Posted by titania2006 on December 8th, 2006 under Journal
Friday 21st July
When I arrived home from school I staggered up the stairs to my bedroom and dumped my rucksack onto the bed. I was pleased that the summer holidays had finally come and that I didn’t have any more exams to do. Then I changed out of my school uniform and into my favourite […]
Posted by Steve66 on October 20th, 2006 under Journal
I ride my bicycle along the east side of the lake several times a week. Until they get that promised wonderland of construction with bike lanes and narrower streets finished, I have to ride carefully along the sidewalk, bumping over tough turf and tree roots to go around people’s open car doors or mothers with […]
Posted by littleowl on June 18th, 2006 under Journal
Saturday, April 26, 2003
This morning Vic and I took part in the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica. We left bright and early, right on time (7:40) according to my plan and caught the 51 bus easily up the street from our house. Though wrangling the stroller between busses was mildly annoying, we also made our transfer […]
Posted by Alyss on June 5th, 2006 under Journal
The evening’s ocean-filled air breathes in to our small house, strumming the window shades open and closed. My husband and I sit on our couch in the dark, the cats stretch out by our feet.
Moments of peace are brief, as each day the world outside clamors louder than the day before it. […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 27th, 2006 under Journal
This is the site of Author William Wong’s family’s restaurant, the Great China, from 1943 to 1961. It is where he and his older sisters and parents spent countless hours six or seven days a week, becoming part of Oakland and America. This site has been a restaurant for generations following the Great China.
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Posted by WilliamWong on May 27th, 2006 under Journal
Even Chinatown is firmly on U.S. soil, some of the elders remain tied to root country politics, which means the Nationalist Party (Kuo Min Tang) on Taiwan v. the Communist Party on the Chinese mainland. Most U.S. Chinatowns have leaders favoring the Nationalists, but pragmatic Chinese Americans in all Chinatowns also recognize the reality that […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 27th, 2006 under Journal
This is one of the model ethnic community clinics in the U.S. It began more than thirty years ago, when the Chinese and other Asian immigrant and indigent population was growing. Once housed at the Asian Resource Center at 310 8th Street, Asian Health Services needed more space and found it at this former restaurant […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 27th, 2006 under Journal
The main playground of Oakland’s Chinatown, Lincoln Square has been the place where generations of Chinese American young people have gathered to play Western style sports like baseball, basketball, and football, and to socialize. The junkboat, a project of the Wa Sung Community Service Club, is a favorite recreational spot for adjacent Lincoln School students.
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Posted by WilliamWong on May 27th, 2006 under Journal
Since the mid-1950s, this building has been a beehive of activity, especially for Chinese language and culture classes for Chinese American youngsters. Joe Shoong, a rare Chinese American tycoon and philanthropist in his day (National Dollar Stores), financed a portion of the construction of this building, at the corner of 9th & Harrison Streets.
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Posted by Alyss on May 24th, 2006 under Journal
I’m back in the office early this morning, sipping coffee from a paper cup and peering briefly out the window to the street below. I have a few more quiet moments before the streets will begin to stir, the doors to open, the phones to ring.
It used to amaze me that the world […]
Posted by Alyss on May 23rd, 2006 under Journal
It is quiet beside the lake today. My usual bench is occupied when I come around to it, so I sit nearby on the sloping grass instead. A young couple sits at the bench, completely immersed in each other. I feel a pang of– not quite jealousy, but perhaps nostalgia. I […]
Posted by lee on May 20th, 2006 under Journal
It’s lunchtime and a bright, sunny day, lights up the high school patio in Oakland. 12:30 PM and the sudden ring of the bells has made way for unorganized chaos in the school’s halls. My ham, tomato, jalapeño and cheese sandwich slowly melts in my bag as I pack up. Unlike everyone else, I’m not […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 19th, 2006 under Journal
Although not fancy or architecturally distinguished, this building has historical value. Downstairs, now a restaurant, was the barber shop of Fong Get Moo, the legendary first woman barber who gave out candy after haircuts. Upstairs is the Oakland lodge of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, the first Chinese American civil rights organization established in the […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 19th, 2006 under Journal
This is one of four Christian churches that minister to the social and religious needs of Chinatown and other Oakland and East Bay Chinese residents. The others are the Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. There is also a Buddhist temple on the edges of Chinatown. The Christian churches have played a role in Chinatown life […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 18th, 2006 under Journal
This former storage company building at 8th & Harrison Streets houses a number of social service agencies that serve various needs and interests of low-income Chinese and other Asian immigrants. The East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. restored the building in the late 1970s and 1980s because of the growing need to serve the growing […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 18th, 2006 under Journal
The stories of 12 distinguished Oakland Chinese American pioneers are told in a display in the lobby of main building at 7th & Harrison Streets. They include an industrialist, an herbalist, a dentist, a minister, a newspaper founder, and the first woman barber.
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Posted by WilliamWong on May 17th, 2006 under Journal
Once called Harrison Railroad Park, the site of the Hall of Pioneers now has buildings designed by Chinatown political leader Henry Chang, a member of the Oakland City Council. The main building is used by Family Bridges, a Chinatown-based social service agency serving low-income seniors.
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Posted by WilliamWong on May 14th, 2006 under Journal
Today a glittery Hong Kong-style dim sum and seafood restaurant, this building has had a colorful history since the early 20th century. It once was a night club. Then it served as a low-income housing facility. Its use sparked an internal Chinatown fight between property owners and social-service agencies. Such struggles are endemic to a […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 14th, 2006 under Journal
The first supermarket-style store was started by Tin Wah Yu, a Western-style doctor from Hong Kong in the late 1960s. He couldn’t practice medicine in the U.S., so he started a grocery business to feed his growing family. He and his family came along at a crucial time in Oakland Chinatown’s history, when it was […]
Posted by WilliamWong on May 12th, 2006 under Journal
The epicenter of Oakland’s Chinatown dates back to the 1870s. Chinese first came to Oakland in significant numbers in the early 1850s, after the discovery of gold in the California foothills. They settled at different places in Oakland in the early days, but 8th and Webster emerged as the commercial center in the late 1800s […]
