Abstract This oral history focuses on Jeff Lobach, who was the President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association at the time of the Golden Venture. He organized the lawyers who were trained for the purpose of defending the detainees of the Golden Venture. He speaks to his experience as a lawyer at the time, and how he faced frustrating rulings and resistance from the Justice Department. He worked to spread awareness about the Golden Venture at the time and discusses the significance of art and the...

Abstract Jefferson Li’s family owns and runs the New York Chinatown butcher shop 47 Division Street Trading Inc. Like many Chinatown businesses, his family business took a huge economic hit due to the pandemic. Li took to the popular social news aggregator website Reddit to try and drum up business by publicizing their low prices to New Yorkers who wouldn’t normally be their primary demographic, becoming a pseudo celebrity in the process. As someone who has been in the Chinatown community prior to...

Abstract Jenny Ye was born in Manhattan in 1991, and has been a resident of Chinatown her whole life. She actively volunteers and coordinates for community-oriented organizations such as Chinatown Youth Initiatives, Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), Chinatown Literacy Project, and Asian Pacific American Youth Alliance (APAYA). Ye first became aware of gentrification at a Chinatown Tenant Union meeting. She visualizes Chinatown as having aged low-rise buildings, fire escapes, no...

Abstract This oral history focuses on Joan Maruskin, one of the original founders and coordinators of People of the Golden Vision, a group in York, Pennsylvania that advocated for the rights of the Golden Venture refugees. Maruskin is also a staff member of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program. She discusses how she first heard of the Golden Venture detainees, the founding of the People of the Golden Vision and their work, how People of the Golden Vision expanded, and what she...

Abstract Joseph Wah Chu is a Chinese immigrant from Toishan County, Guangdong Province, China born in 1933. He grew up in Guangzhou and Hong Kong before eventually moving to the United States in 1965. In the United States, he worked in different cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City as a waiter and office worker. Joseph would eventually settle in New York City’s Chinatown, citing better job opportunities and existing friendships in NYC. In 1978, Joseph started working at the New...

Abstract Juliann Wang sits down with MOCA to discuss her experience as a Chinese artist during the COVID-19 pandemic. She talks about her experience participating in the online art show “Slaysian” as well as her hopes and goals for her art, before explaining how the pandemic has impacted her world and her view of art’s role in one’s daily life. She then goes on to discuss the impact of COVID on US-China relations and the rise of AAPI racism. She also elaborates on her personal journey from Anhui to...

Abstract In this interview, June Flodsand recounts her life as a working-class, first-generation American, a devout Lutheran of Norwegian parentage. She remembers an innocent childhood of family chores, a first job as a soda jerk, and weekly participation in church and its activities. As an adult, Flodsand married a fellow Lutheran and continued a life devoted to work, church, Norwegian-themed festivities, and socializing. Flodsand laments the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park transition from a...

Abstract Larry Goodman, today’s owner of his familys corporation Grand Machinery Exchange, Inc., recounts how his first generation Polish grandfather founded the company in 1927. Goodman’s father Jerry and uncle Isidore took control of the business in 1947, and Larry Goodman later succeeded his father in 1983. According to Goodman, Centre Street machinery dealers were predominantly Jewish and were often afraid of non-Jewish “outsiders.” These business men were concerned with gaining respect and...

Abstract Ken Hom’s parents immigrated from Southern China. His father served in World War II, and brought his mother to the States through the War Brides Act of 1945. His parents decided to start a life outside of California because of the hate attributed to being Chinese. Thus, Hom grew up in Tucson, Arizona. However, after eight months, his father passed away and his mother decided to move to Chicago to be closer to family and friends. Hom and his mother lived in Chicago’s Chinatown. At age eleven,...

Abstract Kimmie Lee Tie discusses her early life in China and how World War II impacted her family and interestingly her diet. She talks about the experiences she had cooking on her family’s small farm and how after the war she married a Chinese American sailor and moved to the United States. Living in the US, Kimmie and her husband bought a Cantonese restaurant in 1957 which they operated for twenty years. In this environment, she taught herself how to cook with a wok and developed her Chinese...