Oral History Interview with Angela Ng, 2004-01-20

File

Identifier: 2014.036.009

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

9/11 Chinatown Documentation Project includes oral history interviews of people who lived or worked in the Lower East Side during the events on September 11th, 2001. The individuals whose stories were collected are of diverse immigrant, educational, age and socio-economic backgrounds. The interviewees reflect on the tragedy and discuss how their lives and the lives of others in the community were affected by it. The interviews help to paint a portrait of how the New York Chinatown we know today was shaped by the events of that morning.

Dates

Creation: 2004-01-20

Conditions Governing Use

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, belong to the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). Interview can only be reproduced with permission from the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA).

Extent

126 Megabytes

Language of Materials

Chinese

Additional Description

Abstract

Angela Ng immigrated to the United States in 1970 from Hong Kong and worked as a unionized garment worker for over 25 years. In the interview, she describes her work and experience as a garment worker, and talks about the changes happening in the garment industry. She also discusses union benefits, work conditions, family life for workers, pay, and job availability. On September 11th, 2001, Angela was working at the garment factory when she noticed a plane fly too low overhead and heard an explosion nearby. She recalls scrambling to reach out to family members and taking hours to get home due to the transportation shutdown. After the attacks, Angela describes the decline in work in the garment factory, loss of certain worker benefits, reduction of hours, and the change in workplace dynamics, specifically the decrease in worker leverage over factory owners as a result of a lack of garment orders.