Mary Soo Hoo Park Groundbreaking

July 16, 2011 by Chinatown Blogger.

 

July 15, 2011 - Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority invited the community to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Mary Soo Hoo Park. The park is dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Soo Hoo, who was a community activist and owner of the Chinatown Cafe on Harrison Avenue. Funding for the renovations was provided by the City, State, and community partners. The Chinatown Trust Fund contributed funds for half of the project’s costs. Additional funding was also provided by the Lower Washington Street Task Force and the Museum of Fine Arts. The MFA will redesign the vent building on the park.

For more information on the Mary Soo Hoo Park improvements.

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A Concise History of Boston Chinatown

July 5, 2011 by Chinatown Blogger.

July 4, 2011

This blog is a concise summary of the transformative events that shaped Chinatown today and is divided into three sections: the early period from the Revolutionary War to 1900, the middle period from 1900-1965, and the period from post-World War II to the present. Chinatown was formerly known as the South Cove, an area occupied by tidal flats and water. The tidal flats were filled in the early 1800s to support Boston’s growing population. Harrison Avenue, then known as Front Street, was built out in water parallel to Washington Street in 1805. Between 1833-1839, the South Cove Corporation “acquired over three million square feet of tidal flat at 12 cents per square foot, and filled in the remainder of the area, past Albany Street into the present railroad yards.” (Lynch, 1965)

The development of the railway system and low land values in the early 1800s attracted industries and successive waves of immigrants to the area including the Irish, Jews, Italians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Chinese. (Kim & Perkins W, 2003) The first large group of Chinese that came initially settled in the blocks around Beach and Tyler Streets in the 1870s. By the 1920s, the Chinese community had firmly established itself and began to expand south of Kneeland Street onto areas inhabited by Syrians and Lebanese.

Key events between the years in the 1950s and 1960s significantly altered the history of Chinatown. Interstate 93 and Interstate 90 were proposed and constructed. The construction of the highways ripped apart the community and effectively displaced the remaining Syrian and Lebanese community along Hudson Street. Despite protests and petitions by the Chinese community, the Surface Road Artery was built and took away half of the Chinese Merchants Building. This incident highlighted the lack of political clout by the Chinatown community.

A pivotal event was the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act in 1965. This act paved the way for new immigrants to come to the U.S. and Chinatown experienced rapid population growth. (Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1990) This was a dramatic shift from the Chinese Exclusion Laws of 1882, which had limited the immigration and population of Chinese throughout the U.S. During the same time as Chinatown’s population was growing, the City adopted policies for the redevelopment of the South Cove area and supported institutional expansion by Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center, then known as New England Medical Center. The expansion of the institutions and the growth of the community was a source of conflict throughout the 1960s to 2000. (Tufts University, 1993)

Today, Boston’s Chinatown spans approximately 137 acres and is home to approximately 9,000 residents. (Nielsen Census Updates, 2008) The neighborhood borders the Leather District, South End, and Bay Village. The City’s zoning boundaries for Chinatown defines the northern border as Essex Street, Surface Road Artery to the east, Herald Street to the south, and parts of Tremont Street to the west.

From the Revolutionary War 1776 to 1900

Chinatown was formerly known as the South Cove, an area that was comprised of tidal flats and water that was part of the South Bay. Shortly before the Revolutionary War, the corner of Washington Street and Essex Street was the site of the Liberty Tree. The Liberty Tree was an “elm tree which served as a rallying point for Boston’s Sons of Liberty to protest British colonial taxation.” (Boston Landmarks Commission and Bostonian Society) The Boston Dispensary, now known Tufts Medical Center, was established in 1796 to provide health care services. Washington Street at the time connected what was then the Shawmut Peninsula between Downtown Boston and the South End.

The South Cove Corporation, formed in 1833, initiated a mixed-use development that incorporated an “innovative intermodal waterside terminus of the Boston Worcester (later the Boston and Albany) Railroad.” (Goody Clancy, 2004) The mixed-use development included residential housing, commercial space, and hotel. The presence of the railyards attracted manufacturing to the area including the leather and garment industries and immigrant groups such as the Irish, Jews, Italians, Syrians, and Lebanese. The Chinese arrived and settled in the South Cove in the 1870s. Planners for Tufts University in 1993 described what the South Cove was like when the first Chinese arrived.

“When the first Chinese came to Boston in 1870, they came to the South Cove, an area that had already been home to other immigrant groups. The manmade land, which by then had attracted the railroad and leather and garment industries, provided modest housing for people who came to America from Ireland, Syria, eastern Europe. As early as 1875, the Chinese community in Boston began to be organized with the establishment of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Society, an umbrella organization for a variety of family associations and social agencies. The number of Chinese was small, however, and the community had not yet found its voice. The Chinese in Boston at this time were predominantly male, due to immigration laws, and the tenement housing of the area suited their needs. In 1914, the YMCA established its Chinatown branch to serve this population.”  (Tufts University, 1993)

 In 1882, U.S. Congress passed the Act of 1882, now known as the Chinese Exclusion Laws. The act suspended immigration of Chinese to the U.S. and required that Chinese carry identification at all times. (Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1990) The early Chinese that came were predominantly male, and as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, many Chinatown communities including Boston became bachelor societies. In the years preceding the Chinese Exclusion Laws from 1871-1880, Chinese immigration to the U.S. totaled 123,201 with an annual average of 12,320 immigrants. From 1881-1890, the annual average dropped by half to 6,171 and from 1891-1900 the average was 1,479. (Sullivan, 1970) By 1890, Boston’s Chinatown was home to approximately 200 Chinese with another 1,100 Chinese in the Boston area.

1900 to 1965

Despite discriminatory laws and isolation, the Chinese community persevered and established businesses and residences. The Chinese worked in the few occupations and industries that were opened to them in the laundries, groceries, restaurants, and trading companies. Described as the “ultimate foreigners” in America, the Chinese were excluded from most social institutions by prejudice and by their own culture. (Sullivan, 1970) In 1903, Boston police arrested over 300 people in Chinatown for not carrying proper documents. This incident jeopardized the existence of the small Chinese community as half of the 300 arrested were deported or fled the area. However, by the 1920s, Chinatown was firmly established with businesses on Oxford Place, Harrison Avenue, and Tyler Street. The community began to expand south of Kneeland Street alongside the Syrian and Lebanese communities.

Growth of the Chinatown community coincided with the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Laws in 1941 and the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. This was a pivotal event for the continuity of Chinatown as restrictive immigration policies from 1882 to 1941 resulted in an aging bachelor society in Chinatown. The War Brides Act, the GI Fiancees Act, and the Immigration Act of 1946 allowed World War II Chinese servicemen to petition their wives to immigrate to the U.S. In 1965, the Immigration and and Naturalization Act equalized immigration quotas among nations.

Concurrent with the growth of the community, the State and City adopted policies to redevelop the South Cove area. In 1955, New England Medical Center commissioned planner Kevin Lynch, author of Image of the City, to study the South Cove area. Lynch described the South Cove as, “…clearly decadent and substandard; an area of physical dilapidation and progressive abandonment, of mix shifting use, of declining values, declining population, low incomes, low rents, and poor health. It is socially better organized than might be expected, due largely to the strength of the Chinese and Syrian family and community. No new growth has occurred for half a century.”  (Lynch, 1955)

The planners for the 1993 Tufts University Institutional Master Plan supported Lynch’s view.

“During the Depression, nearly one third of the housing in Chinatown was destroyed by tenement owners in order to avoid paying taxes on it. The Immigration Act of 1946 allowed the first major influx of Chinese to the United States and the population of Chinatown began to grow and to include more women and families… What did the Chinatown/South Cove area look like then? The population was still in transition. The leather district which had grown with proximity to the railyards, and other manufacturing interests that had sprung up in the area were a major factor. The residential stock was showing the wear of generations of immigrants. Housing had not been replenished and, in fact, had been diminished by several periods of financial contraction.”  (Tufts University, 1993)

In addition to institutional expansion, the construction of the Central Artery I-93 and the Mass Turnpike Extension I-90 took away land and housing. The Chinatown community at this time lacked the political clout and voice to determine its own fate as demonstrated by the partial demolition of the Chinese Merchants Association building at 20 Hudson Street. Constructed in 1951, the building is a visible landmark from the highway with the green pagoda and the “Welcome to Chinatown” sign in red letters. Shortly after its grand opening and much celebrated by the Chinese community, plans for the Central Artery called for the demolition of the building and Hudson street. The Chinese community protested and signed petitions. The building was allowed to stay but half of the building was demolished to make way for the Surface Artery Road, an on-ramp for I-93.  (To, 2008) The construction of the Mass Turnpike Extension/I-90 in 1963 displaced residents on the east side of Hudson Street. By 1970, half of the Chinatown community’s land had been cleared away for institutional, highway, or urban renewal uses and the City’s Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) estimated that 1,200 residents had been displaced. (Sullivan, 1970) As the displacement occurred over a period of time, the estimates varied on how much of the Chinatown population was displaced. If using Census 1950 figures for the South Cove tract, which estimated 2,715 people living in the area, this would equate to about forty-four percent of the Chinatown population being displaced.The City’s BRA initiated the South Cove Urban Renewal Plan in 1965, the objectives being to “to eliminate severe conditions of blight, deterioration, obsolescence, traffic congestion, and incompatible land uses in order thereby to facilitate sound development and orderly growth, and to achieve neighborhood stability.” Specifically, they were: 

         South Cove Urban Renewal Plan 1965 Objectives

1.    To promote and expedite public and private development.

2.    To cause the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the South Cove as a stable neighborhood compatible in function and design with the neighboring Central Business District, the Back Bay, and the South End area.

3.    To preserve and strengthen the residential character of the area in such a way as to promote and insure its future.

4.    To facilitate efficient use of land in the area for housing, commercial and institutional use.

5.    To strengthen and expand the real property tax base of the city.

(Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1965)

Led and written by the City chief planner, who grew up and was a former Chinatown resident, the South Cove Urban Renewal Plan was significant in shaping Chinatown. As a result of the plan, a thousand affordable housing units were built at Castle Square, Mass Pike Towers, and Tai Tung Village. The creation of the affordable housing, and along with the development of the Josiah Quincy School Complex in 1972, helped to stabilize Chinatown and the working-class residential community. These new developments also slowed the pace of institutional expansion in the Chinatown’s residential area along Oak Street. (Liang, 2011)

1965 to Present

The growth of the Chinatown population, expansion of the institutions, and limited land contributed to ongoing conflicts between the City, community, and institutions. These conflicts were exacerbated when Scollay Square was redeveloped and the adult entertainment district was moved to lower Washington Street in 1974. The adult entertainment district became known as the Combat Zone. (Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1990) The Combat Zone was infamous for its x-rated movie theaters, peep shows, and strip clubs and brought negative elements and attention to the community.

In the 1960s and 1970s, new social service agencies emerged to provide services to the Chinatown community. Some of these organizations, the Asian American Civic Association, South Cove Community Health Center, Chinese Youth Essential Services, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (formerly Quincy School Community Council), Chinese Progressive Association, and Asian American Resource Workshop were all formed between the years 1967 to 1979. The new social service agencies challenged the traditional powers in the City and the institutions. The “Parcel C struggle” spanning from 1987 to 1998 was a conflict between the community and Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University on how the land on Parcel C would be used. The community, led by the social service agencies Quincy School Community Council, Chinese Progressive Association, and others, envisioned a community center to be developed on Parcel C while the institutions proposed to develop a parking garage. (Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1990)

As Chinatown’s population increased and new immigrants began arriving from Southeast Asia in the 1970s, the area’s manufacturing and garment industries were in decline. The decline of the garment industry was identified in the 1970 Chinese in Boston report, “A major source of jobs for Chinese women, the garment industry, is in a long-term decline, and the growth prospect of other industries able to use non-English speaking labor is limited.” (Sullivan, 1970) 

In 1987, during Mayor Raymond Flynn’s administration and under the leadership of BRA Director Stephen Coyle, the City initiated the Chinatown Community Plan 1990. The 1990 master plan allowed the Chinatown community for the first time, through the Chinatown Neighborhood Council, to provide input and to determine its own future. The Chinatown Community Plan 1990 recognized the Chinatown residential community’s right to exist and recommended that Chinatown zoned as both a commercial and residential district. The plan, with backing by the City, required the institutions to develop an institutional master plan that supports the goals of the Chinatown plan. As a result, Tufts University developed the Tufts Health Sciences Institutional Master Plan in 1993.  (Tufts University, 1993)

In the late 1990s, conflicts between the City and the community arose. In the nascent real estate boom, the City envisioned the redevelopment of lower Washington Street and the Ladder District. New developments and high-rise condominiums were proposed such as the Millennium, Archstone, Kensington, One Lincoln Place, and Metropolitan. The Chinese Progressive Association and other groups in Chinatown led a campaign against gentrification. The majority of the new developments were built but the community also gained concessions for affordable housing, community space, and linkage funds for jobs. The land formerly known as Parcel C was developed by a partnership between a community development corporation and a private developer. Now known as the Metropolitan, a 23-story mixed-use development, the development has forty-six percent of the housing as low-income and affordable and is home to four social service agencies: Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Asian Youth Essential Services, Chinese Progressive Association, and the Asian Community Development Corporation.

In 2008, the community organized itself to develop a new master plan and a vision for the future. As the Chinese and Asian American population grows, Chinatown serves as the social and cultural center for a network of Asian American communities in the region. This is affirmed by the presence of more than sixty social service agencies and family associations operate and serve the community. The Combat Zone has largely disappeared and in its place has been replaced by new developments.

Boston’s Chinatown has persevered and thrived through its peaks and valleys. From the days of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, highway and institutional expansion, declines in industries, and redevelopment, Chinatown has become a unique and historic part of Boston.

 

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Chinatown Feb 2011 updates

February 10, 2011 by Chinatown Blogger.

Happy Lunar New Year. It’s been a while since this blog was updated but here is a quick run-down of what’s been happening in Chinatown. Some of these topics may be expanded with more detail in future posts.

Chinatown Development:

- Residences at Kensington Place: The project that has been on hold since 2003 is back online. In November and December 2010, the Kensington Investment Company has been going around the community to present changes to the project. Some significant changes include: all rental units now, slight changes in height, a $7mil linkage fund to Hong Lok House to complete their 75-unit affordable housing project (this is in lieu of the on-site affordable units), funds for renovation of the Chinatown Trade Center plaza, and funds to Boston Common and Paramount Theater.

- Hayward Place: After what seemed like an eternity, Millennium Partners is moving forward to develop a 15-story project on the site. Some may recall there is $13mil linkage funds to renovate the Josiah Quincy Upper School.
Josiah Quincy Upper School: Word is that JQUS is in line to receive capital funding from the State’s Department of Education. The City was seeking people to form a 9-member advisory committee with three people from each of these neighborhoods: Chinatown, Bay Village, South End. A similar instance happened in 1968 when the Department of Education coordinated with Chinatown, South End, and Bay Village to develop the Quincy School Complex Plan.

- Parcel 24: Asian Community Development Corporation and New Boston Fund changed architects and made revisions to the project. They have been presenting at community meetings and is filing a Notice of Project Change.
275 Albany Street/Normandy Hotel: Latest word is that the developers are reconsidering a single hotel instead of two hotels on the site (an extended stay and a luxury hotel.)

Chinatown Politics:

- Former Josiah Quincy School principal Suzanne Lee will be running for City Council in the District 2 race this year. District 2 includes Chinatown, South Boston, and South End. Lee will be running against incumbent City Councilor Bill Linehan.

- State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and State Representative Aaron Michlewitz: So far, these two young and energetic officials are off to a good start. Through their hard work, the State Senator and State Representative helped to pass the bilingual ballots bill in Beacon Hill. This bill was heavily supported by Chinatown. Both replaced former incumbents that were charged with corruption.

Other Happenings:

- Chinatown Park: The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has developed a park improvement plan to install furniture and plantings. The furniture will include tables, chairs, and umbrellas. Due to state budget cuts, the Conservancy seeking help from local community members to raise the funds needed to install the furniture by the summer. If successful, a ribbon-cutting ceremony may be in order with major donors (hint, hint) recognized somewhere on the park.

- Mary Soo Hoo Park: Planning still on-going for the Mary Soo Hoo Park. Initially, the project manager had given a time line of July for the construction. One of the family associations did not want to lease the adjacent parking lot to the City to enlarge the park.

- Harrison-Albany Corridor Planning Study: The BRA with the advisory committee proposed increasing zoning for land adjacent to the highways and smaller zoning changes in the study area. The HAC  study area runs from Herald Street in the north to Mass Avenue to the south.

- Chinatown Library: Friends of the Chinatown Library are organizing themselves as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Until the incorporation papers are filed, an interim Board will guide the process. The law firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge will be assisting the Friends with the incorporation. Getting a 501(c)3 designation will allow the Friends to raise funds for the library. This is happening while the City is seeking to close libraries and the Friends may need to re-evaluate the model for a future Chinatown library.

There are quite a few other things that are happening in Chinatown (such as Chinatown agencies seeking to expand in Quincy) but that will have to come in later posts. Happy New Year and stay warm!

Chinatown Blogger

(Edited: Feb 10, 2011 8:25pm)

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They call it Baby luck.

November 6, 2010 by Adam.

Babies are good luck. Well at least my son was today.
For instance I wrote about a verbally hostile encounter with a man on the street in an earlier post. Guess what? I bumped into him again today, and this time I was wearing my son in the baby Bjorn. You know what happened? He apologized. And I apologized too because I’m sure that I could have made the issue go away faster. Obviously because now that I was wearing a child, there was no issue. My son brought peace to the street better than I could.

It seems like whenever I am with my son, nothing bad happens to me.
So I thought that I was protecting my son, but my one year old is in fact protecting me. I’ve been watching PBS and I am hearing over an over again how the Puritans might have been annihilated but the local Native Americans saw that they brought women and children with them and so took them to be not a threat. Also many tribes might have killed Lewis and Clark except that they had Sacagawea and her infant with them as well. In other words, the presence of children will sometimes increase likelihood of survival or peace rather than create more of a risk. (Of course this is not always true)

But for me it usually has been. People make way for me and even old ladies will get up and ask if I want to sit down. I usually decline these offers as a man holding or wheeling a baby is not at all the same thing as a woman who is pregnant. But people seem to equate that and think that they should be extra courteous to me even though I am young and somewhat athletic and my kid is already sitting either in a pouch or a stroller so he doesn’t need a seat.
People won’t think I look mean because they don’t even see me. They are looking at my kid.
Was I good luck to my dad as a kid?
I will tell you that in fact, I know that I was not.
Here’s how I know.
My dad passed when I was four. (Some astrologists might even say this is an example of my star overcoming his or something like that, thus really bad luck for my dad.) Anyway I have few memories of him. But those that I have are strong.
So when day, before the age of four, my dad took me into a gambling house in Chinatown (probably the one which he was partially responsible for watching. I think he took me many times but I only remember this time. They were playing a game where they throw dice into a bowl. I don’t gamble so I don’t know what the game was, by as a child I kept trying to grab the dice. Finally my dad picked up the dice and put them in my hand and I threw them out into the bowl. I was told later that these hands are called “virgin” hands and are therefore supposed to be extra lucky.
Guess what? My Virgin hands threw snake eyes. At the time I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t even know this was gambling. I just knew things were rolling around and I had to grab them. I don’t know how old I was.
I will tell you what else. My father was a Chinese Chef. No offense to my dad but he was very fresh off the boat looking. And I, his son (Yes I see the family resemblance so you can’t scare me) had blond hair and pale white skin.
I heard later that people in Chinatown would give him crap about it. And I have one memory of a drunk American of non Chinese descent giving him crap and telling me to come over to him. He was speaking English which I understood and my father did not. However, the situation was something that my father understood and calmly sat there ignoring him, but I did not, and almost ran over to the drunk not being able to discern stranger from from friend.
I have had one incident though where someone called the cops because they thought I was kidnapping my son. (He wasn’t in a Bjorn or a stroller and I look very white but my son looks very Asian. But I see family resemblance again I have no doubts.)
But my son knew immediately to keep his mouth shut once the police came. He is smarter than me already in this respect. But that was cleared up quite easily.
To most people, having a kid might mean having to get an extra job, setting aside dreams, doing without, moving down the economic ladder. But I tell you my son has caused me to be able to have more time to rediscover my childhood and my dreams that I had set aside, given me an excuse from other responsibilities that were going nowhere and moved me up the economic ladder, to the point where my address was a signal to the police that they were to let me go. I don’t have to do without for him, because he is richer than me at the moment through no merit of mine.
I am still looking for a job, but not for my child’s sake, just to pay off college loans, because my kid is basically set thanks to Gong Gong.

Sometimes I feel like it is tiresome to get all the gear ready to go out, and I did lose a hat, a spoon, and a sippy cup today, and I nearly lose my mind everyday.
But I think over all, my son is a good luck charm counteracting a lot of my bad luck.

(This was first published on

1000monkeycave.blogspot.com)

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10/10/10

October 10, 2010 by Adam.

Today is Double Ten, the celebration of the 1911 rebellion led by Sun Yat-Sen which overthrew the Manchurian Empire and established the Republic of China, based on Democratic principles,  allied with and heavily influenced by the United States of America. Of course the history is quite complex but this is the basic meta-narrative I learned while attending Kwong Kow Chinese School in the 1990’s. Back then the celebration began with a very large parade from Chinatown to Boston City Hall in which even the major streets were closed off.

The Kuomintang  fought a civil war with the Communists while simultaneously fighting with the occupying Japanese forces during World War II. The war with the Japanese weakened the Kuomintang enough that the Communists were able to win the war and the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan where Double Ten is still celebrated as the national holiday.

Chinese Americans from say Guangdong, are often Kuomintang supporters or perhaps some really old men used to be Kuomintang soldiers. They come to celebrate Sun Yat-Sen and the idea of Chinese Democracy. In fact when I went to Taiwan as part of the Kwong Kow Dulcimer band, we were shown a video in which Taiwan (R.O.C.) should its territory as including the mainland. Of course we knew that the mainland was under control of the Communists and was the People’s Republic of China. (P.R.O.C) Even at that time, when it was pretty obvious that the Republic of China would not be able to launch an attack (perhaps supported by U.S. troops) to retake the mainland, and that such an action would be impossible, it was nevertheless still part of the rhetoric.

A few years later (after 1997), the rhetoric in the American media became whether China would “re-take” Taiwan.

The thing is, most overseas Chinese who are from mainland China, consider Taiwan as part of China.

My in-laws many past roommates, and many Taiwanese do not agree with this.My Father in-law told me he once met a young Chinese man in an elevator who asked him where he was from.

He replied, “Taiwan.” A lot of shouting ensued and my 60 something year old father in law yelled “I’m not F-ing Chinese” When listening to this story I was very quiet. As far as I am concerned I am American of half Chinese Ethnicity. Though I think my grandfather was a Kuomintang Official in Guangzhou, so what? This is not even my argument, let alone my battle or whatever.

Anyway, past years, when Chen Shui-bian was in power (he is now locked up for corruption) there was some yelling at City Hall among old men. “Raise up the Kuomintang flag all the way!” “Beat down the Toi Yue!” This were responses to speeches by DPP representatives who believed that Taiwan is in fact separate from China.

Now I will never argue with my past roommates or my in Laws over this, and if one day my son decides to be a Taiwanese separatist in College or something, I will support him, but Chen Shui-bian’s argument for Taiwan not being part of China, is based on a treaty that essentially says that Taiwan is a territory of the United States of America.

The current President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-Jeou (who went to Harvard Law and has some other ties to Massachusetts) is part of the Kuomintang party. He says his focus is not to separate, rejoin, but to work together with the mainland to make money. That seems like a more reasonable approach from my American perspective.

The celebration today was much smaller than the old days when Taiwan would pay around $10,000 (or so I have heard) for this parade in Boston. Chen Shui-bian got rid of the payment to overseas offices to put on these celebrations. Nevertheless, the celebration was quite nice. Several lion dance troupes were there, Gung Ho, Wah Lum, Wongs Association, Shaolin Hung Gar, and us, Woo Ching White Crane. I didn’t catch the names of the dance troupes but  they did a fantastic job dancing the aboriginal dances of Taiwan.

It was a nice day and a laid back and friendly environment.

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