My home is a place where many
think of it as a tourist destination but
no one knows the things that happen deep in San Francisco’s Chinatown. People
that visit only stay on the main street in Chinatown, they come to buy “Chinese
Trinkets” and mini Buddha’s or to get Chinese food. They don’t see the things
that happened or still happen today. So it is my job to inform you the secrets
of Chinatown.
It all started when Chinese
immigrated from China hearing about gold rush. My people were told that you
could find gold on the streets but this information came too late. The Chinese didn’t
arrive till five years after the Gold Rush. Only men came over with the hopes
of finding gold and bringing it back to their families in China, but many didn’t
return. Many Chinese men went up towards northern California with the idea from
a man saying there was gold up there. This man owned a gold tool mining company
where most of the Chinese spent what little money they had for tools to
goldmine. This man became so rich selling to these men with the ideas in their
head that they would find gold. So the
men looking of ways to make money started doing laundry, opening up restaurants.
But most men became Tongs (The Chinese Mafia).
The Tongs were gamblers, drug dealers
of opium, and prostitution. The Tongs kidnapped girls from China and sold them
the idea of the “American Dream” and put them into the prostitution ring. The
Chinese were forced to live in a few blocks of San Francisco and not allowed to
leave. They were like the Jewish Ghettos in Germany. But then the Great
Earthquake of 1906 began. Chinatown would have been fine but a fire started
spreading throughout San Francisco killing many in its path. After the
earthquake and fire, San Francisco(SF) wanted to move Chinatown but the Chinese
and SF city came to an agreement to make Chinatown like a theme park for tourist
and the city to build up revenue. So, on all the western buildings they plopped
down “Chinese” pieces like awnings and Chinese style lamps and colors; to lure in
people from all over the world to come and see San Francisco and its “Chinatown.”
One of the coolest things about
my home no one knows about. If you take a tour with a tour company they won’t
even take you by this place. It’s a park where a Chinese doctor changed China
forever. This man called Sun Yat-sen, was studying medicine in Hawaii and
received news of how the old emperor “The Dragon Lady” was dying and wanted her
successor to be a 5 year old boy used as a pawn. So Sun Yat-sen while in Chinatown went to this
park everyday and plotted his takeover of China. He stayed in San Francisco to
raise money for the democratic takeover. He went back to China and won the
civil war and told his men they no longer had to wear all black and keep their
long braids something they were teased for and criticized about. China was
democratic for some years and even after Sun Yat-sen died. His best friend Chiang Kai-shek took over but then the Mao
Communist party and took over and sent Kai-shek to Taiwan and told him he could
make that his democratic China. This animosity between the countries still last
and even exists in Chinatown. Up and down the streets you will see both flags
hanging and my people cannot unify. There is even a building called the Reunification
of China building which can’t bring my people together. They are trying to
attempt to do the same thing the Pope succeeded in reunifying Italy.
Maybe there is hope for my home
and its residents. If Sun Yat-sen can make a difference why can’t I? My people
are stuck in a small place they call home with as many as four families to one
room. There’s an alley of gambling halls where even the police walk by and say
nothing! My people put up cloth over the screen doors to keep prying eyes out. The
gamblers paint over a plaque so no one will realize that the plaque shows that’s
where Sun Yat-sen’s office was. They paint over so it won’t stop their
gambling. They even gamble at a park
next to children playing. The women play for pennies but mainly to gossip and
the men play for serious money. My home is struck with poverty, which the city
can do nothing about because Chinatown isn’t an historical landmark. You can’t
change something unless it wants to be changed. My people don’t want change. We
are stuck in poverty and it probably will never change.
But I want change, I want to fix
my home and help my people. But this task is hard to do, I can’t be like the
Christian leader Moses and free them from rule but maybe I can free them of
themselves.
Signed, An Optimistic Chinatown
Resident
Reflection: I honestly loved the San Francisco (Chinatown) walk.
The things I learned have changed my mindset and gave me insight on what a
walking tour would be like in Rome. I came away from this tour with my legs
tired but my mind still spinning from all the information I learned. I could
listen to Mr. Evans (our amazing tour guide) talk forever. I love history and
learning about all the places that tour guides skip over. The stories of how
the Chinese people struggled in America and resulted to a harsher way to live,
struck a chord with me. It made me look at how this stills goes on today in
many neighborhoods for example Oak Park where much of the drugs and crime still
goes on. But with the help of Sac High much of it has reduced maybe the same
thing can happen for Chinatown. You can only hope and try to make a change but
only change something or someone who wants change, it can never be forced or
else it won’t stick. Thank you Context, Mrs. Everett, my context competitors
and Ms. Mills for an amazing trip. This trip is one I will never forget.
P.S. I have been telling everyone I come in contact with about my
trip and even they are shocked on the hidden Chinatown. My family and I are
planning to take a trip so I can show them all the cool places I saw.
Signed
Myriah Catalano
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