Thank you for this! In the 1940s my Mom and Step Dad owned a small hotel on 12-th Street. I attended Kindergarten at Lincoln school around the corner. After school I was usually on my own. My classmates couldn't play because they either went to Chinese school or to their parent's businesses. I was on my own, and wondered fearlessly close to home watching the fish in the outside tanks of restaurants, the shoe maker hammering nails into shoes, and taking in the aroma of this beautiful part of my home town. i was the only caucasian in my Kindergarten class and my Chinese teacher was very kind and patient to me. Oakland's Chinatown is till my favorite Chinatown. I miss going after Sunday Mass for Noodle Soup w/Chinese vegetables and barbecue pork, and then getting bakery goods. Thank you for the pictures and the history!
Thank you Roy for contributing and creating this wonderful feature on the History of Oakland Chinatown from your view point and experiences. I commend you because its very rare to see inside of Chinatown documentaries. You have a very valuable and rare view because you lived, felt, and experienced Oakland Chinatown through growing up there. Perhaps its because most of the first/2nd/3rd generation Children have gone on to Universities and higher education and have gone on to be successful Doctors, Engineers, Businessmen, and Entrepenures. Most next generation kids rarely come back. I don't say that in a negative way, I believe like my parent, most Mothers and Fathers want their Children to be educated and obtain great jobs .. and quite naturally they will reside outside of Chinatown to Silicon Valley or equivalent. This makes Roy's contribution even more important. I hope you can do more. I love to hear the stories of how the 2nd generation Children have gone on to be successful. Our family, like many have enjoyed the hard work of our parents, and gone on to have successsful careers. My generation all owe a debt of grattitude to our parents. Afterall, that was their (the) original dream wasn't it ?
This was so lovely! I didn't know there was a Chinatown in Oakland. I've visited Chinatown in SF and LA, many times and even the Chinatown area in Mexico city. The food in their restaurants is amazing! ... I would love to visit the one Oakland. Thank you so much for this video and the nice explanation.
This reminds me of the Lower East Side in Manhattan and the Flushing area in Queens, both parts of New York City. Speaking of libraries, the New York Public Library's Chatham Square branch has an extensive collection of materials written in the main languages of China and about China. Perhaps the Oakland and New York Public Library systems can begin a partnership with regards to archival materials related to the Chinese presence in their respective cities.
Dragon and Fairy is Viet culture, but was stolen by China and convert into Dragon and Phoenix. Cantonese folks are part of Viet/Yue and one of 15 states alliances of Bach Viet/Bai Yue. Cantonese were more influence by many Chinese/Mongol/Manchurian dynasties therefore they consider themselves as Chinese but when it's come to food/language/etc. they still Cantonese not Chinese.
Wrong. No one stole no dragon or fairy from Vietnam. Dragons were found in other countries besides China and your so called Vietnam. There have been records of believes of dragons that dates back 5,000 years ago.
Come on.... think what's being said here.. every group has had to work to connect. Part of the journey... Too much whining about immigration. How about some gratitude instead. The media loves to divide people via culture and color, then make accusations of racism. Asians have done extremely well via our education system, with excellent professional jobs and business opportunities. Most Asians live in good neighborhoods, either mixed or with other Asians. Why didn't we hear much about their children with great futures as doctors, engineers and landlords here in America. Please seek more points of view when doing these digital journals. Thanks.
thanks for giving us a lesson about the model minority but it's a myth. you might be riding our pipes with all those compliments but it's just not true. racism exist and we can thank conservative media for that. 😒
Oh, how surprising, an ignorant white guy tries to argue and erase the stories that are being shared here. (/sarcasm). "Every group" like how white people have been allowed and encouraged to steal and exploit land since this country's beginnings? Like how the only ethnicity that was specifically targeted with exclusionary immigration laws were the Chinese? You and your family had to work soooooooo hard, I'm sure. "Most Asians" because you only see some well-to-do Chinese, and don't know or care about the ones that live in SRO's, and so you just lump all Asians together without understanding or care of the challenges facing other Asian Americans like Burmese, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Micronesian households who have below US median household income... which you'd gladly ignore if we're just all averaged together as "have done extremely well"? Despite the literal violence and lynchings that were the reasons Chinatowns needed to be formed as enclaves of safety for Chinese-Americans, how some families have done well is not a free pass for you to trot out the Model Minority Myth to erase history and on-going challenges.
You have some good points but I don't see a lack of gratitude in this video. It's more of a sense of nostalgia, looking back at a neighborhood that many of these people grew up in. Part of that experience is living through less enlightened times where the only thing you could do is work hard and hope for success in the future. I personally think this is still true today and I wouldn't have put quite the spin that these producers did on the story. And yes, so many people have come out of Chinatown and become very successful. That just shows that the recipe for success is hard work and education. The whole shift in calling Chinese new year to lunar new year is what I found offensive. Some white liberal do gooders were persuaded by diversity groups and strident other minorities to re-label Chinese new year. These were the same white liberals who wanted to ban live fish and animal sales in Chinatown in the 90's. It's the same as back in the old days when they taxed carrying poles but not wheel barrels, except now it under the guise of woke. Woke has no place in the Chinese experience except for those kids who were dazzled and brainwashed by liberal arts curriculums at the major universities.
@@seitch1 Korean and Vietnamese people also celebrate the beginning of the lunisolar calendar. It's not exclusive to only Chinese cultural. However, the annual parade in San Francisco is still organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and it's still called the Chinese New Year Parade.
I could say you are an idiot but I won't. Obviously you are a white guy who has no clue about the hate, racism and torture of Asians. Educate yourself if you can read and stop your nonsense
Thank you for this! In the 1940s my Mom and Step Dad owned a small hotel on 12-th Street. I attended Kindergarten at Lincoln school around the corner. After school I was usually on my own. My classmates couldn't play because they either went to Chinese school or to their parent's businesses. I was on my own, and wondered fearlessly close to home watching the fish in the outside tanks of restaurants, the shoe maker hammering nails into shoes, and taking in the aroma of this beautiful part of my home town. i was the only caucasian in my Kindergarten class and my Chinese teacher was very kind and patient to me. Oakland's Chinatown is till my favorite Chinatown. I miss going after Sunday Mass for Noodle Soup w/Chinese vegetables and barbecue pork, and then getting bakery goods. Thank you for the pictures and the history!
What a wonderful story !!
This was so beautiful! More content like this!!
Oakland Chinatown is the purer Chinatown. Everything there is real. Nothing is there to entice tourists.
My favorite Chinatown, I love the diagonal crosswalks, food, people, etc.
LOVE. This. Thank you ABC7 👏
Wonderful video! 💜
I love this please more
knowledge is power, gives me a greater appreciation for the asian community here thank you!
Wonderful. Thank you for this. I moved away many years ago and still remember my hometown.
Thank you Roy for contributing and creating this wonderful feature on the History of Oakland Chinatown from your view point and experiences. I commend you because its very rare to see inside of Chinatown documentaries. You have a very valuable and rare view because you lived, felt, and experienced Oakland Chinatown through growing up there. Perhaps its because most of the first/2nd/3rd generation Children have gone on to Universities and higher education and have gone on to be successful Doctors, Engineers, Businessmen, and Entrepenures. Most next generation kids rarely come back. I don't say that in a negative way, I believe like my parent, most Mothers and Fathers want their Children to be educated and obtain great jobs .. and quite naturally they will reside outside of Chinatown to Silicon Valley or equivalent. This makes Roy's contribution even more important. I hope you can do more. I love to hear the stories of how the 2nd generation Children have gone on to be successful. Our family, like many have enjoyed the hard work of our parents, and gone on to have successsful careers. My generation all owe a debt of grattitude to our parents. Afterall, that was their (the) original dream wasn't it ?
What a pleasant story!
This was so lovely! I didn't know there was a Chinatown in Oakland. I've visited Chinatown in SF and LA, many times and even the Chinatown area in Mexico city. The food in their restaurants is amazing! ... I would love to visit the one Oakland. Thank you so much for this video and the nice explanation.
Chinatown the best best place to eat different food buying and clothes
I am a fish cutter here❤
2:57 see the kid in the red hood get a kick ball into the face. Man I miss school
This reminds me of the Lower East Side in Manhattan and the Flushing area in Queens, both parts of New York City. Speaking of libraries, the New York Public Library's Chatham Square branch has an extensive collection of materials written in the main languages of China and about China. Perhaps the Oakland and New York Public Library systems can begin a partnership with regards to archival materials related to the Chinese presence in their respective cities.
Dragon and Fairy is Viet culture, but was stolen by China and convert into Dragon and Phoenix. Cantonese folks are part of Viet/Yue and one of 15 states alliances of Bach Viet/Bai Yue. Cantonese were more influence by many Chinese/Mongol/Manchurian dynasties therefore they consider themselves as Chinese but when it's come to food/language/etc. they still Cantonese not Chinese.
Wrong. No one stole no dragon or fairy from Vietnam. Dragons were found in other countries besides China and your so called Vietnam. There have been records of believes of dragons that dates back 5,000 years ago.
It was much nicer without all that graffiti.
No tourism
from refugee families
So where was Bruce Lee's studio?
Wasn't located in Chinatown, but a block away from the Grand Lake Theater.
⚫️ TAKING OVER
Come on.... think what's being said here.. every group has had to work to connect. Part of the journey... Too much whining about immigration. How about some gratitude instead. The media loves to divide people via culture and color, then make accusations of racism. Asians have done extremely well via our education system, with excellent professional jobs and business opportunities. Most Asians live in good neighborhoods, either mixed or with other Asians. Why didn't we hear much about their children with great futures as doctors, engineers and landlords here in America. Please seek more points of view when doing these digital journals. Thanks.
thanks for giving us a lesson about the model minority but it's a myth. you might be riding our pipes with all those compliments but it's just not true. racism exist and we can thank conservative media for that. 😒
Oh, how surprising, an ignorant white guy tries to argue and erase the stories that are being shared here. (/sarcasm).
"Every group" like how white people have been allowed and encouraged to steal and exploit land since this country's beginnings? Like how the only ethnicity that was specifically targeted with exclusionary immigration laws were the Chinese? You and your family had to work soooooooo hard, I'm sure.
"Most Asians" because you only see some well-to-do Chinese, and don't know or care about the ones that live in SRO's, and so you just lump all Asians together without understanding or care of the challenges facing other Asian Americans like Burmese, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Micronesian households who have below US median household income... which you'd gladly ignore if we're just all averaged together as "have done extremely well"?
Despite the literal violence and lynchings that were the reasons Chinatowns needed to be formed as enclaves of safety for Chinese-Americans, how some families have done well is not a free pass for you to trot out the Model Minority Myth to erase history and on-going challenges.
You have some good points but I don't see a lack of gratitude in this video. It's more of a sense of nostalgia, looking back at a neighborhood that many of these people grew up in. Part of that experience is living through less enlightened times where the only thing you could do is work hard and hope for success in the future. I personally think this is still true today and I wouldn't have put quite the spin that these producers did on the story. And yes, so many people have come out of Chinatown and become very successful. That just shows that the recipe for success is hard work and education.
The whole shift in calling Chinese new year to lunar new year is what I found offensive. Some white liberal do gooders were persuaded by diversity groups and strident other minorities to re-label Chinese new year. These were the same white liberals who wanted to ban live fish and animal sales in Chinatown in the 90's. It's the same as back in the old days when they taxed carrying poles but not wheel barrels, except now it under the guise of woke. Woke has no place in the Chinese experience except for those kids who were dazzled and brainwashed by liberal arts curriculums at the major universities.
@@seitch1 Korean and Vietnamese people also celebrate the beginning of the lunisolar calendar. It's not exclusive to only Chinese cultural. However, the annual parade in San Francisco is still organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and it's still called the Chinese New Year Parade.
I could say you are an idiot but I won't. Obviously you are a white guy who has no clue about the hate, racism and torture of Asians. Educate yourself if you can read and stop your nonsense