Chinese food vendor attacked in Ferry Building as Asian anxieties mount.
Derek Tam was stretching malt syrup into feathery, traditional Chinese candy when a man grabbed his cell phone.
It was a busy Saturday in March, Tam’s final day at the Ferry Building’s Chinatown popup series inside the main hall, with crowds milling outside for the farmers’ market. After asking the man to return the cell phone, Tam tried to grab it back. The man punched Tam in the face and told him to go back to his country, according to Tam.
Neighboring vendors intervened and shooed the man away, leaving Tam to continue making Hong Kongstyle dragon’s beard candy for customers. He later reported the incident to the police; no suspect has been arrested.
The assault on Tam illustrates the difficult position Asian Americans in the Bay Area food industry find themselves in amid the recent rise in antiAsian rhetoric and violence: While others may be able to stay at home during the pandemic, food workers have no choice but to interact with the public.
Feeling exposed and vulnerable, some Asian American food workers and businesses are trying to gain some control over this troubling reality. In some cases, restaurants are hiring security guards to protect their mostly Asian American employees. Many are organizing bake sales and other fundraisers to bring more money to local nonprofits working against antiAsian hate. The latest effort to gain significant attention is a reward fund, aimed at catching perpetrators, started by the popular Bay Area restaurant group behind Burma Superstar.
Tam, whose Chinatown sweets shop Dragon Papa has been temporarily closed during the pandemic, said he’s seen constant reports of attacks against Asian Americans in San Francisco in Chineselanguage media. But he never expected something to happen in a touristfriendly space like the Ferry Building, particularly during the farmers’ market.
“I was really shocked in that moment,” he said. “It’s really hard for a businessman to avoid this situation because I need to do the business and face customers every day. I don’t know which customer is good and which one is bad.”
Jane Connors, general manager of the Ferry Building, said she is working with the Police Department on the investigation into Tam’s assault.
“We make every effort to ensure it is a safe and welcoming place for all our visitors, workers and vendors,” she said in a statement. “Our security responded quickly and appropriately to this incident, and they remain on alert.”
Across the city in the North of the Panhandle neighborhood, Tan Truong, owner of omakase destination JuNi, hired an unarmed security guard to watch over nightly service when it debuted its new alloutdoor sushi bar.
“Seeing the violence against Asian Americans, we could be targets, and that’s what we need to protect ourselves from,” he said. According to a review of media reports, there were at least 16 violent crimes against people of Asian descent in San Francisco between January and March.
Truong likened the guard to an insurance policy — something you hope you never need to use. While the cost is cutting into the restaurant’s profits, he doesn’t anticipate discharging the guard so long as JuNi is offering outdoor dining. It’s sad, Truong said, that it’s come to this, that he’s had to tell his parents not to leave their San Francisco home without him or one of his siblings.
“I’m not sure when it’s going to end or how it’s going to end and that’s the scary part of it,” he said.
Burma Superstar also hired a security guard to watch over one of its restaurants after a delivery driver threw a bottle
of hand sanitizer at an employee about a month ago. Nghia Tran, chief operating officer of Burma Superstar’s restaurant group, said he’s seen videos of people randomly smashing some of its restaurants’ windows recently as well. He said his father, who uses a wheelchair, was robbed in Alameda in February.
“That was the most infuriating thing,” Tran said. “He felt so helpless as an older handicapped man who can’t speak and can’t move.”
He doesn’t know if any of the incidents were fueled by antiAsian hate, but Tran said he still felt compelled to take a stand. He reached out to the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce — two organizations that had previously spoken out about the ongoing violence — to create the Crimes Against Asians Reward Fund. Its goal is to solicit tips that can help police investigate crimes against Asian Americans.
Essentially a fundraising platform, the reward fund has
drawn more than $15,000 from about 160 donors so far. The group works with police agencies around the Bay Area to create rewards for specific crimes — most recently, the fund has offered $2,500 for the tip that leads to the arrest of the person who robbed an Asian Americanowned car dealership in El Cerrito.
The new fund echoes an earlier effort headed by celebrities Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu, who offered $25,000 for tips leading to the arrest of the person who knocked a 91yearold man to the ground in February. At the time, some activists argued that focusing on policing won’t ultimately help communities feel safer. A suspect in that case has been arrested, but no one has claimed the $25,000 reward. Generally, it’s unclear how well rewards work in apprehending suspects.
Creating alliances with police organizations also has unsettled some in the Bay Area. After San Francisco announced that neighborhoods with large Asian Amer
ican populations would receive increased police presence and sanctioned community patrols and volunteer ones, the city’s Chinese Progressive Association warned against relying too much on police to try to make people feel more at ease.
“There are people who are not trusting of the police, people with mental health issues, people who do not speak English, recent immigrants who need culturally responsive services,” Lai Wa Wu, the policy and alliance director of the organization, said last month.
But Tran and many Asian American business leaders disagree, saying practical steps are necessary to protect themselves, their employees and their customers — particularly when there aren’t other immediate solutions.
“A crime is a crime regardless of who commits it,” Tran said. “People in the community need to feel safe walking around and know they’re not going to be randomly jump kicked.”
Back at the Ferry Building
and the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, word has been slowly getting around that there was an attack on a food vendor last month. Ugly Pickle Co. owner Kayla Abe, who sells at the farmers’ market, said she was shocked that someone would attack a vendor, particularly on such a highly trafficked day. Still, she said she feels safe working at the farmers’ market surrounded by supportive people.
“It’s just tragic that so many people profit off of or consume Asian American culture yet are able to separate the individuals behind that narrative from the actual culture we’ve created,” she said.
For his part, Tam doesn’t think he’ll ever return to the Ferry Building.
“San Francisco is facing a really hard time,” he said. “I’m not a single case, but I’m the lucky case because I didn’t get hurt.”