HISTORY OF THE CHINATOWN MURAL - PART 2

Updated 7-24-08: Made minor edits.

The first post on the Chinatown Unity Mural explained the dynamic forces that led to the creation of the mural. The dynamic forces can be summarized as:

- The Chinatown community’s resistance to continued institutional expansion and the desire to preserve Parcel C site for future community use.

- New England Medical Center and Tufts University’s desire to build a garage to serve their needs.

- The City of Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s shifting stances on how to develop the Parcel C site. In 1988, the BRA sided with the community but changed their position in 1993 on a revised New England Medical Center proposal.

After the mural was demolished to pave the way for the 23-story Metropolitan, a replica was created and stored on the ground floor of the Metropolitan in 38 Ash Street. The images in the mural were meant to tell a story about the history of the community. This blog re-tells the same story the Chinatown Blogger once heard. (Note: One of the 2 artists for the project, David Fichter, has a personal website with photos of the Unity Mural.)

1. Chinatown Unity Mural (replica) -  The mural included images that were meant to represent the journey of the Chinese American experience.  The theme is woven together into a cloth by the seamstress in middle with the sewing machine. The seamstress is weaving the history of the Chinatown community.

2. Laundry men and Telephone Workers - The top portion of the mural tells the history of the Chinatown community. The first large group of Chinese workers came to Boston from North Adams, MA and supposedly lived in tents on Ping On Alley (ping on = peace). Ping On Alley still exists to this day. These early pioneers, all men, later worked on building telephone poles (upper right hand corner), as laundrymen, and restaurants. The elevated train tracks can be seen in picture. The elevated tracks at one time ran along Beach Street until they were tore down.

3. Urban Renewal - Changes in U.S. policies regarding redevelopment of urban centers had a profound impact on Chinatown. Chinatown was considered “urban blight” and major sections of the community were tore down to make way for institutional expansion of New England Medical Center and Tufts University. The construction of I-93 and I-90 also took away significant portions of the community. Chinatown lost between one-third to half of its land during this period. The mural symbolizes this loss with images of the crane with wrecking ball and the highway in the background

4. The Seamstresses - There was debate on what the central theme or image in the mural should be.The image of the seamstress was selected because women were were critical to the survival and continuation of the community. After passage by Congress of the Chinese Exlcusion Act in 1882 and subsequent laws,  limits were placed on the migration of Chinese to the U.S. In particular, women were denied entry to prevent the continuation of Chinese communities in the U.S. The male bachelor Chinatown population was slowly aging and dying. The War Brides Act in 1945 allowed Chinese American servicemen to marry Chinese women from overseas and start families here in Boston. Later bills relaxed the strict immigration quotas and the community was able to persevere. At one time, the garment industry was thriving and many factories employed Chinese women  as seamstresses. In the image, the seamstresses weaving the cloth are the central figures in the muralin terms of size and location.

5. Newcomers to Chinatown - In the right hand corner is a small image of a boat navigating through the storm. Somtimes referred as the “boat people”, the the boat people were refugees from Southeast Asia. Some of the refugees were Vietnamese who were of ethnic Chinese ancestry, but also included Cambodians and Laotians. Many shops and businesses in Chinatown (and Dorchester) today are owned by Vietnamese entrepreneurs.

6. Civil Rights Movement - Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, a younger generation of Chinese Americans advocated for equal rights for Chinatown and Chinese Americans. These young activists went on to form organizations to provide basic services that the community needed, worked to save Chinatown from urban renewal and institutional expansion, and adovcated for justice. The mural image of the sign that says: “JUSTICE FOR ASIANS” was based on an actual event. In 1986, an elderly Chinese man, Mr. Huang who did not speak English, was beaten by an undercover officer and suffered injuries. The police filed assault and battery charges on Mr. Huang.  The community united to protest this incident because they felt this was an extreme example of injustice and discrimination towards Chinese Americans.

7. Blue Van - The blue van is a Chinatown phenomena. As Chinese businesses and restaurants expanded outside to suburban communities, vans came into Chinatown to pick-up workers and transport them to the restaurants.  These vans were an important means of transportation for the workers. The image also shows students learning in school and the diversity of the community. Chinatown had come a long way when the first settlers lived in tents!

8. Community Gardening and Doctor - Many Chinese had strong ties to the earth and many residents planted gardens if they could find the space. Chinatown as a neighborhood has very little open space and parks (Note: Boston Common is not part of Chinatown). On the right hand side is a doctor. The creation of the South Cove Community Health Center in 1972 was an important step to improving the health of the community.

9. Children Playing Volleyball - The last image here are children playing but also represents the future. Hopefully, they will one day lead Chinatown and continue the story of the seamstress cloth.

This entry was posted on July 23, 2008 at 2:15 pm and is filed under WORD ON THE STREET. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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