Boston Chinatown Banquet - It Dates Back that Far

Boston Chinatown is unique in that its original architecture is largely intact. Many buildings date back to the filling of South Cove in 1835. This stands in contrast to many other Chinatowns that have fallen victim to urban renewal or natural disasters. An excellent introduction to the area, this video takes the viewer on a short tour of Chinatown's historic architectural sites: Oxford Place, where the first Chinese settled, Harrison Avenue, the site of the first Chinese businesses; the former station for the Boston Elevated Railway that now houses Maxim's Café and Tyler Street

Storyteller: Arthur Kim

Video footage: Mike Blockstein, Victor Fong, David Hartman, Eun-Joung Lee, Kim Szeto

Interviews: Mike Blockstein, Stephanie Fan, Eun-Joung Lee

Images courtesy of: Asian American Resources Workshop, Boston Public Library, The Bostonian Society, Chinese Historical Society of New England, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

A Chinatown Banquet is a series of short educational films about Boston Chinatown, sparking learning and dialogue across generations, disciplines and geography. The Banquet offers an unprecedented glimpse into the history, culture, and character of the neighborhood. This multimedia project highlights the Asian American experience and Chinese culture in Boston and was created as an educational tool by youth in the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC or AsianCDC) Young Leaders Network (YLN) which has grown to become A-VOYCE (Asian Voices of Organized Youth for Community Empowerment). These "courses," offering a rich view of the forces that shaped and continue to influence Chinatown, consist of audio and video interviews with community members and others who offer insight into specific issues, interspersed with contemporary and historic footage, images and information, music and ambient sounds. As a part of the Chinatown Heritage Project, the Banquet is a compendium of Chinatown's history, political struggles, culture and physical environment and living conditions.

http://www.chinatownbanquet.org/index2.html
http://www.asiancdc.org/heritage/home.html
http://www.asiancdc.org/

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Boston
• Chinatown
• Asian
• American
• Chinese
• Culture
• Education
• Community
• Development
• Corporation
• ACDC