0:00 - Interviewer explains impetus for interview, Paul was born in California in 1925, came to New York with parents at age 8 or 9, parents were born in San Francisco, grandparents came from Canton area, grandfather was merchant who came at turn of the century, San Francisco had no streets when grandmother came, Chinatown and all activities were on the waterfront, father had business in Chinatown, settled on Mott Street across from Transfiguration Church, remembers seeing Italians go to church service
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5:12 - Where Chinese Americans went to church, True Light mission, Paul went to Baptist church on Pell Street with mother, also went to service at 57th Street Cavalry Baptist Church, went when mother was alive but stopped attending after, back to discussing San Francisco, lived in Oakland in Chinese neighborhood, people would cross bay to work in San Francisco Chinatown, parent's occupation, lived with extended relatives in same house, memories of Oakland, most friends were Chinese or Japanese
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9:49 - Parents were born in US, what he remembers of Chinese customs at home, grandmother and parents spoke Chinese, spoke English outside home, mother cooked mostly Chinese dishes as well as American foods, learned the old Chinese customs from grandparents, how his family celebrated Chinese New Year, attended school in Oakland with mostly Chinese and Japanese students, Japanese taken away during WWII, had already moved away but wondered about what happened to Japanese friends
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13:32 - Comparing house in Oakland with tenement apartment in New York, moved during the Great Depression, differences between New York and west coast Chinatown, NY Chinatown smaller and people less Americanized than on west coast, how he defines Americanized, not only the outward of looking American but the inner of how you think what you like and how you feel, need and desire to stick to Chinatown prevalent mainly among new immigrants and wanes after a while
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18:28 - Why Paul stayed in Chinatown, is a professional dentist and lives there, lived away when in army during WWII and at Sienna College, parents were here, what Mott Street was like growing up, street was not such a busy thoroughfare, kids could play stick ball out in street, Chinese stuck to area below Canal Street in 1930s, old diamond district, businesses on Mott Street, not all businesses run by Chinese, got vegetables from pushcarts, got meat from Italian butchers, no Chinese meat markets
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27:22 - There were lots of restaurants, also hand laundries but not in Chinatown, laundrymen came to Chinatown on day off on Sundays, a bachelor society due to Exclusion, mother found it strange to go out because she would be stared at, not many women out on the streets, women usually stayed in the home, mother knew all the Chinese women since there were so few of them, remembers taking the subway to go shopping at Macy’s or Hern's department store on Nassau Street or for fresh food at Washington Market
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31:26 - [Interviewer monologues about what happened when tape turned off] why Paul became a dentist, urged by mother to become a professional so would not have to work for anyone else, looked through his autograph book, graduated PS 23 in 1939 with teacher Ms. C.L. Tepidino, half to three quarters of students were Italian, principal of Chinese school named Lee also signed his book, showed Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance business card of Sing May (hand laundry at 417 Manhattan Avenue) from 1930s
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32:51 - On weekends played stick ball and ride a pony with friends, the girls jumped rope or played jax, friends were Chinese Americans, their parents came from China, all spoke English outside house, attending PS 23 in 1930s, felt no different, felt American, does not remember specific subjects, teacher was Ms. Tepidino, does not remember textbooks, went home for lunch or brought lunch, school hours, was average student, nothing stuck out about PS 23, constant fire drills and walking up and down stairs
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39:23 - After graduating PS 23 Chinese Americans he hung out with all went on to high school, was the first group to apply to Seward Park High School which was mostly Jewish, most Chinese went to Stuyvesant High School but enrollment crowded, not pushed but no question that he would go to high school, contrast with Italian students, curriculum encouraged pursuing higher education, PS 23 as school of immigrants’ children, views on role of standardized American curriculum in Americanization
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46:30 - Chinese school back then more strict than now and tried to teach by rote memory, went for two years then stopped when mother passed away, had his own children go to Chinese school initially but also stopped because American school got more demanding, his children understand Chinese but do not speak it, married for 30 years, have two boys, no grandchildren yet, one son is in Germany for medical service, youngest son attends high school at Fran Seminary quaker school
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52:21 - What he thinks of Chinatown today, completely different because of big influx of new immigrants from Hong Kong, people like himself and his classmates are a minority now, community more China-fied, new immigrants also from Taiwan and Vietnam, Chinese in Southeast Asia called Jews of the Orient, in many countries Chinese control the nation's finances, were resented for this
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56:34 - More thoughts on whether Chinatown is Americanizing with new influxes of immigrants, does not feel Chinese or like a minority, feels American, when goes to Asia where everyone looks like him he feels strange, story of lady in Hong Kong planning to go back to native England since Hong Kong was being returned to Communist China
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