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Artist Tyrus Wong recollects his journey of becoming an artist from a student at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Pasadena to a production illustrator in the film industry.
We had the chance to sit with Pauline Wong, executive director of the Chinese American Museum, and speak about the institution's history, programming and outreach programs, as well as the future relevance of ethnic-centered cultural institutions.
Ms. Susan Dickson is a fifth grade teacher at Castelar Elementary School. Having taught for over two decades, she has seen the changing face of Chinatown through the eyes of her ten year olds.
Esther Lee Johnson recalls the working spirit of her mother, the accomplishments she experienced throughout childhood, and her first and most memorable experiences working in the movies.
Wendy Yao, owner of the small indie store Ooga Booga, gave us one of the best quotes of the series: "Whenever my sister and I go traveling with our parents, the first thing they want to do is go visit Chinatown."
Eugene Moi and William Estrada accounts the infamous Chinese massacre of 1871 and how racial tensions and violence persisted for decades.
Student producer Kevin On interviewed Thomas Liu, a Chinatown service center youth council member, talked about Chinatown Plaza's history and relevance in their lives.
William Chun-hoon, community leader, activist and former principal of Castelar, understood early on that in order to serve his constituency, he needed to create a place-based neighborhood ecology that could serve the community at large.
By 1870, an identifiable "Chinatown" of two hundred or so inhabitants was situated on Calle de Los Negros - Street of the Dark Hued Ones - a short alley fifty feet wide and one block long between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street.
Steve Wong captures the contemporary condition of Chinatown by providing the conceptual framework of which to view multiple iterations of Chinatown as both neighborhood and artifact.
Chinese Americans were displaced in the 1930's, "buried" so to speak under Union Staion, one of L.A.'s most iconic buildings and sometimes called the "last of the great railway stations."
William D. Estrada, chair Of the History Department for NHM, shares his knowledge about the history of Los Angeles and its relation to historic preservation.