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Chinatown Alleyway Tours
Chinatown Alleyway Tours (CATs) is a youth-run,
youth-led program created and run by high school interns and volunteers.
They organize tours on the history and community development issues of
the Chinatown community through our alleyways. There are a total of 41
alleyways in the Chinatown neighborhood. The tour highlights eight alleys
and also covers Portsmouth Square and the Chinese Playground in San Francisco.
The Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Project was created in 1991 to provide intensive leadership and public service research training for our youth leaders. The program has three components: 1) a year long curriculum on community development issues in San Francisco Chinatown, Asian American history and personal exploration with leadership training; 2) building youth investment in their community through service. The youth organize and lead large-scale neighborhood
projects such as bimonthly street sweepings, graffiti removal and translation
services to elderly tenants in low-income housing buildings, and Public
Service Research Projects led by youth participants on their community.
In the summer of 2000, two AAA youth members performed research into historical
records and books, conducted oral interviews with residents and alleyways
merchants and compiled important stories, struggles, and facts on the
alleyways in Chinatown. During the following school year, four other AAA
youth members performed further research and then designed a 60-90 minute
tour of Chinatown's alleyways. This first tour led to the development
and creation -- a Chinatown Alleyway Tour program. This tour compiles
historical records, books, oral interviews with residents and merchants
and important stories, struggles, and facts on Chinatown alleyways. Who is
involved? "Being born and raised as a Chinese American in the SF Bay Area continues to be a unique experience for me," said Diana Pang, Senior, Thurgood Marshall High School. "I've absorbed much of the mainstream culture, and yet I have never felt a stronger struggle than to maintain a sense of my ethnic identity than now. In short, I'm undergoing an identity crisis…We were given a chance to develop a curriculum to educate the public on SF Chinatown's historic alleyways! This has and continues to be a wonderful learning experience to find myself; I am a tour guide and I love my work!!" What
goes on as part of this program? AAA Youth Leaders take great responsibility in ensuring that Chinatown's 41 alleyways are kept clean, safe and attractive. They perform graffiti removal, monitor alleyways, and organize community clean-ups. In the 2000-2001 school year alone, AAA recruited over 950 volunteers to participate in their neighborhood beautification projects. In addition, they raise public awareness about environmental issues in Chinatown through writing and distributing their own Alleyway Monitor Newsletter three times a year. "I am so glad to be part of these program because it makes me aware the value of each building, people, and trees of Chinatown," said Debbie Chan, Senior, Thurgood Marshall High School. "The history program of the San Francisco district does not cover a lot of Asian American history so being in these program really gave me a lot of information." How
has the program changed the community - and the participating teens? For example, Kim said that the Public Speaking workshops were a great foundation for building confidence and basic public speaking skills, but finally speaking in front of 20 5th graders or adult community leaders and organizers, gave the teens an incomparable learning experience and opportunities to realize their potential through improvisation. The youth guides learned to work together on tours and help each other out with difficult audience members, questions or situations. They interacted with different members of the audience while walking and also helped the lead tour guide by watching out for highly energetic kids or trouble rousers. They became sensitive to the crowds and began telling humorous stories or interesting miscellaneous facts when the crowd was getting bored and tired. They learned to become more high energy to manage rowdy and hyper-active young kids. "Being a youth tour guide for CATs is very educational and fun," said Rosa Wong, Graduate, Galileo High School. "Not only am I learning more about my heritage, I also get to teach others about the history of Chinatown and how it relates to the struggles Chinese-Americans went through in the late 1800s and during the 1900s. It is also a great experience for me to be able to educate people about the history of Chinatown and the struggles that the Asian Americans went through." The youth guides also feel a new sense of responsibility and accountability to the community. They now feel that they are contributors, members and leaders for Chinatown. Through CATS, the youth found a crucial outlet and medium in which they could express themselves, discover self-worth and validation of their experiences and apprehend the value and wonder of their community. "This tour benefits all of the community," said Jennifer Wong, Senior, Thurgood Marshall High School. "There's history in every brick of Chinatown and people don't know that. We will keep giving tours until people see Chinatown as we do, a place of beauty and a place to be proud of." At one instance, the youth were finished with a tour and were walking back to the office when they overheard another commercial tour spreading false, exotic-ized information on Chinatown. They were indignant and felt it was necessary to let the tour guide and audience know that this information was untrue and unfair in how it was shaping people's perception of Chinatown. The tour program has also been incredibly successful in raising awareness on the rich history of Chinatown and San Francisco and the struggles and accomplishments of Asian Americans. The tour also raised awareness on the community development and planning issues of Chinatown, such as the prevalence of SRO (Single Room Occupancy) units in that community, neighborhood density, pedestrian safety, lack of open space for children and seniors, the importance of earthquake rehabilitation, and environmental and cleanliness concerns in Chinatown's alleys and streets. Contact information Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC) Contact Information: Jane Kim, Community Organizer--
Youth Empowerment www.chinatowncdc.org |
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The
youth, ages 14-18, live in different neighborhoods in San Francisco including
Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, Ingleside, and Outer Mission/Excelsior.
Many of them presently live or formerly lived in Chinatown and they continue
to "hang out" socially in this neighborhood--eating, spending
time with friends, and utilizing recreational and community centers. AAA
members number 40-55. Many have been active young leaders in this community
for 1-4 years. Members volunteer their time and leadership to the organization.
Most of the members are recruited by other youth members in their high
schools. CCDC also disseminates information on the organization to teachers
and other community center organizations.