Boston Chinatown Banquet - The Chinese Merchants Building

The Chinese Merchants Building stood as a symbol of the burgeoning post-war Chinese community. Yet, just three years after it was build, one-third of it was lost to the construction of the Central Artery. This is a complex story, told from the perspective of planners, scholars, Merchants Association member and Chinatown community members. It involves the growing clout of the automobile, suburban affluence, and a relatively young, mostly powerless immigrant community that did its best to minimize the community's sacrifice to the Artery.

Storytellers: Alan Altschuler, Caroline Chang, Lawrence Cheng, Stephanie Fan, Kye Leung, Bing Moy, Yanni Tsipis, Beverly Wing, Arthur Wong, Reggie Wong

Video footage: Mike Blockstein, David Hartman

Interviews: Mike Blockstein, Eun-Joung Lee

Images courtesy of: Neil Chin, Chinese Historical Society of New England, Stephanie Fan, The International Society, State of Transportation Library of Massachusetts, Reggie Wong

Producer: Mike Blockstein

Editor: David Lawrence

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

[icarusfalling13]

Excellent video. It is amazing to see some of the forces that shaped the neighborhood as it is today. Almost disturbing in the way that rather than go around, the city chose to tear right through the center of a close-knit community. The demolition of the Chinese Merchants Building is really the end result of a total lack of discussion the city was wiling to foster with a mainly immigrant community.