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...

Abstract On June 6, 1993, the Golden Venture ran aground near Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY. The cargo ship passengers, nearly 300 migrants primarily from Fujian Province, China, were being smuggled into America by a Chinese crime syndicate. While the asylum-seekers waited for uncertain legal outcomes in York Country Prison, Pennsylvania, they began creating paper sculptures employing the traditional Chinese folk art of paper folding. Originally, these pieces were created as gifts for their lawyers and...

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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 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 Julio Chan Sanchez, a Chinese born in Peru, talks about his experiences growing up in a small town and being one of the few Chinese children in the neighborhood. He discusses how old Chinese traditions affected his perception of people. All through his childhood his Chinese father told him not to trust Peruvians. Julio then goes on to talk about the subtle instances of racism that were present in his everyday life in Peru. Further he extrapolates about the history of his family based on...

Abstract Lamgen Leon, a Chinese man from the Dominican Republic, talks about the circumstances that led to his grandfather to the Dominican Republic. Eventually his grandfather sent for his father, who was a teacher in Hoyping. He then recounts his childhood in the town of Azua with his 7 siblings. Being one of the few Chinese families in the city not many Chinese holidays were celebrated. He discusses his parents desire that he only date Chinese or Chinese Dominican Girls. He continues to talk...

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...