Chinatown in the 21st Century – Chinatown and the New York Political Landscape

Thomas Tam: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Chinatown Workshop sponsored by the Asian American / Asian Research Institute and supported by a diversity grant from the City University of New York. This is part of our on going efforts to build a bridge between the City University of New York and the Asian community. I am honored and grateful that for the next three months, the distinguished panelists have agreed to take time out of their very busy schedule to make this educational project possible. Today is a very happy occasion. It is significant not only because it’s the beginning of a series of 11 workshops, but it is also the beginning of a year that marks the 80th birthday of Professor Betty Lee Sung. A special committee has been formed to acknowledge and celebrate the many contributions made by this pioneer of Asian American Studies. Ever since her establishment of the Department of Asian Studies at CCNY in the 70’s, Betty has never stopped advocating for Asian Americans. A renowned scholar and author of many books and countless articles about Asian Americans, she has inspired generations of students, scholars, and professionals. On behalf of the Asian American Asian Research Institute, it is my great honor and privilege to dedicate this 11 sessions workshop series, “ Chinatown in the 21st Century”, to our dear friend and leader, Chairperson Professor Betty Lee Sung.

Betty Lee Sung: Thank you Dr. Tam. Needless to say I’m extremely honored, flattered, and gratified that I’m being recognized in this way, and that this series of Chinatown workshops is being dedicated to me. Most people don’t want to acknowledge their age, but according to Chinese values, the older you are the more respect you’re supposed to command. So let me see if I’m going to command that respect, now that everybody knows how old I am. Tom said that I’ve been working for the interests and welfare of Chinese Americans since 1970.

In fact, it was as early as 1948, when I first started to write about the Chinese Americans for the Voice of America that I discovered the paucity of information about Chinese Americans. The erroneous image that was created in the literature wasn’t very much, but they were hair raising and derogatory. That was when I decided that my mission in life was to correct that image and to speak up for the status and the rights of Chinese Americans, and to work for their welfare. That’s what I’ve been doing, since 1948, for 56 years.

When I wrote the book Mountain of Gold, which came out at the height of the ethnic consciousness movement, it aroused a whole group of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans. They had thought that discrimination only happened to the blacks in the United States. When they found out what had happened in their history, they were very incensed. It was at that time that they demanded Asian American studies in the colleges, and City College asked me to teach the courses on Asian Americans. These were the first of their kind, east of California that was offered on the Chinese in the United States. Later, that was broadened to Asian Americans. From there, we became a department, and I taught there until my retirement in 1992.

After that, I continued to write about the Chinese in the United States. In 1970, I took the 1970 census and created a whole body of demographic information about the Chinese. Before that, the census listed us as others, among categories of Black, and White. I took the 1970 census, went back to the original tapes, and published a book in 1976. After I retired, I said, this mission cannot just stop here. We have to develop a new generation of people who will continue the work that I have started. That is why I fought so hard to get the City University to establish the Asian American Asian Research Institute.

It took a long time, almost ten years of brow-beating, cajoling, and endless talks with the administration. Finally in 2001, this research institute was established. We hope to bring along a new generation of scholars and students who will continue the work: researching, writing, bringing to the fore the issues of Asian Americans in this country. I hope that the University administration continue to support us so that we can carry on the work that I started.

This new series of 11 workshops is going to deal with the problems of Chinatown. That’s just what I had hoped that we would do. We thank the University for their Support, and we hope that we can get as much support from the community and other leaders as well. Thank you all for coming, and enjoy our workshops. Thank you.

Thomas Tam: Now, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you a friend who understands our space needs, someone who works very hard to help us move into a more spacious environment, our good neighbor, leader of the Italian American Institute, Vice President Joseph Scelsa.

Joseph Scelsa: I just marvel at the growth of this institute and how it has come in such a short time. Becoming a part of the university was not an easy step, and one that has with it, mixed blessings. There are good things, and there are things that are not quite as good, being part of the university structure, but I think overall it is the place where these institutes belong. I can think of no place better than the City University at New York with our tremendous diversity in this city where there is a clamoring need for these centers and institutes. My title has recently been changed. Over the last couple years I was Vice President of Queens College Institution of Development. My title now is Vice President for Outreach and Cultural Affairs. Well, I think this is cultural affairs, and I’m sure this is part of what it’s all about. I’m located on the 17th floor just underneath. We try to be good neighbors, and I think of the Mott St. and Mulberry St. connection, where we have two very strong communities that have lived side by side in a very small area for a long period of time. Basically, we’ve been doing the same thing here for the last couple of years.

I did have the privilege to work on a facilities plan over the last year. We are in the final throes of looking for the contractors to start the construction at this point. By the time we finish this workshop series, we anticipate the construction will take place. It is going to be incredible. What we will have is 8 classrooms, in addition a computer lab, and a room that can be converted to seat 145 people, which, as you can see, you need. The offices of the Asian American Asian Research Institute are going to be greatly expanded. In the South Wing of this floor, looking directly over the Chrysler Building, Dr. Tam is going to have the best office view in town. I’m very pleased. It has taken a long time to get these things to happen.

I really feel that this is a wonderful institute that Dr. Tam has led in taking it to the next stage, and I’m sure we’re going to see many great things to come as a result of it.

Before I close, I on behalf of President James Muyskens, who unfortunately could not be here with you today, I extend his greetings as well. He is just as supportive, and he sends his best wishes.

Thomas Tam: The resolution to establish the Asian American Asian Research Institute was submitted by Chancellor Matthew Goldstein to the board. There was one trustee who was behind us all the way, and who would come to our help at any moment that we asked him to. He is a true friend, supporter, and leader of the institute, as well as the City University of New York, please welcome Trustee Wellington Chen.

Trustee Wellington Chen: Good afternoon everyone, it’s indeed a pleasure to be here. When I was first introduced to AAARI, I kept talking about how human lifespan is so short that we are a little blip on the radar screen. When I first came to Flushing many years ago, the only book available on Chinese Americans was by Dr. Betty Lee Sung. Not to belittle City College, when I attended the School of Architecture there, when it came to the architecture of Chinese or Japanese, there were only three slides. I was astounded. A 5000 year history, that’s all you can show? As I grow older, I’ve come to appreciate that it’s a cumulative wave, and that the wave is behind us. John Liu is now the first Asian American to be elected to City Council and he will be pushing forward. He is working very hard. Thanks to the legacy of Mayor Koch with Eva Tan, we get to enjoy the benefit of having a lot of people who are now working in the City government. So I’ve come to appreciate what a collaborative effort this has been. I think that we are moving forward. I can only look forward to hearing more from these workshops and the wisdom we can all share. Thank you very much.

Thomas Tam: The last person to greet us, but not the least, is the person who funded the whole workshop from the CUNY diversity grant. I hope our next speaker will continue her support of our activities and we’ll make sure that she will not be disappointed. Please welcome Vice Chancellor Brenda Malone.

Brenda Malone: I’m really excited that I am a part of this kickoff reception for this wonderful series, “ Chinatown in the 21st Century”. What’s really satisfying to me as Vice Chancellor is the fact that support was provided for this project by the University’s Projects Development Fund. You all know that is one of our diversity initiatives, the brainchild of the University Affirmative Action Committee, and my office, the Office of Faculty and Staff Relations. Dr. Joe Wilson and Dr. Don Watkins do wonderful work, and constantly come up with creative ways so that we can enhance diversity and multiculturalism here at the University. This is one example. We started this project, and asked for proposals to be submitted. We got over 100 proposals, and we were able to select 20. This proposal for Chinatown in the 21st Century was one among those that we were able to support. Good work is going to be done, as you explore the future of the Chinatown community, and its emergence into the mainstream of American society. I am really looking forward to the results of your research and the discussions that will go on. I understand that it will be going to be on DVD and published. It’s important not only for the institute, but for the Asian American community, for the City University, and for New York City as a whole. So again, we fully support you and your efforts, and I wish you much success.

Workshop starts here.

Thomas Tam: And now, without further ado, we’re going to start the first workshop, Chinatown and the Political Landscapes of New York City. We are very fortunate to have with us here, two eminent leaders who are very familiar with the political ways of New York City. The other person, Mrs. Meilin Tan, had to fly to Los Angeles this morning. She apologized about her inability to be here with us, but she has sent a statement about the questions that we have raised.

At this point, there’s really only one Asian American representative in all of New York. Can you tell us how you succeeded in doing something where others have failed?

John Liu: First, let me thank you for inviting me to come back to AAARI. It’s been three years, and this institute really has become a renowned, top of the line institute. I want to congratulate you for your work, and certainly, the support you received from CUNY. It is a very difficult time, but the city council is committed to continuing CUNY’s role as the great equalizer in our city and in our society. I am also delighted to be here to celebrate the 60th birthday of Professor Betty Lee Sung. She is the only 60 year old that I know who commands the respect of an 80 year old.

It is shocking, that in 2001, no Asian American had been elected to legislative office in New York. I am very proud to be the first, but I wish that I was the ninth or tenth. One of the reasons that I was able to win in 2001 is that I was able to look at the experience of other people in our Asian American community who had run for offices before. I was fortunate and I had a leg up on my campaign because of these experiences.

Another thing that made me different from the other candidates was that this is the place that I grew up in. Not only did I grow up in New York City, but I grew up in Flushing, which is where I’m elected from. So it certainly helps to have a very long, in my case, a lifetime history of having roots in the community that you hope to represent. Overall, it’s really knowing the system, understanding what a political campaign is, and being able to accept these practical considerations that such a political campaign brings. Ultimately, just totally and utterly working your butt off. That is what it takes to win any kind of difficult election.

We need to be honest. Unless we’re honest with ourselves, we will not be able to get to the next milestones in our community’s development. The Asian vote in NYC is still very nominal. We are about 10% of the population in New York City, but we are less than 3% in terms of registered voters, and that’s not even looking at the voting population. If you look at the district that I won the election in, we have a district of 160,000 people, 48% of whom are Asian American. If you look at just the people who are eligible to vote in an election, we’re down to less than 30%. You go from a 48% population to less than 30% population among registered voters.

Now, it turns out that in New York City, Democrats far outnumber Republicans. If Meilin was here she would also agree with that. So the reality is that, in almost all of the local elections, the decision is made at the level of the Democratic primary, and not in the general election. To give you an example of how much the Democrats dominate this city, we have, out of 51 members of the City council, 48 democrats. The three Republicans, two of them are in Staten Island, and one in Queens. You have to not only look at the proportion of registered voters, but you have to look at the proportion of registered Democrats. In my district, if you look at the percentage of registered Democrats being Asian Americans, we are now down to 20%, because many Asian Americans register to vote but do not designate one of the parties to be a member of, therefore they’re not eligible to vote in either primary.

It gets worse. In the Democratic primary, the voting turnout is actually very low. Out of the democrats who typically vote in primary elections, the percentage of Asian American in my district has not exceeded 15%. So you go from a population of 48% in my district, down to an effective voting population of about 15%.

That is reality. The number one thing we need to do as a community is to acknowledge that fact. Once we acknowledge and accept that fact, we can go out there and register more people to vote, encourage them to sign up for one of the parties so that they can take part in the political primary, and then get people out in September to the primaries so that their vote will truly count in the actual decision-making process. These are lessons that we take from the statistics and these are lessons that we can put into a plan of action. Your brochure here says that Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats among the Chinese voting population. I think that between Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, you do have different breakdowns of Republicans and Democrats within the Asian American population. I believe that registered Democrats actually outnumber registered Republican voters in the Asian American community, though not as much as the five to one margin throughout the entire city.

If our community was to be practical about it, we certainly should encourage people to cast their votes where they count the most.

Thomas Tam: I’d like to raise a different question. Recently, in the local Asian news media, there were incidences of race-related violence involving the Chinese population. There’s school violence against Chinese students, there are several murders of Chinese fast food delivery people, and there were street fights among mobs. How do you propose to alleviate this problem?

John Liu: This is why we need representation. This is why we need people in political office. I don’t believe for a second that we should be running for office simply to win an election. Once you win an election, that’s not the end of it, that’s actually the start of what you need to do. That’s why we need representation in all levels of government here. We need representation for many reasons. One of the most critical reasons is to ensure that the criminal justice system treats us equitably and fairly, when we are victims of crimes, as well as when some of us may be accused of crimes. In my opinion, there have been a number of violent incidents involving Asian Americans that certainly have a racist tone to them, but not all of them are truly racist. That’s a systemic problem that we have a responsibility to overcome. In order to address the problems of racism, you need to identify where the problem exactly lies.

Thomas Tam: Is there some sort of data-gathering system that observes the progress of this situation? In what way can the research institute assess it, and see whether or not the trend develops?

John Liu: That is one of the most important reasons why we need to have this institute, because there is a wealth of history. Over the last 20-30 years, organizations in our community, like the Committee against Anti-Asian Violence, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, have done a great job of chronicling these incidents, not only what happened during the incidents, but also government’s response to those incidents, which is equally important here. What the institute can do is build upon what these organizations have already done, but give it a slightly different perspective and a higher level of rigor in terms of standards that are required by academics. I think that’s something that is helpful. These two are good organizations, one being a very grassroots organization, the other one being an organization primarily run by attorneys. We certainly can use educators and members of academia to lend it more credibility.

Thomas Tam: There is recently a proposal that permanent residents should have the same right of voting in local elections just like the native-born and naturalized citizens. What are your views on that, and how do you think that will affect Chinatown?

John Liu: I strongly believe in the foundations of this country. This country was formed in reaction to a lack of representation in the homeland, i.e., England. When people here realized that they didn’t have any votes and they didn’t have any representation, they threw a tea party. That has always been the backbone behind our democracy. As a member of the city council, I will push for measures when the timing is good, to allow all taxpayers of this city to cast a ballot. I think it’s the right thing to do. If you pay taxes, you should have direct representation, and you can’t have direct representation unless you have the right to vote. No taxation without representation. That’s what they said hundreds of years ago, and we should keep to that. That’s what this country is based on. If we are able to do that, I think the city will be better run, because the government will then truly be representative of all the people here.

As far as how it will affect Chinatown, that’s hard to say. A lot of people who have been citizens for decades are still not registered to vote. We still have people who are registered to vote but aren’t able to take out the ten minutes to go vote. It’s not that we’re lacking representation because many Chinese Americans or Asian Americans are not citizens; we’re lacking representation for a lot of different reasons.

Thomas Tam: Thank you. I know that the councilman has to leave, so we’ll take only three questions from the floor. Yes?

Male Speaker: Councilman Liu, could you make a comment about advantages and disadvantages about primaries? Should they be held or not?

John Liu: Yeah. We had a lot of discussion about this, in the referendum to eliminate party primaries that took place last November. I think the primary system is a fact of life. It had its roots in the creation of this country. The primary system, while in the short term, may seem to create hardships for new communities, such as the Asian American to gain representation, I think it’s beneficial to us in the long term. The fact is that people will break up into caucuses and different groups. The founding father of this country, George Washington, tried to discourage people from forming factions. There were other fathers of our country who realized that the factions were an inevitable part of life, and that people of like minds would pool collectively their strength based on their common opinion. That’s why we have political parties. Even in the Asian American community, there have been many calls where people said, “We should get together and choose the strongest candidate, so we don’t have more than one Asian candidate running.” I mean, that’s the same thing. You’re never going to be able to avoid that, because that’s human nature and it allows people of like minds to collectively pool their strength. I think, in the long term, it actually benefits us.

Bob Lee: In New York City, plans are being drawn up because of what happened to Chinese in 9/11. In order to make those changes into reality, we need a great deal of support from the political system within the city. I’m wondering if we can make sure it’s there.

John Liu: I don’t think enough is being planned to upgrade the level of opportunities that we have in Chinatown. My colleague, Alan Gerson, is doing a yeoman’s job of representing the area as well as all of lower Manhattan. He has, in my opinion, the single most difficult job of any of us in the city council, being the representative for Ground Zero and the immediate vicinity. Without his advocacy, the federal government would have completely left Chinatown out of the equation. It’s a difficult job, but I still don’t think that we’re getting our fair share. That has to do with our continuing lack of political strength. One thing that we need to do is to engage the political structure of Chinatown to get more people involved within that political structure, and to have a more unified voice coming out of Chinatown. When I say Chinatown, I don’t refer simply to the geographic neighborhood that’s in lower Manhattan; this applies to Chinese Americans and Asian Americans throughout the city of New York. The example that I often point to is Canal Street. When the decision was made in the mid 80’s to have one-way tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, people understood the impact that it would have on Canal Street. The congestion on that street would stifle economic growth in Chinatown was foreseen. They went ahead with it anyway because you have a stronger political voice elsewhere in the city.

Dawn An: Election in Taiwan is a hot topic in all the major Chinese newspapers. There is more coverage on that than local politics. Do you think that Chinese Americans feel more concerned about politics back home than politics in local areas?

John Liu: People have very strong and emotional ties to what’s happening in the old world, and that’s to be expected. In Taiwan we had a very heated, contested and close election. When you have exciting elections like that, it generates a great deal of coverage. It’s no different from Florida in the year 2000, when you had a very close election, and people were calling for recounts. People care strongly about what’s happening in the old world, but more and more people are concerned about what’s happening here in the United States as well. We need to encourage people to understand how their votes have an effect.

It’s important that people remain in touch with their homelands, but also recognize that this is our new adopted land, and we need to not only understand what’s happening here, but to have input and impact on what’s to happen.

Thomas Tam: Thank you very much, Councilman Liu. We really appreciate your coming over here, and we hope that you can join us again soon in the future.

John Liu: I apologize to everybody. Thank you.

Thomas Tam: Before we go on to our next speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize a few people here: Professor Thomas Li from the City College of New York, Mr. Chris Kui, Executive Director of Asian Americans for Equality, Mr. Joseph Chan, the Senior Vice President of Empire State Corporation, and Mr. Robert Li, the Executive Director of the Asian American Arts Center, and Professor Don Watkins, who supported us in our application for this grant and made this possible. Thank you all for joining us.

Thomas Tam: Ms. Tan, you have been involved in New York City politics, and you have worked with many different people. Some of the things we discussed with Councilman Liu, such as the voting habits of Chinese Americans, can you say something about that?

Eva Tan: First of all, I agree with what the councilman said about people being concerned with homeland politics. We can’t help it; this is where we’re from. Our language and our culture came from there to begin with. Now that we are in a different place, however, we feel like this is not really our place permanently. We have to remember that our children are growing up here and their children will grow up here, too. They will have more of an American mentality, like the rest of Americans, than the older generation, the immigrant generation, like myself.

The other thing is that a lot of the immigrants don’t have the language skill. Even for those of us who could read both languages, we read faster in Chinese than in English. A lot of us would read the New York Times, but how many of us also read other papers like The Post and Newsday? There are different aspects and you get a very different feel of the mentality of locals, but we don’t have the time to do it.

Thomas Tam: You mentioned about the need to get in touch with the Chinese culture. There’s a survey that was done two years ago about how the general American public view Chinese as being separate from the country, that they are more loyal to China than to America. What do you say about that?

Eva Tan: First of all, I don’t believe I said that we need to be more in touch. We are already very much in touch, the immigrants are. The new generation will do fine, they will be happy with what they learn here in combination with what the parents teach. People can’t help themselves if they have a chunk of their life that’s tied to another culture. That’s why we have to make an effort to be more concerned with what’s happening here in New York than the homeland.

Thomas Tam: Let me divert the discussion to a different subject. You have done a lot to promote Asian Americans to high positions within the city government. Even though there have been more appointments, the percentage of Asian in these positions are relatively low. With your knowledge of how the city works, what suggestions can you give to get more Asian Americans to be in those positions?

Eva Tan: I think there are more and more Asian in high positions already. It’s true that this is a society where there’s already a hierarchy of traditions: certain section of the population will go into government and certain section will go into business. Among the Asian Americans, because of their history, they shy away from politics. I could even say that for myself before I got into government.

A Chinese saying: “Closer to power is like closer to a tiger”; you don’t know which day your head is going to be chopped off. Many immigrants need to change this mentality. They need to encourage the newer generation to go into politics, because as the councilman was explaining before, if you don’t go into it, you will not be represented and you will lose out. This is a new system we are dealing with. You cannot go back to the old mentality.

In any structure, you cannot just jump to the top. That’s why there are so few Asians that have gotten into higher positions in government. You have to start from the lower levels. That’s why when I was in government, other than making sure that important appointments are gotten for the Asian talents, I made a point to promote those strong mid-level managerial positions. Before we get those, we need more people who are at the entry levels. We have to encourage a newer generation to go into these positions so that eventually they will come up in much larger numbers that will be representational of the population count of the Asian community.

Betty Lee Sung: May I ask a question? You worked for the Koch administration during which, I believe, the treatment for Asian Americans was very favorable, probably due to your efforts. Can you compare the attitude of the Koch administration, the Giuliani administration, and the Bloomberg administration for Asian Americans? As soon as Giuliani came in, he disbanded the Asian liaison; he disbanded the Black and Latino liaison. Bloomberg has not restored that. But when Koch was there, we had an “in”, a road, a door into the Koch administration. Can you compare those three administrations, please?

Eva Tan: When I started working for Mayor Koch, I had two titles. One was director of the Asian Affairs Office. The other was Special Advisor to the Mayor, meaning I reported directly to him. Anything happens, I can go to the mayor and say something. In the Giuliani administration, as you said before, the mayor cut out not just Asian Affairs, but offices for Black and Hispanics affairs as well.

When I was there, I was able to say that the Asian community has much difficulty with the English language, that it is necessary to make a communication channel between the government and the population. If the mayor’s office doesn’t even have people who understand the language, it will not work. So I pushed to have Asian language people that could at least communicate with the community for different agencies, especially those dealing with business. I made sure that the mayor’s office itself, created a Translation Office, so that all agencies’ regulations and rules were translated in a couple of Asian languages. At that time, the most needed one, other than Chinese, was Korean.

The rest of the Asians, from Filipinos to Indians, basically speak English. As for Mayor Bloomberg, by the end of Giuliani’s administration, he started to realize that there were really problems, and they had to do something. So they created the immigrant affairs office. From then on, it takes care of all these problems that might come up. The only difference is that whenever there’s something really important, our community did not get the direct ear of the policy makers.

Thomas Tam: I understand you have done a lot of work after you left government and that you’ve worked on things like cleaning up Chinatown and business improvement district. There’s a BID happening in Flushing now. Can you comment about the difference between Chinatown and Flushing?

Eva Tan: First of all, we’re lucky to have an elected official, Councilman John Liu, in Flushing. Right there is the biggest reason why we all have to vote more and register to vote more. Because of the rules for a business improvement district, the local councilperson is usually the person who proposes the bill, which has to be passed by the city council. When the bill goes to the city council for votes, if it’s proposed by the local councilman, usually it’s almost rubberstamping votes. When a district doesn’t have a councilman who will be supporting the district, that’s how we lose out.

Unfortunately, in Chinatown, we have a councilman who had not been very supportive. I had bugged him many times. Every time he sees me, he starts to walk away and says, “Eva, I’m still working on it”. I am only part of this Council for a Cleaner Chinatown, which is made up of leaders of all the major industries in Chinatown. We are the biggest organization with all the trades represented, from restaurant owners, to bankers, to jewelers, to garment manufacturers. You name it, we have them all. This is a non-profit organization that could not afford an executive director, but it had lasted for nine years. Have you ever heard of anything like that?

One very good rule about a “BID” in any district is that, if a majority of the community does not want it, nobody could force it onto the community. Unfortunately, an area like Chinatown is such a complicated district that some organizations will come out to make allegations that are not supported by fact. It takes the Council for a Cleaner Chinatown to prove them otherwise. Then we were opposed by this big organization that was not against a “BID” in principle, but it was against a “BID” if we put it together.

Let me give you an example. This opposition organization went to the community board and said they wanted to put this on the agenda. When I started to speak, the first question they asked me was, “Do you live or work in Chinatown?” I said, “No, I don’t.” They said, “So why are you doing this?”, as if I’m doing this for some ulterior motive of some ill nature. I said, “Well, I guess it’s my bad habit because I worked for Mayor Koch, and this was my area.” I almost wanted to say, “Do you see how I look like, do you see my hair, do you see my skin, do you think I, as an Asian person, would not be concerned with my community, the welfare of my community, the future of my community, the only hope of going back to economic revival for the whole area?” After 9/11, Chinatown businesses all suffered. The major business owners in Chinatown are aboard with the BID idea.

It’s the best thing for Chinatown revival; unfortunately, there are some people, for whatever reason, who feel that only they could do it. If somebody else wants to do it, they will oppose it. The irony is that, because our organization had been doing this for nine years, when this new group went to the agency and asked if they could do one, they were told, “But somebody else has been doing this for this area for nine years, you have to work with them.” This is why we’re stuck, if that answers your question.

The key is that you understand our mentality the best. If your institute could help with educating our people so that we could get businesspeople to put a “BID” together, that would be wonderful. I hope you could help with that.

Thomas Tam: This is a common problem. Different people have different ideas about how things should be done. To forgo some privately held ideas and see how in different ways people can accommodate one another, that probably would be a good approach. With that, I’m going to turn a question to Don. You have a question, right?

Don Watkins: You referred to the need for middle management support. This reminds me of something that has occurred in New York City in the past few weeks, and that’s in the area of education. I looked at a list of policy advisors to Joel Klein, who often are the people who have a great deal of influence on what the policy might be. I noticed in that list no Asian Americans and no Chinese. What I’d like to know is if you have any suggestions to get the new generation to become the influence makers for policy.

Eva Tan: I totally agree with you that Asian policy makers are lacking. As I said, the parents have to encourage the newer generation to go into politics-related government areas. We need to have a lot more young people who want to get involved, and work for a candidate who runs for office. I hope Councilman Liu has a lot of Asians that work in his office because that’s where the next crop will come from. We could work not just for Asian candidates, but also for regular American candidates, so that this racial non representation could be erased.

First, the young people have to have an interest in it. Then, in our educational system, what can we do to encourage the Asians, to go to someone like a Dr. Tam or a Dr. Sung? Maybe we can tell them how important an understanding of this whole system is.

Betty Lee Sung: I think the American Federation has a mentoring program. The Committee of 100 also has a leadership seminar, which they bring the young people into the fold. The Organization of Chinese Americans also has an internship program. I guess we are bringing the young people in gradually.

Joe Scelsa: I’ve been active in educational politics for a long time. As educators, we often don’t have the ability to do the things that other people can do for us. I was vice chair of the Multicultural Advisory Board of the NYC Board of Education. The reason is because some very important leaders got together and had a meeting with the Chancellor. They said, “You know what? We want representation.” What I’m saying is that it was a grassroots approach. If you want that kind of change, you get your leaders together in a meeting. I guarantee you: you will find people to sit on those boards. Then, we will ask them to plan. That’s the approach I would tell you. Yes, I agree that there’s need for much education, a need to have awareness, and that’s what we’re all about, but in terms of practicality, that’s the way to get it done.

Dawn An: It’s not really a question; it’s a comment. You said that Asian students are not involved in college, but at Queens College this year, the vice president of the Student Union is actually a Chinese American and she was the president of the Chinese Student Association, so we are getting more involved.

Thomas Tam: Good to hear.

Female Speaker: I’m not from CUNY; I’m actually from Pace University. It seems that the Asian students in my school aren’t involved. Slowly, I think that will change. Do you think that the first step is to vote? Young people don’t vote, especially Asian Americans students. Would it be fair to educate them on political literacy when they are in high school, when they are just about to turn 18? I think it would be wise to educate them when they’re heading to college.

Eva Tan: I just thought of something: When new immigrants come, is it possible for institutions like yours to help them acclimate themselves? Is it possible for new immigrants to go through some educational seminars on civic duties, including voting? The younger generation will catch up with the rest of the system, but the immigrants have a very difficult time, especially when their history of the home country is so different.

Female Speaker: I think that World Journal had put out a handbook for new immigrants and it talked about voting as well. In terms of educating the 18 year olds, we don’t have any control in the high school system, but we do have control in the city universities. We do have the student development class, and maybe that’s something that we could incorporate as part of that curriculum, for the entering freshman, and talk about civic duty. That’s a wonderful idea. Maybe the CUNY administrators should think about implementing that suggestion.

Thomas Li: You are right to say that we should unite to form a strong voice. Some 40 years ago, I formed and chaired a committee to establish a Chicago Public Library branch in Chinatown. There was no library at that time, I presented the argument, appeared in a hearing, and we succeeded. It took us only six months because we were united.

Eva Tan: I think you’re so right. In New York, there are many Asian American organizations. Maybe we need to put something big together that is good for the community, so that all can come onboard and help. If a small group makes trouble, then let’s stop it and help the rest of the groups. That’s the only way we can win.

Betty Lee Sung: In lower Manhattan, the Chinese population could be close to 40%.

To think that in district 1, which is heavily Asian American, yet we were unable to elect an Asian to city council. That is a very sad commentary. I want to give you my experience. I was a poll watcher in Chinatown. I stood there from 7 o’clock in the morning until 12 o’clock; I counted only 35 people who came in to vote. Seven were Chinese. That was how poor the participation in voting was. The way to get people involved is to hit them right where it affects them personally. If you want to have a bus to come to your door, that is voted on by the city council. So is the level of your taxes, which is money out of your pocket. If you could hit them and tell them that this is how it’s going to affect them, it would be more effective than talking about the freedom to vote. When it is too abstract, people won’t get it. We have to bring it close to home. What are these issues that are going to affect you that you should vote for?

Eva Tan: A key factor in this situation is that Chinatown is split into three different districts. What needs to be done is to make sure that Chinatown remains in one district. That makes a big difference in the votes. If it’s one district, we would be much more likely to have an Asian candidate elected.

Bob Lee: You have described the difficult division in our community in trying to promote something that would have been very beneficial. Someone like Alan Gerson can do something for the community. Without that unity, however, what we hoped and planned for Chinatown and for the Chinese may not be fulfilled. You said three districts divide our community, but being more concerned with Taiwan politics also divides our attention. What can you suggest for us to proceed?

Eva Tan: One good thing that came out of 9/11 is that a lot of organizations in Chinatown now are coming together. If we could continue with that, and if someone who is respected could start some kind of organization that puts everything together, and say, like John Liu was saying, “If there’s a seat for a legislator, let’s talk among the candidates and elect one, so that we don’t divide the votes.” We need some leaders to put something together, take a vote, and go for it.

Transcription Services Provided by Transcendent International

The Following is a Statement by Ms. Meilin Tan who could not participate at the workshop.

Chinatown has always meant hometown to me; good and familiar food, fresh and familiar fruits and vegetables, familiar items and customs associated with my childhood – these are the things important to me that can only be found in Chinatown.

The most urgent problems in Chinatown are traffic congestion and poor sanitation.

Commercial trucks travel to and through the Holland Tunnel and cause excessive noise and traffic, making movement difficult for both pedestrians and personal vehicles.

Some people in Chinatown shamelessly throw garbage and trash on sidewalks and others feel free to spit in public, not only a disgusting habit, but an unsanitary one as well. Unfortunately, many of our own people have brought this unacceptable social behavior to Chinatown, USA. We need to stress the importance of changing these habits and try to educate and promote quality of life issues broadly in our community. We need to improve our image in the eyes of the western world.

An interesting point I always like to mention is that Chinese vote in significant numbers and ratios for Republican candidates even though the Democrat to Republican ratio is 5 to 1. It’s no secret that almost all non-profit organizations and programs funded in NYC with government money are run by Democrats. Most English classes and citizenship classes register their graduates 100% Democrats. However, come election times, many Chinese realize that they agree more with Republican philosophies and issues.

That being said, Chinese votes are not significantly swinging elections because the number of voting Chinese just isn’t sufficient to make a difference. Chinese votes are just beginning to play more important role recently in local elections. If we register more voters and get out more votes, we will be able to influence more elections in a significant manner.

At this point, New York City Council member John Liu is the only elected Asian American legislator in New York City. Mr. Liu is the only Asian so far who has received the Democratic Party’s endorsement and more importantly, who has been able to have the Democratic Party work for him.

Under Mr. Liu’s active involvement, a Business Improvement District (BID) was passed in Flushing. For the past 15 years, BID proposals failed to pass muster because problems with local merchants were usually resolved by a much stronger Flushing Chinese Business Association. However, with the many changes that have come about in the past decade, Mr. Liu has enjoyed more weighted votes by major corporate owners in Flushing, while he was only opposed by smaller, though many, Chinese business and landowners. There are no major corporate entities with special interests in Chinatown, so attempts of establishing a Chinatown BID face strong opposition from local Chinese owners without having the support of large corporate influence to tip the scales.

As Chinese Americans, we would like to see a good strong working relationship between China and the United States. While there have been impacts on this relationship, long term effects will be minimal. The low point in recent years between the two countries would be the incident when the American surveillance plane had a collision with a Chinese interceptor aircraft in the South China Seas. Relations at the time became tense, but never critical.

Immigrant communities are definitely strongly influenced by their ancestral cultures and also by political perceptions from their homeland. American Israelis are loyal and supportive to their home country, while they also make great contributions and love America. Chinese American soldiers went back to China and paid their respects to their ancestors before serving their country by defending American values and freedoms in Iraq. There is no conflict between embracing the culture and values of your ancestors and loving your country.

With the recent increased race related violence in Chinese communities, we have to promote racial harmony and mutual understanding in every way possible. Rather than keeping to ourselves in ghettoized closed communities and socializing only within our own groups the way we tend to do, we should reach out to other communities. The Queens District Attorney’s office arranged for a bus load of black students to visit Chinatown for a day last summer. At the time, I tried to find local sponsors for the group, since this might have been the only opportunity for these youngsters to experience Chinese lives for a day. Efforts like this are a step in the right direction.

I’ve been a very active member of the community for the past 20 years. I see a clear improvement in Chinese participation in mainstream society. Not only are there more high achievers and outstanding contributions made in every profession and in all walks of life, but there are also more Chinese playing important roles at all levels of government.

Chinatown was, has always been, and will always be the center of all attention and activities for Chinese people in New York, and Chinatown will always be the first home for new arrivals for Chinese all over the world. We will always help immigrants understand American customs and help them to become part of the big melting pot that we proudly know our nation to be.

Chinese as a whole have always been neglected and have suffered silently as a quiet minority group, oftentimes being referred to as the “model minority.” Chinese often has to endure mistreatment because of this faulty perception. I feel that it is my responsibility to help the less fortunate, regardless of the general perceptions that the Chinese are always successful and affluent. I started my community work with grass root efforts and volunteered a great deal of time and energy for my community and for my Party. I am proud of what I have achieved and proud of where I stand. I would like to see more young people get more involved and participate more in mainstream politics. That’s all I ask.