Abstract This collection of interviews was started in 2008 and explore the diversity and depth of stories about the neighborhood's change and the force of gentrification as told through the communities residents, workers, and families. The interviewees reminisce about key landmarks in Chinatown from the Music Palace to the Phoenix Poultry Market to the former Jewish Daily Forward Building and how these locales have changed throughout the years. The collected personal histories explore how everyday...

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These interviews with Chinese American performers take an intimate look at the popular nightclub era of the 1930s through 1950s. The Chinese American performers talk about their personal experiences during the era and the role that race played in entertainment.

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Wong was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She is from a family of seven children. Her father had a son from a previous marriage, and her mother had six children - three girls and three boys. Her parents were Victoria Wong and [Wong Kun-Yu] - John Wong in English. Her racial background can be traced on her mother's side to Africa, the Mediterranean, and the British Isles. Her father was born in mainland China and was from Canton.

Abstract Aurora Len, a Chinese-Cuban-American woman discusses her mixed background. She was born in and grew up in Havana, Cuba,where her father owned a fruit store and several other businesses. Though her family was Chinese, her father and his brother were brought to Havana, Cuba by her grandfather at very young age after her grandmother passed away and later her father moved back to China and married her mother. Len herself went to China at age fourteen in 1937 and then moved to the United States...

Abstract Edouard Wah Ho is a painter of Haitian and Chinese descent. He talks about how his father came to reside in Haiti after leaving China to avoid fighting during a war and raised a family there. His father owned several business to support Ho and his 7 siblings. But the two were unable to communicate due to the language barrier. His father only spoke Chinese and he did not. Ho goes on to discuss his 32 year marriage to his ex-wife, Micheline Alvarez, how he got started as a painter, and...

Abstract Essud Fungcap, a Haitian born artist and musician of Chinese and Haitian descent, recounts his family history, beginning with his father's arrival in Haiti in 1928 to his eventual decision to marry his wife come to the United States. He recounts his childhood in Haiti, while his father created a successful laundry business and how he was draw to music and the arts rather than sports like the other children his age. He goes on to discuss the difficulties of being from two widely different...

Abstract Fabiana Chiu, a Chinese Peruvian woman, talks about her family origins in Peru and the circumstances that led them there. She talks about how her father tried to protect her and her siblings from racial stereotypes because of their outwardly Chinese appearance. But as a result was just perpetuating a stereotyping of his own. Eventually she journeyed to the United States in search of the "American Dream" because in Peru the corporate structure favored nepotism. She went to school and met...

Abstract Frances Bu, a woman of Cuban-Chinese descent, talks about life in Cuba as a child with a Chinese father and Cuban Mother. She talks about how her father came to reside in Cuba and how he won the love of her mother. Fidel Castro came into power when she was in her teens and the family decided to leave Cuba for the United States. Her father elected to stay behind. Once in the US she experiences an emphasis in a person's race, a phenomenon she claims was never an issue in Cuba, where they...

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Joyce Wong discusses her Chinese and Puerto Rican heritage and being raised by a Chinese father and a Puerto Rican mother in Washington Heights, NY. She speaks in depth about her ethnic identity and how it played in relation to her growing up in a mostly Latino neighborhood. She also talks about marrying her husband and how their cultural values clashes. Note that the interview ends abruptly.

Abstract A multiracial Chinese and Afro-Jamaican, Marie Yvonne Chong decribes her southern Chinese family's migration to Jamaica, growing up in a large upper class family, her immigration to New York in 1969 and her racial identity in the United States. Her ancestors migrated to Jamaica as indentured servants and became entrepreneurs afterwards. Her father, a wholesaler and Justice of the Peace, is a Jamaican-born Chinese and her mother is hapa Chinese and Afro-Jamaican. Marie and her seven siblings...