Restrictions to Access

Access to audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. This collection contains unprocessed materials, including exhibit guides, additional research files and photographs on shape note singing, and additional photographs and born digital materials on Cambodian immigrant folklife in North Carolina, that are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Barbara Lau Collection #20055, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Barbara Lau of Durham, N.C., in June 1993 (Acc. 93104 and 93106), March 2006 (Acc. 100346), February 2008 (Acc. 100867), and June 2021 (Acc. 20210604.2); Beverly Patterson, North Carolina Arts Council, Raleigh, N.C., in July 1996; and Jim White of Chapel Hill, N.C., in May 2000 (Acc. 98611).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Amy Davis, May 2000

Encoded by: Amy Davis, May 2000

Updated by: Anne Wells and Alia Kempton, August 2021; Dawne Howard Lucas, January 2022

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American singers.
• African Americans--Music.
• Cambodian Americans--Music.
• Cambodian Americans--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Cambodian Americans--Rites and ceremonies.
• Cambodians--United States.
• Chan Moly Sam, 1953-
• Chatterley, Cedric N., 1956-
• Chea Khan.
• Children's literature, American.
• Dance--Cambodia.
• Ethnic folklore--United States.
• Folklorists--United States.
• Greensboro (N.C.)--History.
• Greensboro (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Greensboro Buddhist Center.
• Lau, Barbara (Barbara A.)
• Marriage customs and rites--Cambodia.
• New Year--Cambodia.
• Shape note singing--United States.
• Weddings--Cambodia.
• White, Jim (Folklorist)

• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025)
• Barbara Lau and Cedric Chatterley Collection on Cambodian and Montagnard Dega Immigrant Communities in Greensboro, N.C. (#20460)

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1958, Barbara Lau grew up in Ohio and attended Washington University in Saint Louis, Mo., 1976-1980, graduating with a degree in urban studies and sociology. While in Saint Louis, Lau became interested in African American shape-note singing groups in the region and surveyed several singing groups for her undergraduate senior thesis. While on staff at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in Saint Louis, Mo., Lau continued working with these groups and presented them at a Shape-Note Singing Reunion in February 1983. She also documented the larger regional Ohio-Indiana-Michigan Vocal Singing Convention from 1983 to 1984. Lau worked as a backstage manager at the Fox Theatre in Saint Louis, Mo., and coordinated program areas for the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C., 1986-1991. She attended the masters program in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1991-1993, and was program coordinator for the Southern Arts Federation in Atlanta, Ga., from 1993 to 1995.

While at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lau became acquainted with the Cambodian community in Greensboro, N.C., and began fieldwork with them for her masters thesis. Working with the Greensboro Buddhist Center, she received a grant and several contracts through the North Carolina Arts Council to document folklife traditions of this new immigrant community in 1995. Lau continued work as a freelance folklorist and consultant through the late 1990s. In 1999, she became the community-based documentary programs coordinator at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Materials include audiovisual materials, photographs, slides, logs, and manuscripts from two of Barbara Lau's folklife projects. Documentation of Lau's work with African American shape-note singing groups in the early 1980s includes her senior thesis, "Black Shape-Note Singing: A Beginning," along with surveys on which she based her writing. Also included are photographs, audio recordings, and slides from the 1983 Shape-Note Singing Reunion in Saint Louis, Mo., and the Ohio-Indiana-Michigan Vocal Singing Convention in Indianapolis, Ind. in 1983 and Detroit, Mich. in 1984.

Materials documenting the Cambodian American communities in North Carolina, include nearly 1,200 color slides and prints by Lau and photographer Cedric Chatterley of the 1995 Cambodian New Year celebration in Greensboro, N.C. There are also photographs of New Year celebrations in Lexington, N.C. and Charlotte, N.C. The 1995 Cambodian wedding of Yi Kong and Sengdoeun Chhum was videotaped by Jim White, with photographs by Lau. Lau also interviewed two Cambodian dancers, Chea Khan and Chaa Moly Sam, while they were in residence at the Greensboro Buddhist Center and photographed their classes. The majority of photographs and interviews have extensive logs with commentary and field note summaries by Lau.

The Addition of March 2006 includes audio recordings, 2002-2004, documenting interviews Lau performed in preparation for a 2003 exhibit at the Greensboro Historical Museum entitled From Cambodia to Greensboro: Tracing the Journeys of New North Carolinians, transcriptions of those tapes in digital file and paper formats, and a copy of the catalog issued in conjunction with the exhibit. Interview recordings are on digital audio tape (DAT).

The Addition of February 2008 contains a children's book with text, 1994, by Barbara Lau and photographs by Cedric Chatterley entitled Sokita Celebrates the New Year.

The Addition of June 2021 contains additional materials, 1996-2006, related to Barbara Lau's fieldwork documenting Cambodian American communities of Greensboro, N.C. and Charlotte, N.C. Materials consist of audio and video recordings of interviews, community celebrations, and wedding music; audiocassette releases of Cambodian music by the Sam-Ang Sam Ensemble, founded by Cambodian American ethnomusicologist, Sang-Ang Sam; photographic materials of community celebrations, including slides, snapshot prints, negatives, and contact sheets; born digital materials of interviews, videos, and images connected to Lau's fieldwork; and Lau's research files that are comprised mostly of research books and printed publications.

Audiocassettes (FS-20055/1218-1228, FS-20055/4798-4799, FS-20055/18190-18196)

Audiotapes (FT-20055/6058-6059)

Digital Audiotapes (DAT-20055/532-552)

Digital Folders (DF-20055/1-16)

MiniDiscs (MD-20055/1-3)

Field notes to sound recordings (Folder 157, Folder 355, Folder 909), Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025

Videotapes (VT-20055/1-/10)

Photographs (P-20055/3600, PA-20055/1-2)