Abstract Cori Xiong and Hen Chan started the Mala Sichuan Bistro restaurant business in Houston, Texas. The two met while studying at University of Texas Austin. Xiong’s father was a food engineer in Sichuan, China and convinced Xiong to start her own family business. With the help of family, Xiong was able to bring authentic Sichuan flavors to the United States. All the chefs that work in her restaurants have studied at a culinary school in Sichuan. Xiong and Chan both believe that regional Chinese...

Abstract Daniel Chu was born in Kohanaiki, Hawaii in 1914, the tenth child in a large family of eight boys and four girls. His father’s parents were Hakka and had first migrated to Trinidad or Jamaica in the 1870s to work on rice or sugar plantations. After their contracts ended, they sent his father, who was eight years old at the time, back to their home village in Guangdong Province. When he was eighteen, they sent for him to join them where they had settled in Honolulu, Hawaii. Daniel’s mother...

Abstract During the interview, David Chen discusses his experience as a Chinese American activist and director of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), and his theory of activism. When Chen was younger, he rarely spoke. He would always wait for someone else to say the right thing, to which he would then agree. One time, as a younger student, he was forced to present a project because two of his partners did not show up. One of his classmates expressed how well-spoken he was and at that moment,...

Abstract In this interview, David Chen discusses his work at Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) as an activist in New York City's Chinatown. Chen is the director of CPC, a private organization started in 1965 serving the public and focusing on low-income immigrant families, mostly Chinese. Services offered include language classes, translations, daycare centers, job training for adults, senior citizen care, childcare, and Meals on Wheels. Prior to his work at CPC, Chen worked for the mayor in...

Abstract Doniyar Sobitov was raised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and moved to Brooklyn, NY. He opened his Halal, Uzbek, Asian fusion restaurant called Café Kashkar. The restaurant is run by his family. Sobitov worked as a cook in China and learned techniques to bring back to his own restaurant. He is considering attending culinary school in China for the future. Café Kashkar’s food is based on the region Kashgar, which is located in China. He explains the importance of food to him and is family as a way...

Abstract Dr Ee Tay sits down with MOCA to discuss her childhood, upbringing, and influences in her personal life that made her decide to choose a career in medicine. She remembers her time spent in hospitals and nursing homes with her mother that influenced her to choose a career in medicine, specifically as a pediatrician. She has helped the underserved and underprivileged elders in her community through her various projects. She helped her hospitals overcome barriers of communication and distance...

Abstract This interview with Dr. Paul Chu (b. 1925) was conducted by an NYU graduate student who was working with the Chinatown History Project (now MOCA) to collect stories for a workshop on earlier generations of Italian American and Chinese American students at PS 23 (Public School 23). Paul, a dentist and longtime resident of Chinatown, grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown and moved to New York in the 1930s with his parents at the age of 8 or 9. His grandfather, a merchant in San Francisco, was the...

Abstract In this interview, Edmundo Quinones discusses his life as a first-generation working-class Puerto Rican American. He reflects on the challenges he has faced as a Latino growing up in a White neighborhood; particularly discrimination, and strengthening his Latino identity while avoiding mainstream assimilation. He provides an overarching view on the American dream: class mobility (both upward and downward), ethnic relations, and neighborhood change. He describes the Brooklyn neighborhood of...

Abstract Frank Liu, former Director of Technology at MOCA, sits down with Tomie Arai to conduct an oral history recounting his experience growing up in Chinatown during the ‘90s and early 2000s. Liu discusses his family’s history and their experience immigrating to the U.S. from Fuzhou, Fujian when he was seventeen years old, in 1998. He discusses how his uncle was able to sponsor his family to come to the U.S. and how his family moved to Chinatown initially upon their arrival. He discusses how even...

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In this oral history interview, Genia Blaser shares her experience working as a staff attorney at the Immigrant Defense Project and how her work informs contemporary immigration laws and policies. She talks about how she is connected to the Golden Venture story and what must be done to bring about meaningful change to help at-risk immigrant communities in the United States today.