At the end of the previous year, on October 14, 2021, PREMEHCHI was presented at the University of La Rochelle (France), in the Pacific Rim Asie/Pacifique-Amériques conference organized by the APA scientific program (Asie/Pacifique/Amériques ), the CRHI (Centre de Recherches en Histoire Internationale et Atlantique de Nantes Université and de La Rochelle Université) and the D2iA (Dynamiques, Interactions et Interculturalité en Asia UMRU 24140 de La Rochelle Université et de la Université Bordeaux Montaigne). Ronald Soto-Quirós was in charge of a presentation entitled “Asie en Amérique centrale: Coolies chinois au Costa Rica au 19ème siècle” and he took the opportunity, first, to promote the work of PREMEHCHI and the Latin Americanist (and Hispanic) Academic Network on Sinological Studies (RALAES for its acronym in Spanish) of the UCR in France and, second, to show a little of the history of the Chinese coolies in Costa Rica. This was a good omen for the following two years, which were fruitiful due to the amount of work carried out by the different members of our group.

On March 31, 2022, Hernando Cepeda-Sánchez and Óscar Domínguez-Portugal, scholars from the National University of Colombia, presented the conference “Crossing destinies: Chinese workers in Cuba and New Granada in the mid-19th century,” in the series of virtual talks organized by the Latin (and Hispanic) Americanist Academic Network on Sinological Studies of the UCR with the support of PREMEHCHI. The commentator was Professor Benjamín Narváez from the University of Minnesota Morris and the moderator, Kuok Wa Chao Chao, director of the Confucius Institute of the University of Costa Rica (ICUCR).

On August 25, 2022, Professor Susan Chen Mok participated as moderator of the conference “Memories, forgetfulness, uses and significance of the Monument to the Chinese soldier in Havana”, presented by Yanet Jiménez Rojas, scholar at the Dr. José María Luis Research Institute Mora (Mexico) and commented by Albert Manke, scholar at the University of Osnabrück (Germany). On October 22, 2022, Professor Chen also participated as moderator of the RALAES virtual conference presented by Iris Lam Chen (UCR) and moderated by Rodrigo Campos (Tusanaje). The title of the talk was “Genealogical cartographies of Chinese migration in Costa Rica: Dynamics of the first generation of Chinese-Costa Rican families between 1900 and 1960.”

In collaboration with the Confucius Institute of the University of Costa Rica, two virtual conferences were organized with experts on Chinese migration in Latin America. First, Jorge Amaya Banegas, researcher at the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University (Honduras) and the National Autonomous University of Honduras, presented his conference titled “Chinese immigration to Honduras: its social, cultural and economic impact” on June 17 2022, with comments by Lai Sai Acón Chan and moderation by Kuok Wa Chao Chao. On the other hand, the director of the School of Literature at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Marcel Velásquez Castro, presented his conference “Chinese immigrants in the city ofLima between 1895-1912: hygiene and racialism” on October 21, 2022, for the Confucius Institute.

This year, the book Encounters with the Chinese World: Readings from Contemporary Latin American Sinology (Editorial de la Sede del Pacífico, 2021) was also published. Volume II, in particular, has a section on Chinese immigration with the works of Susan Chen Mok, Giselle Chang Vargas and Luis Diego Cháves Chang, and Iris Lam Chen, members of PREMEHCHI: “Work, leisure and recreation of the Chinese of Puntarenas, 20th century”, “Approach to the study of the double name: symbol of ethnic-cultural identity in migrants from China and their descendants in Costa Rica,” and “Portrait of Chinese families in Costa Rica: methodology for photographic documentation of migration from genealogical analysis”, respectively. In the same volume, other members of PREMEHCHI, Setsuko Sonoda and David Ibarra Arana, published their works “China's Extraterritorial Policies toward Overseas Chinese before 1949: A Historical Analysis of On-site Implementations of Qiaowu in Latin America” and “Contacts between China and Latin America through minjian waijiao (popular diplomacy) and the world peace movement (1949-1953)”, respectively. The book was presented on November 23, 2022 at the International Symposium on Chinese Transoceanic Migrations at the University of Costa Rica.

On the other hand, we were honored with the visits from two international scholars who research the cultural, social and political dynamics of overseas Chinese. In July 2022, Professor Monica DeHart, specialist in sociology and anthropology, director of the Global Development Studies Program at the University of Puget Sound, was in Costa Rica. Her book Transpacific Developments: The Politics of Multiple Chinas in Central America (Cornell University, 2021) was graciously donated to PREMEHCHI. Meanwhile, in September 2022, political science researcher Benjamin Hillman, director of the Australian Center on China in the World (CIW) at Australia National University, met with some members of PREMEHCHI to inquire about the dynamics of the Chinese diaspora in Costa Rica.

From November 22 to 25, 2022, PREMEHCHI was present at the International Symposium on Transoceanic Chinese Migrations (SIMT) at the University of Costa Rica, which congregated experts on Chinese migrations from Mexico (Fredy Cauich Carillo, Mónica Cinco and Arturo Gutiérrez), United States (Fredy González and Benjamin Narváez), Germany (Albert Manke) and Costa Rica (Ricardo Martínez and Lai Sai Acón). The talks and discussions were held at the Rodrigo Facio University City in San Pedro de Montes de Oca and at the Arnoldo Ferreto Pacific Headquarters of UCR in Puntarenas. Topics as varied as discrimination and xenophobia, freemasonry among overseas Chinese and proto-associationism were discussed. Ending the year 2022, Barullo Productions and a group of History students from the National University, Javier Núñez, Ismael Sanabria, María Cubillo and Joshua Montero, premiered the historical documentary Viaje al Oeste, which explores the history of migrants Chinese and their arrival in Costa Rica, but also how their presence influenced the economy, society and culture of the country. Part of the script is based on information and publications from members of PREMEHCHI.