Chuimei Ho received her PhD in archaeology and history from the University of London. A founder and first president of the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, she now specializes in the history of Chinese families and culture in the state of Washington and neighboring states and provinces.

Bennet Bronson received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an emeritus curator of Asian archaeology and ethnology at Chicago's Field Museum. Like his coauthor, his current research focuses on Chinese groups in the Pacific Northwest.

Ho and Bronson have written extensively on the archaeology and history of Southeast and East Asia. Together, they authored Chinese in Chicago: 1870-1945 and Chinatown in Chicago: A Visitor's Guide to Its History and Architecture. They also coedit the Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee's website, a leading resource for students of early Chinese American and Chinese Canadian history.