Quote
♭♫
This is why I can no longer return to China. On my last visit going through immigration and customs in Beijing, the officer scanned my face for AI 3D imaging and then with a cold stare gave me cotton swab to swab the DNA in my cheeks. Then I noticed cameras everywhere as if I was being watched and all my movements being monitored once I left the airport. When I was a child, my father always forbade me from visiting China warning me not to go to China because of mysterious abductions and organ harvesting...and after my last trip to China, I felt that after my DNA was taken at the Beijing Airport that I was now a walking corpse the longer I stayed in China.

[www.youtube.com]

Why did Malaysia’s King suddenly cry during a high-profile meeting in Beijing? This emotional moment points to a specific tragedy involving the Royal family and reveals the dark reality of how China turned into a global hub for organ transplants.

In this investigative documentary, we connect the dots between a royal tragedy and the global controversy surrounding forced organ harvesting. Through medical data and international tribunal reports, we analyze the suspicious speed of organ matching and the ethical concerns raised by human rights organizations.

Quote
♭♫
[abc7news.com]

Even though Wong Kim Ark was born in the U.S., his citizenship was questioned.

In 1895, as he was coming back from a visit to China, he was detained at the port of San Francisco.

"They say, look, you might have been born in San Francisco, but that doesn't make you a U.S. citizen. Yes, Black people, white people, everybody else who's born in the United States is a U.S. citizen, but not Chinese. So, he's kept out," said Gabriel Chin, professor of law at UC Davis.

Wong Kim Ark was in his early 20s at the time.

Quote
♭♫
[www.sfchronicle.com]

“This theater is one of the gems and jewels of our city, of our Chinatown,” said Lurie, who declared Saturday as “Great Star Theater Day” in San Francisco and praised owners Roger Pincombe and Alice Chu, who revitalized the event space. “Thank you to both of you for everything you’ve done, not only for this community, but for our entire city.”

After decades of mostly disuse and neglect, Pincombe and Chu, who are married, reopened it in 2021 as a nonprofit and have hosted hundreds of events such as a “Star Wars” burlesque parody, which brought in some 40,000 ticket buyers during a three-month run in 2022; last month’s premiere of “The City of Sensitive Frauds,” a documentary examining gentrification in San Francisco; and several programs for CAAMFest, the Asian American themed film festival, and comedy series SF Sketchfest.

Quote
♭♫
[patch.com]
Are you ready for an unforgettable Chinatown experience? Join us for a magical adventure through Chinatown as we search for the elusive Chinatown Dragon! This one-of-a-kind performance captivates audiences of all ages with its unique blend of Chinese culture and contemporary entertainment.

World-renowned magician Paul Nathan will leave you in awe as he performs feats that will have you questioning reality. You'll be treated to the spectacle of Chinese lion dance, acrobatic performers with incredible strength and agility that leap and spin through the air. The circus aerialist moon goddess soars high above the stage, and Kung-fu performances will leave you on the edge of your seat.

But that's not all! Chinatown Dragon also features enchanting guzheng and erhu performances, traditional Chinese dance and much more. Our dancers will transport you to ancient China with their performances, where you'll be able to see the beauty of traditional Chinese culture and costumes.

This show is a great opportunity to experience the beauty of traditional Chinese culture and music in a modern and engaging way. So gather your friends and family, and come join us for a night of myth, magic and unforgettable entertainment at the Great Star Theater's Chinatown Dragon.

Grab your tickets now at GreatStarTheater.org/chinatown-dragon

July 7 - August 20

Matinees at 2pm, evening shows at 7pm

Tickets start at $20

Tickets start at $20.

Quote
♭♫
The American farm-to-table movement is a modern trend started more than a century ago from a marginalized community of social outcasts: the Taishanese-Americans.

[www.washingtonpost.com]
“These were people who weren’t accepted in American society,” says Valerie Imbruce, author of “From Farm to Canal Street: Chinatown’s Alternative Food Network in the Global Marketplace,” “so they developed a food system to support their own cultural demands, leveraging trust within their own social networks.”

Just 80 years after the law was finally repealed, family-run food markets in Asian communities from coast to coast still offer high-quality produce, meat, eggs and fish at bargain prices, often using the same direct connections to farmers and fishermen established by earlier generations. It’s the children and grandchildren of the owners of those markets who are now considering how to honor those carefully developed supply chains while also expanding their customer base beyond the local Chinatown population.

“In a lot of ethnic communities, you’ll tend to see products that are chéaper and higher quality than standard supermarket options,” says Jefferson Li, 30, who, with his father, Peter, runs his family’s meat shop, 47 Division Street Trading in New York. “These are people who are just one or two generations removed from agrarian societies, so there’s culturally an expectation of fresh food that’s going to be cooked today.”

There is a long history of Asian immigrants establishing farms outside of the cities where Chinatown communities were thriving. Yee Lung Kwong and his wife Yee Dong Shee moved with their four children an hour outside New York City to rural New Jersey in 1940, seeking healthier air while growing Asian vegetables to sell in Chinatown.

Quote
♭♫
When your favorite Chinese restaurant (especially legacy Cantonese restaurants) disappears, then the entire supply chain slowly dies by a thousand cuts with it and eventually the entire ecosystem of supporting mom and pop business suppliers that are also scraping by eventually wither on the vine that becomes the final nail in the coffin that once made Chinatown a community that many people once called "a home.away from home" regardless if you ever lived in Chinatown, a historically welcoming place that no other community can organically replicate.

[nextcity.org]
The Potluck Club might be putting a new spin on Cantonese cuisine, but it’s using the same unique neighborhood-based network of wholesalers and food suppliers that older generations of Chinatown restaurants use — suppliers like Kong Kee Food Corp., just around the corner from the restaurant.

“We try to source everything, or at least the majority of the stuff that we can, nearby,” Chen says. “I like being able to have this little network of purveyors. The ladies at Kong Kee are like a bunch of aunties to me.”

Chinatown has shown it can withstand one massive shock at a time. The 9/11 attacks are still fresh in everyone’s memory — the area was inside the massive plume of dust and smoke after the Twin Towers fell, and remained inside a disaster zone following that. A decade later it was Hurricane Sandy, when the overflowing East River flooded much of the neighborhood. While each disaster changed the neighborhood, the unique supply chain that delivers the food defining so much of what Chinatown is has survived.

The confluence of these three big shocks — the jail, Anti-Asian hate, the post-COVID world — is introducing a new degree of uncertainty. Some long-established restaurants have closed, others have reduced their footprint, others shortened their hours out of concern for workers who, until the rise of Anti-Asian violence, were frequently commuting in the early morning or late at night. The reduction in restaurant business flows upstream to the wholesalers and suppliers, who start to see their margins shrink. The Potluck Club’s co-owners are both a source of new hope while also having a hard time themselves seeing how things will play out next.


“It’s ill-effecting in a way we don’t know until it happens,” Chen says.