Chinatown
Academic, service, research and social connections with Boston's Chinatown

Boston’s Chinatown has historical roots beginning in the mid- to late-1800s, when the city’s population was changing. Located adjacent to the hub’s Back Bay area, Chinatown is built on what was once ocean and beach front property. Approximately 8,000 people live in Chinatown; nearly 10,000 people, in any given weekend, spend time in this area of the city—dining or shopping, enjoying entertainment or enlarging their cultural world.

Before coming to Milton, history department chair Vivian WuWong worked with the Asian American Resource Workshop, located on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Beach Street—the heart of Boston’s Chinatown district. Founded nearly 30 years ago, the Resource Workshop gives tours of the neighborhood for school groups, tourists and other organizations, sharing the community’s history and current day experience.

Vivian teaches Milton’s History of Civil Rights course and advises the Asian Society. She is a resource for all kinds of Chinatown connections for students—for their research assignments, senior projects, history term papers, urban experiences or even a taste of home.

Students in Vivian’s History of Civil Rights course go to Chinatown to experience an urban, ethnic community dealing with today’s civil rights concerns. Students devote two months to identifying and researching a contemporary civil rights issue. After an extensive literature search, students often call Mayor Menino or Governor Patrick’s office to identify some of the key players—political leaders, activists, social service agencies—at work on a given issue. Students ask these leaders what changes they are trying to make; how successful they have been; and what hopes they have for the future.

Students connect with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and the Chinese Progressive Association. Historically, Chinatown has not been well represented politically. That has changed in recent years with the election of Sam Yoon to the Boston City Council. Students approach issues such as political inequality, anti-Asian violence and housing disparities as focal points for their research.

Many students develop independent study projects around this area of the city. Tiffany Shi ’07 created a photojournalistic documentary of the life of Boston’s Chinatown district. Her senior project was to understand the role, socially and culturally, that Chinatown plays in the Greater Boston area for Chinese and non-Chinese Americans alike. She spoke with business owners, community leaders and residents. Her photographs chronicle the streets, structures, restaurants, grocery stores, schools, churches and medicine shops that define a culture and shape many lives.

Ross Bloom, Jess Yu and Kathy Han, all Class of 2006, focused their senior project on the Chinese Progressive Association’s work in Chinatown. They interviewed community members, gained an appreciation for the importance of oral history, and learned what it means to craft a community story. Their finished product was a 30-minute video titled “Activism in Chinatown,” which highlighted the Association’s community work and addressed the struggles that residents and workers face today.

For Milton’s students from Asia—China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand—moving from their homeland to a Massachusetts suburb can be challenging. At Asian Society meetings, international students can gather with one another and get to know American students interested in Asian culture. Frequent trips to Chinatown provide students the opportunity to eat authentic dim sum; to buy familiar candies, snacks and music that they share with housemates; and to be surrounded by sights, sounds and smells that remind them of home.

Through Milton’s Asian Society, Prudence Tsang ’98 initiated a tutoring program nearly 10 years ago that is popular and still growing. Students help elderly Asian immigrants in Chinatown and Quincy—which has a growing Asian population—who are preparing to take their United States Immigration Test. These men and women enroll in English classes to better prepare themselves for the test. However, the waiting time to take the test—and even to enroll in the English classes—is often as long as two years. Milton students fill the gap: they help the immigrants to practice English in a collegial, non-threatening setting, and they also foster relationships. The students learn as much from their elderly companions as the immigrants learn from their young friends.

For many students, Boston’s Chinatown provides a hands-on education that is interdisciplinary, fascinating and flavorful. Building their awareness and curiosity outside of campus, students experience things pleasantly familiar and thrillingly new.

EEH

Photograph by Tiffany Shi ’07

 

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