Explore the real-world places that appear in Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Boston Public Library, Harvard University, The Merton Family Home, Chinatown, Boston, The New England Conservatory and 9 more.
Copley Square — Margaret's workplace and sanctuary
Margaret Merton works as a librarian at the Boston Public Library, a position that becomes central to her identity and her relationship with her son Noah. The library represents safety, knowledge, and refuge during the oppressive anti-Chinese climate of the novel. Margaret catalogs and preserves information while the broader world burns with xenophobia. Her work among the stacks is one of the few places where she feels grounded and purposeful amid the family's disintegration.
The Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, is one of America's oldest and most prestigious public libraries. The magnificent McKim building on Copley Square opened in 1895 and was designed by renowned architect Stanford White. It has long served as a symbol of intellectual freedom and public access to knowledge in Boston.
The Boston Public Library remains a major cultural institution and research center, open to the public. The Copley Square building is actively used for exhibitions, events, and research. Visitors can access the reading rooms, special collections, and the beautiful courtyard that has inspired generations of scholars and readers.
Visit: Boston Public Library (library)
Cambridge — James Merton's academic career and the intellectual reckoning
James Merton, Margaret's husband, is a scholar at Harvard when the novel opens. His academic work on Chinese-American identity becomes a flashpoint for the novel's political tensions. As the anti-Chinese sentiment grows, James's career is threatened and his intellectual freedom is compromised. Harvard represents both the elite world that initially sheltered the family and the institutional betrayal that occurs when principles are abandoned for self-preservation.
Harvard University was founded in 1636 and is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Located in Cambridge, it became a major center of intellectual thought and American scholarship. By the 20th century, it was one of the nation's most prestigious universities, with significant Asian studies and literature programs.
Harvard University remains one of the world's leading research institutions. The Cambridge campus welcomes visitors to its Harvard Yard and public spaces. Numerous museums, libraries, and cultural venues are accessible to the public, including the Harvard Art Museums and the Houghton Library.
Visit: Harvard University (landmark)
Cambridge residential area — The novel's emotional center
The Merton family home in Cambridge is where the novel's deepest emotional conflicts unfold. Margaret, James, and their son Noah navigate the dissolution of their marriage and family unity within these walls. Margaret makes the devastating choice to send Noah away, believing it will protect him from the anti-Chinese hysteria consuming the nation. The home, once a place of intellectual discourse and family warmth, becomes a site of quiet desperation and impossible choices.
Cambridge neighborhoods near Harvard have long housed university faculty and intellectuals. The area developed as a residential community for academics and professionals during the late 19th and 20th centuries, characterized by tree-lined streets and established homes.
The residential neighborhoods of Cambridge remain quiet, tree-lined areas populated by Harvard faculty, students, and long-time residents. These neighborhoods maintain their intellectual character while serving as a gateway community to Harvard University.
Downtown Boston — The heart of Chinese-American community and cultural erasure
Boston's Chinatown represents both the cultural heritage and the vulnerability of Chinese-Americans in the novel. As anti-Chinese sentiment escalates, Chinatown becomes a dangerous place for families like the Mertons. The community that once provided cultural grounding becomes a symbol of the persecution and erasure happening across the nation. Noah's journey eventually leads him to search through Chinatown's archives and history, seeking to understand his heritage and find his mother.
Boston's Chinatown was established in the mid-19th century as Chinese immigrants settled in the area near the waterfront. It grew into a vibrant ethnic enclave with restaurants, shops, temples, and community organizations. By the 20th century, it was a center of Chinese-American cultural life in New England.
Boston's Chinatown remains an active ethnic neighborhood with traditional restaurants, shops, and cultural institutions. The community continues to preserve Chinese heritage while adapting to modern Boston. Visitors can explore restaurants, markets, and cultural sites including the Chinatown Gate and community centers.
Visit: Boston Chinatown (landmark)
Huntington Avenue — Noah's musical education and emotional expression
Noah Merton is a musically gifted child whose piano playing becomes his primary means of emotional expression. The Conservatory setting represents the cultivation of his talent and his identity as a sensitive, creative person. Through his music, Noah processes the trauma of his fractured family and the larger anti-Chinese violence consuming America. His music is his voice when words fail.
The New England Conservatory was founded in 1867 and is one of America's most prestigious music schools. Located on Huntington Avenue in the cultural corridor of Boston, it has trained generations of musicians and composers. The institution has been a beacon for musical excellence and artistic expression in New England.
The New England Conservatory remains an active music school offering performances, lessons, and cultural events. The Jordan Hall concert venue is a historic performance space open to the public for concerts and recitals. Visitors can attend student and faculty performances throughout the academic year.
Visit: New England Conservatory (landmark)
Downtown Boston — The seat of political power and anti-Chinese policy
Government Center represents the institutional machinery driving the anti-Chinese sentiment that destroys the Merton family. The policies, surveillance, and legal persecution orchestrated by government authorities create the climate of fear in which Margaret must make impossible choices. The novel's political crisis emanates from this center of power, though it remains largely offstage—a force felt through its consequences rather than directly depicted.
Boston's Government Center was developed in the 1960s as a major civic hub. City Hall and other municipal offices consolidated here, creating a massive plaza and modern governmental complex that reshaped downtown Boston's landscape. It became the symbolic center of municipal power.
Government Center remains the seat of Boston's city government. The plaza is a public space used for events, rallies, and gatherings. The distinctive brutalist architecture of Boston City Hall dominates the area. Visitors can access public spaces and observe the functioning of local government.
Visit: Government Center (landmark)
Park Street — Public space and social gathering amid surveillance
The Boston Common appears as a public gathering space where the novel's characters move through an increasingly surveilled and paranoid city. The park, once a place of freedom and community gathering, becomes a space where the family's privacy is threatened and anti-Chinese hysteria manifests. Walking through Boston Common becomes an act fraught with danger for those with Chinese heritage.
The Boston Common, established in 1634, is the oldest continuously used public park in the United States. It has served as a gathering place for Bostonians for nearly 400 years, hosting everything from public executions to abolition rallies to modern celebrations. It is a foundational symbol of Boston's public life.
The Boston Common remains one of America's most beloved public parks. The 50-acre green space is open year-round for walking, picnicking, and recreation. It connects to the Public Garden and is a central point on the Freedom Trail. Numerous monuments, fountains, and historic markers dot the landscape.
Visit: Boston Common (park)
Huntington Avenue — Art and cultural preservation amid erasure
The Museum of Fine Arts represents the preservation of cultural heritage and artistic expression. In the novel's context, it stands as an institution dedicated to safeguarding beauty and culture at a time when Chinese-American culture is being actively erased from public consciousness. Art and museums become refuges for those seeking to preserve identity and meaning.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston was founded in 1870 and is one of the oldest and most comprehensive art museums in the United States. Its Asian Art collection, including Chinese paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts, is among the finest in the Western world. The museum has long played a role in cultural education and preservation.
The Museum of Fine Arts remains a major cultural institution with world-class collections. The Asian Art galleries feature extensive Chinese works spanning centuries of cultural tradition. The museum is open to the public year-round with exhibitions, lectures, and educational programs.
Visit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (museum)
Harbor front — The novel's geographic anchor and immigrant history
The Boston waterfront, historically an entry point for immigrants including Chinese arrivals, anchors the novel's geographic and thematic landscape. The water represents both connection to heritage and the barrier of distance that separates Noah from his mother. The waterfront's history as an immigrant gateway becomes a powerful symbol of how communities are welcomed and then cast out.
Boston Harbor and its waterfront have been central to the city's identity since its founding. The harbor was the site of colonial trade, the Boston Tea Party, and major immigration patterns in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Chinese immigrants arrived by ship, creating the foundation for Boston's Chinatown community.
The Boston waterfront is now a vibrant mixed-use area with restaurants, shops, cultural venues, and public walkways. The Harborwalk provides public access along the water. The New England Aquarium, Institute of Contemporary Art, and numerous restaurants and attractions draw visitors year-round.
Visit: Boston Waterfront (park)
Beacon Hill — Independent library and intellectual refuge
The Boston Athenaeum, an independent membership library founded in 1807, represents the intellectual tradition and free inquiry that the novel views as under threat. Margaret and James Merton are connected to this world of books and ideas. The Athenaeum embodies the values of enlightenment and open discourse that anti-Chinese policies fundamentally attack.
The Boston Athenaeum was founded in 1807 as a membership library and cultural institution. It served Boston's intellectual and artistic elite, housing one of America's finest private collections of books, manuscripts, and artworks. The elegant Beacon Hill building opened in 1849 and has remained a center of literary and intellectual life.
The Boston Athenaeum remains an active membership library and cultural institution open to the public for visits. The building features a beautiful reading room, gallery exhibitions, and rare book collections. Public exhibitions and events are held throughout the year, and visitors can tour the historic spaces.
Visit: Boston Athenaeum (library)
Historic neighborhood — Boston's intellectual and elite community
Beacon Hill, Boston's historic neighborhood of brick townhouses and gas-lit streets, represents the world of intellectual privilege and cultural refinement that the Merton family inhabits. It is the geographic and social center of their Boston life before the anti-Chinese hysteria accelerates. The neighborhood's beauty and stability contrast sharply with the chaos and persecution that follow.
Beacon Hill developed in the late 18th and 19th centuries as a fashionable residential neighborhood for Boston's merchant and intellectual classes. Its architecture—Federal-style townhouses with brick facades and decorative doorways—became iconic. The neighborhood was home to literary figures, abolitionists, and cultural leaders.
Beacon Hill remains one of Boston's most desirable neighborhoods, with its historic architecture and character carefully preserved. The tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, and Federal townhouses are open to public walking. The neighborhood hosts restaurants, galleries, and shops while maintaining its residential character.
Visit: Beacon Hill (historic site)
Cambridge — James Merton's intellectual peer community
MIT represents the elite academic world that contains and eventually rejects James Merton. The institute's commitment to innovation and knowledge encounters its own limitations when political pressures demand conformity and silence. The novel explores how even the most prestigious institutions abandon their principles under anti-Chinese persecution.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861 and became one of the world's leading research universities. Located in Cambridge, MIT developed into a center for scientific innovation and technological advancement. Its faculty and students shaped American intellectual and technological life throughout the 20th century.
MIT remains a leading research university open to public campus tours and visits. The campus features iconic architecture, sculpture gardens, and public spaces. The MIT Museum offers exhibitions on science and technology, and various campus buildings host public lectures and events.
Visit: MIT (landmark)
Central Square — Refuge for displaced families and seekers of knowledge
The Cambridge Public Library serves as an alternative sanctuary where displaced families and those seeking refuge through knowledge can gather. Noah's search for his mother and understanding of his identity eventually leads him to archives and records. Libraries become spaces where the erased can be recovered and the silenced can find voice.
The Cambridge Public Library system developed to serve the Cambridge community throughout the 20th century. The main library was established as a branch of the Boston Public Library system, providing access to knowledge and resources for Cambridge residents and Harvard scholars alike.
The Cambridge Public Library remains an active public library system with multiple branches. The main library in Central Square offers a full range of library services, public computers, programs, and community gathering spaces. Visitors can access books, research materials, and attend community events.
Visit: Cambridge Public Library (library)
Huntington Avenue — Performance, art, and beauty amid cultural crisis
Symphony Hall represents the world of art and performance that provides refuge and meaning for Noah Merton. The Boston Symphony Orchestra and classical music become outlets for emotional truth that cannot be spoken. In a nation descending into anti-Chinese persecution, music offers transcendence and connection to universal human experience.
Symphony Hall, completed in 1900, is one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in the world. Designed by renowned architects McKim, Mead & White, it became home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The hall hosted performances by the greatest musicians of the 20th century and remains a beacon of musical excellence.
Symphony Hall continues as home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a major performance venue. Public concerts are held throughout the year featuring classical music, pops concerts, and special performances. Visitors can attend performances and tour the historic hall.
Visit: Symphony Hall (theater)
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