Transcript:
The Inside Story: Chinatown: Living in America
Episode 99 – July 6, 2023
Show Open:
This week on the inside story: Chinatown: Living in America
A traditionally Asian enclave in dozens of American cities.
Home to families and legacy businesses passed through generations.
What's changed, and what's stayed the same?
See how one of the oldest Chinatowns in the country is getting a high-tech upgrade in the wake of the pandemic.
Now on The Inside Story: Chinatown: Living in America.
The Inside Story:
TINA TRINH, VOA Correspondent:
Hello and welcome to the Inside Story, I’m Tina Trinh in New York.
We’re here in Manhattan’s Chinatown, a distinctly Asian neighborhood in New York City where just a few years ago, the day-to-day scene was quite different.
Back then, New York was the American epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
And here in Chinatown, community members experienced it twice over — not just with the disruptions caused by the virus, but with the racism and xenophobia that surfaced alongside it.
It was an incredibly difficult time for this mostly immigrant community. But a new movement emerged on social media, led by 1st and 2nd generation Asian Americans who used their digital savviness to raise awareness and bring about a new appreciation for Asian culture and identity.
In the next half hour, we’ll meet a few of the folks who are breathing new life into one of the oldest Chinese ethnic enclaves in the U.S.
And we’ll hear from everyday people on the street about what Chinatown means to them.
Unfortunately, many of Chinatown’s small businesses folded during the pandemic, but for one store owner, what ultimately sustained hers was family and community . . . and a passion for a particular drink.
Here in Manhattan’s Chinatown, there’s an energy in the air. More than two years since the start of the pandemic, the neighborhood is experiencing a rebirth.
Leading the revival is Chinatown’s younger generation, many of them first-generation Americans, sons and daughters of immigrants, who have the hustle and drive of typical New Yorkers.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
I am the second-generation owner of an intergenerational store in Chinatown called Grand Tea & Imports. We specialize in tea and Buddhist and cultural goods.
TINA TRINH:
Liu’s father started the business in 2006, after his first trip back to China since immigrating to America.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
He caught up with a lot of his friends that he had not spoken to in nearly a lifetime through tea. He has kind of seen the product transform from just a household drink that everyone drinks into more like a lifestyle.
And so he thought it was a very good opportunity to bring it back to America.
TINA TRINH:
To the outsider, tea may seem ubiquitous in Chinese culture, but it’s just as easily overlooked.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
Like, if you go to a dim sum restaurant, they would give you very, very low quality cheap free tea, which would just taste like water.
TINA TRINH:
Her father was on a mission to change things, enlisting Alice and her sister to help.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
Every single time there was any sort of community fundraiser or a person running for any campaign, or in school there was some sort of event or show and tell or like a street fair looking for programming, we would do traditional Chinese tea ceremony performances.
TINA TRINH:
The pandemic, coupled with an increase in anti-Asian violence, have made the past two years undoubtedly difficult for Chinatown’s small businesses, but that’s where generational differences and social media savviness have made a difference.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
Before the pandemic, we basically did not have a social media presence, and then since then we've had to make sure to get on Yelp, make sure to go on Instagram.
It’s necessary that the younger generation needs to step in for this, because the only reason it hasn’t happened up until now is because our parents don’t have the ability — the English
ability nor the technology skills in order to do that for themselves.
TINA TRINH:
Liu isn’t alone. In recent years, her peers have launched a number of Chinatown-focused nonprofits to promote and preserve their beloved neighborhood. Their work is far from over.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
Unless we have strong cultural institutions here, strong anchor businesses here to hold down the fabric of the neighborhood, it's very easily collapsible.
TINA TRINH:
Beyond just economic survival, it’s a way for Liu to stay connected to her roots.
Alice Liu, Grand Tea & Imports Owner:
I know a lot of Asian Americans, Chinese Americans, my generation, who are getting married, and what's quite sad is what was considered a very traditional Chinese tea ceremony they have since had to adapt to just like drinking tea with their family at a dim sum parlor or just literally brewing whatever tea that they had around the house in a thermos and then serving it to everyone because they couldn't find a wedding tea gift set.
Small businesses in a community of color, what they provide to the neighborhood is more than just the product or service that they provide, but also that cultural knowledge and that ability to continue that cultural practice.
TINA TRINH:
For Liu, it’s about finding new ways to keep old traditions alive.
Jerry Lee, NYC Resident:
It was a ghost town for the first year and a half or so. But over the last year, things have started to come back. Things are doing much better now and all the tourists are back to New York in full force.
Brooklyn and Queens, they all have their respective Chinatown, but just to say, those Chinatowns are good, but they don’t have the character of the New York Chinatown. With the old buildings and with the old-timers.
TINA TRINH:
From the bakeries and restaurants to the shops and street vendors, there's lots to discover in Chinatown and often the best way to explore it is on foot.
But what happens when a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic keeps foot traffic at bay and threatens the livelihood of an entire community? For the two young women in our next story, venturing out takes on a whole new meaning.
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If you ever find yourself lost in New York City’s Manhattan Chinatown, look for these two.
Anna Huang and Chloe Chan are the Mott Street Girls. They give walking tours of the historic neighborhood, highlighting the small businesses that make it so unique.
They used to be volunteer tour guides at a local Chinese American history museum, but when the pandemic shut down its operations, they decided to hit the streets.
Chloe Chan, Mott Street Girls Co-founder:
When we first started Mott Street Girls, honestly, we just missed giving tours, so we just focused on doing these walking tours. But as we did more and more walking tours, we realized that sometimes even the locals don't know their own history.
Anna Huang, Mott Street Girls Co-founder:
There were anti-Asian hate crimes back in the 1980s or 1800s, and it's happening again.
Chloe Chan, Mott Street Girls Co-founder:
We noticed that a lot of Chinatown walking tour guides were not necessarily from the community, and so we felt that us being second-generation Chinese Americans, we want to tell our own story from our own perspective.
Anna Huang:
We have a voice. We're storytellers. We want to amplify the community.
TINA TRINH:
It’s been a hit on Instagram. In just two years, their stories and photos of local Chinatown businesses have garnered 14,000 followers.
Chloe Chan:
We're trying to uplift these older small businesses that might not be as tech savvy, that might not know social media. Us being, like, millennials, we know how to use Instagram. We know how to use, like, Twitter, you know. So, we can help raise awareness about their story and use our platform to advocate for them.
TINA TRINH:
But in a neighborhood that has become increasingly gentrified, striking a balance between old and new can be tricky. Chan says the two can coexist.
Chloe Chan:
There are a lot of new businesses that are coming to the community that might not necessarily serve the elderly working-class community. But I think it's also important to remember that Chinatown is a tourist destination.
That is how it can survive, is through the foot traffic, through tourists spending money.
TINA TRINH:
And while some of Chinatown’s oldest businesses have survived generations, Huang says family ownership wasn’t always the objective.
Anna Huang:
They started the shop, so then they can have like a safety net for their family. But as their children grow up, they want them to chase the quote-unquote, ‘American Dream.'
TINA TRINH:
Creating Mott Street Girls has given both a chance to reflect on their own lived experiences.
Anna Huang:
I struggle with both identities, being Chinese and being American, and my mother decided to put me in Chinese dance because she was like, ‘Well, you have to be cultured in some way in Chinese culture.’ I think starting Mott Street Girls, I realize it's so important to identify with my Chinese culture. But also, I am American. That hyphen, it’s important, I am Chinese American, and there's no denying that.
TINA TRINH:
It’s a duality that makes the stories and representation of this community all the richer.
Children of immigrants have always grappled with identity, with some leaning more into the American part of their Asian American identity.
The subject of our next story was largely shielded from the daily hardships of his immigrant father’s life. But after his father passed, a restaurant became the bridge between past and present.
It’s the dinner rush at Wo Hop restaurant in New York City, and the cooks are busy prepping customer favorites like General Tso’s chicken and beef lo mein.
In this tiny basement eatery, the experience is definitely no-frills. Photos and dollar bills covering nearly every inch of wall space serve as evidence of just how much New Yorkers love Wo Hop, said to be Chinatown’s second-oldest restaurant.
David Leung is the majority owner of Wo Hop. His grandfather and father worked here for decades after immigrating to America, but Leung says he was never involved.
David Leung, Wo Hop Co-owner:
I always knew that my father went to work late at night, and I rarely saw him. He didn't bring his work home with him. I really didn't know what he did. We rarely even went to the restaurant.
TINA TRINH:
About 10 years ago, Leung learned just how big of a role his father played at Wo Hop.
David Leung, Wo Hop Co-owner:
I always thought he maybe was just a manager. I didn't know that we actually owned the restaurant.
TINA TRINH:
For many children of immigrants, there's an unspoken understanding that parents toil and sacrifice to provide their children with a life that's better than theirs.
David Leung, Wo Hop Co-owner:
He wanted his kids to just go to school, study, get good grades. That's it. You know, and not be burdened by anything else.
TINA TRINH:
But achieving the so-called American Dream can sometimes distance first-generation Americans like Leung from their cultural identity, making it that much harder to pass down values and traditions to their kids.
David Leung, Wo Hop Co-owner:
It's hard because everyone around them is also benefiting from the American lifestyle. My parents used to tell me, ‘Oh, we can't afford this, or we can't afford that,’ and I can't really say that to my kids now without lying.
TINA TRINH:
Wo Hop has given Leung and his children a way to reconnect with their roots. His daughter Chelsea runs the restaurant’s Instagram account and designs its T-shirts.
And Leung’s son Mitchell helps run the restaurant’s Facebook account.
David Leung, Wo Hop Co-owner:
We get so many reviews on Tripadvisor, Yelp and Google, and so many of them would say, ‘I've been coming to you for 20 years, 30 years. My father first brought me here. My grandfather first brought me here.’
TINA TRINH:
For Leung, running Wo Hop is not only a family tradition but also a homecoming.
Lenny Lin, Chinatown Business Owner:
We have been here for so long, 10ish, more than 15 years here minimum with my store, only wish it could do better, also hope some of the local community associations and then . . . or some powerful people can help organize for Chinatown, how to do it better, this is my hope.
TINA TRINH:
Long time businesses like Wo Hop are the heart of Chinatown, but many are still struggling to survive.
Jacqueline Wang is Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown, a non-profit that grew out of the pandemic to support Chinatown’s business owners. Here’s what she had to say about the last three years and the way forward.
Why the need for this kind of organization?
Jacqueline Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown:
So you would be in Chinatown and, you know, stores were empty and people were scared to come into the neighborhood. But then you walk a few blocks into lower Eastside or so and people are out at the bars, people are dining. It's all our founders. They went around, they were like, Okay, we think the way we can help right now is to help businesses digitalize and get them on a platform so people can you know, buy gift cards and come back and they were met with a lot of skepticism and they were met with a lot of like, you know, we don't who are you? What do you want from us? What do you want in return? Why do you want to help us? You know, these two unknown young women speaking in like very broken Cantonese?
I think those first experiences have really helped us develop our programming to this day, three years later. We really work on building trust with business owners. And if we don't give small businesses in the community, all the support, whether it's capital, whether it's, you know, training, whether it's just more access to information that I think is key to make sure that this neighborhood is able to thrive, and that we have Chinatown for future generations.
TINA TRINH:
I think the trust element is huge here. And it also kind of speaks to the generational divide. How did you begin to bridge that at such a really kind of dire time?
Jacqueline Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown:
Absolutely. I think the time and effort that our team of volunteers have put into building the trust is why we now are able to have these programs. We go door to door we have translators, we have paper applications for our grant programs. We really come in and say like we're your partners in this.
TINA TRINH:
in working with these businesses, like what have you seen and how has turned down involved over the last three years?
Jacqueline Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown:
When we built our grant program in 2020. It was in direct response to learning that business owners were in Super dire need they weren't getting access to like PPF funding they weren't getting access to funding coming from the city from the state. For many reasons, the two main reasons being language barriers and technology barrier. So we realized like this funding is out there for them. It's just so hard for them to get to it.
As our grant program evolved, and as like months and years went by, we slowly have more businesses being able to apply for more like forward looking initiatives. And that's something that we are slowly now trying to encourage businesses to do. So, understanding, there's still a lot of things that need to be addressed to stay open.
But we want to encourage them to like you know, think about marketing think about long term sustainability projects, whether that's, you know, interior design, whether that's bringing on new staff members, whether that's digitalizing your point of sale system, like all of these things that businesses had absolutely no time to think about in 2020 or slowly being able to think about it.
TINA TRINH:
It's great on the one hand what you guys have done to raise awareness among the younger generation, and you see young entrepreneurs opening up storefronts, and at the same time you worry about the gentrification of Chinatown.
Jacqueline Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown:
Absolutely. And like in all transparency is something that we've struggled with every day as well. We cannot lose the legacy of this neighborhood. I think that's why people gravitate towards Manhattan Chinatown specifically and all the like a lot of the Chinatown's in the US is because it has stayed you know, so true to itself and on the opposite end, you don't want it to be a neighborhood that is paused in time and kind of becomes a museum, right?
I think it's something that we really are working to address in our upcoming Small Business Innovation Hub that will be part Innovation Hub, but Park community space.
Obviously, this is like a huge challenge that the neighborhood is facing and a lot of it also comes down to like property prices and there are a lot of vacancies and making sure that one we get some, you know entrepreneurs in there and that they're ones that will honor the space and like be really thoughtful about how they're coming into this community. That you know, that already is here.
TINA TRINH:
Talk about the Small Business Innovation Hub and how you can serve these small businesses.
Jacqueline Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Welcome to Chinatown:
One thing that came a lot came up a lot in our focus groups was and this especially the existing business owners out there right now isn't necessarily a gathering space. And we realize that our focus groups on business owners were actually meeting for the first time in person they know of each other, you know, they've done business together, but they really haven't had the time to like, sit down and have this conversation about like, what are your struggles? These are my struggles. How can we build off of each other right? We had a younger entrepreneur who has a barber shop in Chinatown, and you know has really grown his like tick tock social media following and the current owner of a Cantonese spot that's been around for like, decades and they were swapping ideas like he was like, This is how you go on Tik Tok. He was telling him this is how you run a business like there's this all this information swapping that we weren't even really proud of. We just like facilitated this room and this group.
I think for business owners when you're in it when you're in your shop when you're in your restaurant, it's hard to remove yourself and kind of like, you know, take a step back, take a few feet above and then look at it that way. So we hope this space is is an opportunity for them to do that.
If we can support them with the capital and the expertise from a you know a specialist or from consultants and help them test this marketing idea they have, you know, expand their catering business revamp their website, all of these things. Help hopefully these will be more than just a band aid for their business but actually kind of build a foundation for them to move into like the next era of their business.
TINA TRINH:
The stories and rich history of Manhattan Chinatown play a large part in its survival, but so do the new businesses writing its next chapter.
We’re here on Doyers St. It’s only a block long, but it has a distinct bend in the middle. Back in the early 20th century, this was site of Chinatown gang fights and killings which earned it the nickname the “Bloody Angle” and it’s where a lot of gang fights and killings actually took place.
Fast forward to today where a colorful street mural greets visitors and a whole new generation of business owners set up shop here. We’re going to meet with two of them, the co-founders of Art Bean Coffee Roasters.
Spencer Okada and Khanh Tran are the co-founders of Chinatown’s Artbean Coffee Roasters. Like many independent coffee shops in America, there’s art on the walls, specialty drinks made to order and freshly roasted beans to take home.
Spencer Okada, Artbean Coffee Co-founder:
We have the concept where we mend art and coffee together, where we like to collaborate with artists and share, essentially share creativity.
TINA TRINH:
Location and timing are crucial in any new business. And Artbean opened during the pandemic in a Chinatown neighborhood still recovering from economic losses and lingering anti-Asian sentiment.
Khanh Tran, Artbean Coffee Co-founder:
I remember these past two years, especially in 2020 when everything was so uncertain, was so scary, we don't know what's happening. And then like, us by being Asian, we were being targeted, it was quite a scary time for everyone.
TINA TRINH:
The timing ultimately provided a sense of purpose for the business, which collaborates with up-and-coming Asian American artists and gives back to charities that support the community.
Spencer Okada, Artbean Coffee Co-founder:
We wanted to be a part of something bigger than the drink. And so being in this space it really kind of, it was kind of the key … where we're able to do all of that and not just sit amongst another Starbucks or something.
TINA TRINH:
Artbean is located on Doyers Street, one of the oldest streets in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The block of barbershops, salons and restaurants has evolved over the years, and businesses like Artbean represent a new vanguard of young Asian American entrepreneurs who, with their shared histories, are bringing a new socially conscious, community-minded energy to the neighborhood.
Khanh Tran, Artbean Coffee Co-founder:
We learned that there's actually a young generation of Asian American who live in Chinatown, and they are trying to connect with the older generation, too. Think Chinatown is throwing a block party. They're doing like a night market and ‘Welcome to Chinatown.’ They are doing a lot just to help out with existing businesses that were suffering through the pandemic.
TINA TRINH:
For Artbean, it’s about putting Asian twists on traditional favorites, like the ube latte, which gets its purple hue from a yam native to the Philippines.
Khanh Tran, Artbean Coffee Co-founder:
Some people don't consider themself being creative, but sometimes I feel like if you just try something new, do something differently. Can you find some creativity in your everyday life? And that is like a good space to be in, I think.
TINA TRINH:
For Artbean Coffee, it’s about finding inspiration in the everyday.
Cecilia Huang, Chinatown Business Owner:
I feel the future is very hopeful, and very happy as well, because we can see many customers coming out to consume and spend money, coming out to see their friends. Also, the tourists are also coming back (into here), we are very, very optimistic. Also (we) hope Chinatown, we see many new restaurants are preparing and launching, I feel a sense of thriving.
TINA TRINH:
That’s all for now.
Stay up to date with all the news at VOANews.com and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at VOA News.
You can find me on Twitter at Tina Trinh NYC and catch up on past episodes at our free streaming service, VOA Plus.
For all of those behind the scenes who brought you today’s show, I’m Tina Trinh.
We’ll see you next week for The Inside Story.
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