Boston Chinatown Banquet - Early Chinatown

Dating back to the 1880s, Boston Chinatown is one of the oldest continuous residential Chinatown communities in the U.S., a little known fact not adequately celebrated in Boston's history. This piece covers the arrival of the first Chinese immigrants in New England, brought in to break a strike at the Sampson Shoe Factory in North Adams, as well as the story of Ping On Alley and the early settlements in Chinatown.

Storytellers: CAPAY students, Angelo Ancheta, Stephanie Fan, Peter Kiang, Kye Leung

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

Interviews: Mike Blockstein, Eun-Joung Lee

Images courtesy of; Asian Community Development Corporation, Boston Public Library, The Bostonian Society, Chinese Historical Society of New England, National Archives and Records Administration, Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files

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