater Boston.

1903, October 11th: The U.S. Immigration Service in cooperation with Boston Police raid Chinatown and arrest 300 people. At this time, there were 18 women and 800 men in Chinatown.

1919: On Leong Merchants Association establishes the Quong-Kow Chinese School for children to study Chinese language and culture.

1924: The Immigration Act denies citizenship to all Asians including wives and children of those already in the U.S.

1930: First Chinese burials are recorded at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan.

1931: A Chinese Directory of New England lists nearly 1000 Chinese-owned businesses in New England.

1937: The Sino-Japanese war breaks out. Residents of Chinatown are active in support of their homeland including raising money for airplanes and rebuilding in China.

1943: After China fought with the U.S. as a World War Two ally, the Chinese Exclusion Act was finally reversed and an annual quota of 105 immigrants was established.

1945: The War Brides Act was passed to allow wives and children of U.S. soldiers to immigrant resulting in an increase in the number of Chinese women in the U.S.

1949: 14,000 Chinese arrive in the United States under Refugee Acts. Many immigrate to Boston marking a dramatic increase in the number of women and children.