2013.022.008 Oral History Interview with Pamela and Tom Lee

 

In this oral history husband and wife Tom and Pamela Lee share their experiences living and working in New York Chinatown. Tom and Pamela discuss their childhoods and how they came to live in New York. They both reflect on working at the butcher shop owned by his family. Tom also discusses the farm his father operated along with the tasks his mother completed at their family business. The couple also contemplates how Chinatown has changed over many decades and the cultural differences each generation of Chinese Americans experience.

0:00 - Introduction, background on Pamela, her childhood in Jamica and her family, learning about Chinese culture, leaving Jamica, coming to New York, meeting her husband.

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10:35 - Background on Tom, living on Mulberry Street in Chinatown, changes to the area he grew up in, going to PS 23, background on his family, the paper name in his family.

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19:32 - Relationships with other generations in Chinatown, the farm his father had, the tasks he had on the farm, the businesses his father owned, other restaurants in Chinatown.

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27:02 - Gentrification in Chinatown, the business the family owned in Chinatown, how Pamela and Tom met, finding an apartment, Pamela working as an artist.

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35:05 - How Chinatown was changing in the late 1970s, Chinatown becoming more politically active, bachelor society in Chinatown, Toms father and grandfather working in Chinatown.

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42:29 - Life in China for their family, the mother of Tom and her working at their store, the clients that the store served.

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51:33 - How the ethnicity of Chinatown has changed, Pamela working as an artist and in the store, shops as community gathering spaces, a shop in Chinatown that closed, the respect that varies among different generations of Chinese Americans.

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