On February 23, we presented “Celebrating Chinese New Year and the Future of Chinatowns.” In the year since COVID-19 hit the shores of the United States, Americans across all 50 states were impacted by personal tragedy, financial hardship and economic challenge. One of the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 were the Chinatowns across the United States. From New York to San Francisco, Miami to Seattle, Chinatowns across the country were struggling form a lack of tourism, fear of the virus and outright racism directed toward Chinese Americans.

In February, we celebrated Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox, that symbolizes hard work, intelligence and reliability. During the discussion we celebrated the near year and learned what was next for our iconic Chinatowns to support their recovery.

Speakers:

Moderator: Nicholas Wu, Congressional Reporter at USA Today

Special Guest: Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-06)

Dr. William Gow, Lecturer of Asian American & American Studies at Stanford University

Grace Young, Cookbook Author and Culinary Historian

Chiling Tong, CEO & President of National ACE; Committee of 100 Member

Jennifer Tam & Victoria Lee, Co-Founders of Welcome to Chinatown

Betty Louie, Board Advisor of the Chinatown Merchants Association

For key takeaways on this event, please check out our C100 blog.

The discussion was held via Zoom webinar on February 23, 2021 at 8pm ET.