Chinatown revives with summer party
First street fair since pandemic started seeks racial unity
For most of the past year and a half, San Francisco’s famously lively and colorful Chinatown has been an unusually quiet place. First, the coronavirus pandemic, then the wave of antiAsian hate crimes kept many of the district’s residents hunkered down inside their homes, sapping one of the city’s most vibrant communities of much of its life.
A bit of vibrancy returned Saturday afternoon with dancing lions, booming hiphop and Latin music and, most noticeably, smiling faces at Chinatown’s first public street fair since the pandemic started.
The Summer Block Party, held on Pacific Avenue in front of the neighborhood’s historic Ping Yuen public housing complex, drew more than 100 residents, elected officials including Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, and community leaders.
“First and foremost, this is a celebration,” Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, said after giving away a mountain bike in a free raffle. “We get to do an event again, get our community together, get the residents out here.”
The event also had a deeper mission — to help bring together communities of color, particularly the Asian and Black communities, to combat violent attacks, many of them against elders.
“Part of what we’ve doing is trying to build racial solidarity between the Chinese community and the Black community,” Breed said in an interview. “It’s a block party, but it’s really to bring people together and to make sure we get to
know each other, spend time with each other. We uplift the community, and we make it clear that we’re here to take care of our seniors. It doesn’t matter what race they are.”
With its ornate arch, its myriad gift shops and restaurants and its historic buildings, Chinatown is among the city’s top tourist attractions. But it’s also the center of Chinese culture in San Francisco as well as the nation’s oldest Chinese neighborhood.
The community was hit hard, early and often, during the pandemic. Even before the lockdown, xenophobia caused people to avoid Chinatown restaurants and businesses. Then came the stayhome orders and business closures and the series of attacks on Asian Americans, many of them seniors with some occurring in Chinatown.
The event was organized by the public housing complex, whose buildings in the heart of Chinatown are known as the Pings, along with the Chinatown Community Development Center, United Playaz, the city’s Street Violence Intervention Program, tenants groups and the Community Youth Center of San Francisco.
While the mayor, Peskin and other dignitaries gave speeches from a stage in the middle of the blockedoff street, the event also featured the traditional lion dance, contemporary music from a variety of musical genres and even some dancing in the streets.
Attendees, including Bonnie Lim, who grew up in the Pings, said it was a welcome positive event aimed at improving the community and the city.
“I’m really happy to see this,” said Bonnie Lim, who is now retired and living in the South Bay. “It’s a step in the right direction after more than a year of too many negative things.”