Adrianna Tan1d ago

The social security administration building in SF Chinatown is multilingual, with English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and more.

A few days ago I saw someone from Singapore who just came to SF remark that they were not interested in SF Chinatown. If you grew up in a majority Chinese place like us, Chinese-ness is oppressive. Not under attack.

I felt the same. But after some time here, I learned about the incredible activism and progressive coalition building that happened here.

I don’t like pagodas and stone lions, but as a symbol against the encroaching financial district that always dreamed of taking over this place, erasing all immigrants? The energetic defense against the eviction of Filipino workers who lived in SROs back in the day.

That’s cool.

Early ‘AAPI’ activism was intersectional, and understood its role in the civil rights struggle.

Today’s rich SF / Peninsula / South Bay Chinese Americans who hate parks and love cars and hates poor and Black people are a disgrace.

Show threadAdrianna Tan1d ago

Out of the 30 people here (including staff), there are around 10 people still wearing KN95 masks (including staff).

Most of the other folks are older folks, mainly ex refugees and I guess all of their children are locally born citizens.

They are all Americans now but still have strong culture and language and food ties (SF Chinatown also has exciting new restaurants that reflect new developments in Chinese food culture.. American kids taking over their parents restaurants like at 606, new immigrants coming here from HK to do ‘haute’ or very traditional things (like at Four Kings or Rice Roll Express)

The portraits of some extremely anti-immigrant politicians are on the walls. Every day, I read the news about how they want to tear all of this down. Up until very recently, those policies impacted my family in very visceral and painful ways, daily.

Jay Thoden van Velzen ☁️​🛡️​1d ago
Show threadAdrianna Tan

Learning about how early Chinese immigrants in California and Oregon were viciously attacked up and down the west coast, massacred, had their things taken, prevented from walking on the streets after sunset in nearby Antioch, prevented from buying property in many parts of the north and east bay, told they were diseased people who didn’t deserve the same rights as Europeans, even in death, helped me see that we think we live in a better, more enlightened time but we don’t.

It’s also taught me that I deserve to be here, and that I have more in common with a new immigrant family from Fuzhou or Taishan who still lives in a 8-to-one-room-in-Chinatown environment today, even if I have had many other privileges in comparison.

Without Wong Kim Ark, there would have been no birthright citizenship.

Jun 3 at 9:24pmWeb
Show threadFranceska Mann1d ago

@skinnylatte

San Francisco Chinatown is one of my favorite places in the world.

Show threadElGranj1d ago
@skinnylatte If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Whatever you think you know about the history of it, it's worse https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/chinese-exclusion-act/