Boston Chinatown Banquet - Parcel C

Parcel C was one of the last remaining developable plots of land in Chinatown. Owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) as a part of a land swap with the New England Medical Center (NEMC), the land was promised to the Chinatown community for a community center. However, during the recession of the late 1980s, the BRA and NEMC changed course and proposed building a parking garage instead. This is the story of the epic struggle between these agencies and different community factions and its impact on Chinatown today.

Storytellers: Doug Brugge, Jim Carmody, Ellie Lee, Andrew Leong, Mike Liu, Lydia Lowe, Tom O'Maley

Video footage: Mike Blockstein, Anita Chang, Victor Fong, David Hartman, Jeremy Liu, Eun-Joung Lee, Peter Pang, Kim Szeto, Johnny Yong

Interviews: Mike Blockstein, Eun-Joung Lee, Andrew Tong, Johnny Yong

Archival video courtesy of: Andrew Leong

Images courtesy of: Asian Community Development Corporation Asian Community Development Corporation, Chinese Historical Society of New England, Chinese Progressive Association, New England Medical Center Archives, The Sampan, Tufts University Archives

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

[wongathon]

does a similar series exist for the NYC chinatowns? 

[rokarolla]

Boston chased this artist and musician out.

I enjoyed living downtown/Chinatown while I could find lofts to live in. The fire dept was always harassing us. Mayor Menino was busy breaking ground for financial developments.. on my buildings. It's hard to believe how lame Boston is now. I view it as a world college campus, and financial mecca. Art and music moved to Roxbury, Dorchester, and in my case, to Portland Oregon. Thanks for nothing, city planners.