Boston Chinatown Banquet - Boston's Lower East Side

The area Chinatown occupies has always been an immigrant, working-class community, driven by the proximity of labor and transportation. Originally an Irish community, it later became a predominantly Syrian-Lebanese community that was also home to Jewish and West-African-Barbadian immigrants. This video features recollections of these bygone communities, commentary on the factors that shaped them and accounts by first generation Asian Americans who grew up as the neighborhood transitioned into a largely Chinese and Chinese-American community

Storytellers: Georget Hadaya, Arthur Krim, Beverly Wing, Reggie Wong

Video footage: David Hartman

Interviews: Mike Blockstein, Jackson Hau, Eun-Joung Lee, Kim Szeto, Kathy Tran

Archival footage courtesy of: Olivia Waishek

Images courtesy of: The Bostonian Society, Chinese Historical Society of New England, Neil Chin, New England Medical Center Archives, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Tufts University Archives, Olivia Waishek, 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