“I Am Chinese.”
This was hand written on a sign that my dad wore like a necklace as a teenager in the streets of San Francisco Chinatown and North Beach. My dad lived in fear because of the color of his skin. My best friend’s mom saw her family torn apart in the Japanese internment camps. That was 80 years ago, in the midst of a war where nationality was questioned and racial prejudice had no bounds. Yet, to my dismay, as I read about another anti-Asian attack, I question whether or not we have actually evolved into a kinder, gentler people.
There are lessons in the history. There are heroes. There are survivors. There is inspiration and hope for the future. We can avoid repeating these ugly moments.
My dad spent a lot of his youth at Donaldina Cameron House – serving low-income Chinese families – in Chinatown. It was a safe place for my dad, a 3rd generation born Chinese American, to hang out with his buddies.
In the 1960s, while my dad focused on raising his young family, racial tensions began rising in Chinatown. Chinatown families saw their schools desegregated while teachers fought for affirmative action and bi-lingual education. It was vocal, in your face activism.
Rev. Harry Chuck, former director of Donaldina Cameron House, was a young man armed with a 16mm camera. He captured images of this event and interviews with young activists. He ended up with 20,000 feet of film and he didn’t know what to do with it all.
With the help of his son Josh, producer James Q. Chan, cinematographer Anson Ho, and editor Greg Louie, “Chinatown Rising” was born. Through it, Harry demonstrates as a collective voice we can make change, with the hope that “we would never again return to the days of fear and intimidation that our predecessors experienced.”
May is Asian American Heritage Month. It presents an opportunity to educate and engage conversation about Asian Americans’ role in race relations, U.S. history and activism. Your school and your organizations would benefit greatly by seeing this inspiring film. Josh is booking screenings with live Q&As for April and May. Get in touch. Let’s learn from the past so we can change the future. Find Josh at http://www.ChinatownRising.com
Thank you,
Joyce Yee
Joyful Storyteller 
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