What's New?
23rd August
Well time has flown and lots has happened with my life.
I am now a
proud father and as such site updates have been impacted I'm afraid!
CantoDict is still going strong though and I hope to find time for some useful updates soon.
On a less positive note, we are currently undergoing a spam attack, so please bear with us while we
try and deal with this.
/\dam
Last 10 posts in our forums:
Mr.16 & SimYee Chan - 不需要挽留 04:59 by ♭♫
[+-]
Re: The rise and fall of Chinatown: The hidden history of displacement you were never told 03:51 by ♭♫
[+-]I think any merchant that is against the lion dancing in Chinatown should be blacklisted from receiving any lion blessings from any lion dance troupe during Chinese New Years. Lion Dancers bring customers to Chinatown as well as Cantonese cultural reinforcement and Cantonese identity to the community.
[
missionlocal.org]
Norman Lau’s LionDanceME — arguably the world’s most active lion dance group — had just put on 300 shows in two months. Lau was feeling good that day in early-March, but soon, he discovered, merchants on San Francisco Chinatown’s main commercial corridor said no more — no more to the street closures the dancers needed.Quote
♭♫
The first sign of displacement is when non-local merchants who are not part of the cultural history of Chinatown start changing the cultural landscape of Chinatown. They are doing business in Chinatown because Chinatown is a living theme park that they are capitalizing on but they, themselves, don't contribute to spreading our culture. If the Chinatown lion dances performing business blessing ceremonies occur between lunch and dinner, you draw 2 types of customers in to Chinatown. You draw people with their children who want to see the cultural engagement of Cantonese lion dances after dim sum and you draw customers who want to see the performances before eating an authentic high quality Chinese dinner and maybe afterwards purchase tickets at a downtown theater or cinema. Keeping Chinatown restaurants full of customers subsidizes low income rents for poor tenants living in SROS above the restaurants as well as keeping local residents employed and paying taxes. Customers just don't come to Chinatown just for the tea.
[
www.sfpublicpress.org]
“We’re not a theme park,” said Ben Marcus-Willers, branding director for Red Blossom Tea Company and one of a handful of people opposing the potential expansion of outdoor events. Other closures of Grant Avenue for events have disrupted the flow of customers to the shop, he said.
04/17/2024 by ♭♫
[+-][
californiahealthline.org]
For Jian Zhang, Chinese Hospital’s CEO, fundraising is like breathing. “I feel like it’s a full-time job for me,” says Zhang, who arrived in San Francisco from Guangzhou, China, as an international student in 1990, earned a doctorate in nursing, and has remained in the area ever since. 04/17/2024 by ♭♫
[+-][
technave.com]
Live Translate has been a part of Galaxy AI for a while now and it brings a lot of convenience to users. Just a few hours ago, Samsung Electronics announced that there will be new languages and dialects for the feature which are: Arabic, Indonesian, Russian, Australian English, Cantonese and Canadian French. 04/17/2024 by ♭♫
[+-]I believe that new immigrants from Hong Kong will be the next wave of small businesses owners in revitalizing Chinatowns. The kids of previous immigrants business owners just don't want to put in the sweat equity to sustain their parents' business.
[
theconcordian.com]
This century-old neighborhood is witnessing a revival, marked by rejuvenated social and cultural engagements. However, ongoing discussions persist on navigating this historic community’s future.
May Giang, co-owner of two bakeries and Presotea franchises in the community with her husband, views this rejuvenation as a positive development for Chinatown. She believes it enhances security and sparks increased interest in settling within the neighbourhood. Her initial connection to Chinatown’s local businesses was influenced by her husband’s family members, who had operated their own companies in the area in previous decades.Quote
♭♫
[
www.cbc.ca]
Residents and business owners in Chinatown and members of Montreal's Chinese community have long called for the neighbourhood to be designated a heritage site, in order to guard against overdevelopment and to protect its historic character.
A heritage designation would mean that the owners of these buildings would have to obtain authorization from the culture minister before doing any restoration work or before demolishing the buildings.
04/17/2024 by ♭♫
[+-][
abc7ny.com]
In an Eyewitness News exclusive interview, the other brother, Max Ong, says that not only was it self defense, but that it was that group of men who instigated the brawl.
"He said, 'you dirty Asian (racial slur)," Max Ong said. 04/16/2024 by ♭♫
[+-][
www.meetup.com]
Hi all! This is a Cantonese language exchange for all levels of speakers except absolute beginners (I will host a separate language exchange for them) who want to learn and practice. If you can speak a bit or can understand a bit, then you are welcome!
There will be activities, games, videos, and exercises to enhance the learning experience (and make it more fun!). This is a virtual meeting. Please feel free to join us!
One day before the event, I will send the meeting links to the ones who have RSVPed. See you then! 04/16/2024 by ♭♫
[+-]Another sign of displacement is when the local community can no longer hold on to a grocery store. A temporary solution for Washington DC residents is to permit Chinatown Park and Milian Park to be a venue for a Farmers Market selling Chinese vegetables and other food staples.
[
wamu.org]
Wah Luck House, a 153-unit apartment building that opened in 1982, is one of the last bastions of old Chinatown, back when it was a neighborhood of several thousand Chinese residents and Chinese-owned businesses lined the blocks. A majority of Chinatown’s remaining Chinese immigrant population lives at Wah Luck House. They’ve managed to stay in the rapidly gentrified neighborhood in part because tenants pay affordable rent through the federal housing choice voucher program (known as Section 8).
A decade ago, Chan says the last full service Chinese grocery store closed, leaving his community without affordable, familiar food. Founded in 2020, Wah Luck Adult Day Care Center started busing residents to a grocery store in the suburbs so they could purchase Chinese vegetables and other food staples. 04/16/2024 by ♭♫
[+-][
www.ualberta.ca]
Jaden, a youth leader and activist against anti-Asian racism, shares the story of his work with Chinatown Revitalization to inspire you all to participate in civic engagement.
My relationship with Chinatown began as a child. I am a born and raised Edmontonian with a Chinese background, and I grew up closely with the values and traditions of my heritage. To support this, I often went to Chinatown, which became a growing ground for me. From eating dim sum to watching the lion dances during Chinese New Year, I became very familiar with the area, and even as I grew older and visited it less often, it remained close to my heart. As such, I was always proud of my identity; I never viewed my racialized identity as a weakness.
However, a chilling double homicide of two Asian men in Chinatown on May 18, 2022, shook up my world....This case provoked the realization that if I sit complicit with the expectation that others will deal with these issues, others will likely follow suit, and in the end, no one will take a stand. I had the epiphany that I didn’t have to wait; I could do something about these issues. This became the catalyst that led me on my journey in activism. 04/14/2024 by ♭♫
[+-]Chinatown is not only about tea.
[
www.sfchronicle.com]
April 12, 2024
People converge at the night market in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Friday.
Within minutes of Chinatown’s second night market of the year opening Friday night, San Francisco resident Finesse Louie made a beeline to the famous “Dragon Papa” store.
She lined up for close to an hour with a baby strapped to her chest and toddler daughter circling her feet for a taste of the coveted dragon beard candy at the store that, she said, she thinks is the only place you can find the Chinese delicacy in the city.
“It’s really good,” she said — so good that not just Louie, but at least a couple of hundred people braved an interminable line to buy the $16 Chinese cotton candy.
The crowds at Chinatown’s two night markets — reintroduced this year after a successful run during the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit — have been so seismic as to surprise even the dragon beard candy merchant, Derek Tam, 40, himself.
Customers jostled around Tam’s tent to catch a glimpse of the master spinning rock-hard golden molasses into thousands of ivory sugar threads finer than silk. Hailing from five generations of dragon beard candymakers, Tam said the art is not just a business; it is his family tradition. He started making the treat when he was 9.
Tam’s stall is one of 30 at Chinatown’s new monthly night markets organized by the BeChinatown coalition. It would not have been possible without a $100,000 grant from the nonprofit Civic Joy Fund, Lily Lo, the coalition’s president and market organizer, said. The fund’s co-founder, Manny Yekutiel, approached her after the market’s successful APEC iteration, she said, to offer the grant.
The funds will allow the market to continue on the second Friday of every month, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., through November.
“I’m really happy I had the opportunity to help all the small businesses in Chinatown,” Lo said. She hopes to expand the market from its current three blocks on Grant Avenue to four. And in the long-term, she said she needs to find a permanent source of funding — with permitting fees, entertainment fees, and wages for staff to put up the tents and clean up the garbage, the costs add up.
“Business is very good,” Zoey told the Chronicle in Mandarin. “I told my mom today, ‘We must come.’ I thought today would definitely have a lot of people.”
People converge around the lion dance at the night market in San Francisco on Friday.
Chinatown merchants and community members hope the market will give the neighborhood, still reeling from the pandemic’s aftermath, another much-needed boost.
Zhang said the neighborhood needs the market and more activities like it to attract customers.Quote
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The Chinatown night market should embrace multi-culturalism so that there is something for everyone.
[
www.narcity.com]
There will be traditional music and dramatic art performances, costume shows, martial arts demonstrations, and tons of "multi-ethnic performances" from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Canada, the performances manager for the event told Narcity.Quote
♭♫
If you are going to go out night clubbing anyway, then first make a short stop at the Chinatown Night Market for an exotic food crawl where the
Real Fun begins!
[
www.timeout.com]
Think!Chinatown, a non-profit based in Manhattan’s Chinatown, is throwing its first installment of Chinatown Night Market (formerly known as Chinatown Nights), a monthly summer series of art and food at Forsyth Plaza at the Manhattan Bridge.
