Sunset Park Oral History Project, 1999

In the 1980s, new Chinese immigrants to New York began to settle on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn rather than the already established Manhattan Chinatown. This community slowly grew throughout the ’80s and ’90s and is now seen as one of the three major Chinatowns in the five boroughs. In 1999, MOCA worked with the Brooklyn Historical Society to explore the growth of this new community. Together, the two institutions put up the show A Good Place to Land One’s Feet: Brooklyn’s New Chinese Community.

While the exhibition happened in 1999, the two institutions had their eyes on the blossoming new Chinatown of Sunset Park in Brooklyn. In 1993, the two organizations began jointly documenting the neighborhood by conducting a series of oral histories with the residents. A selection of those oral histories can be found in MOCA’s online database.

八十年代新来纽约的中国移民开始在布鲁克林八大道定居,而不是选择住在已经建起的曼哈顿唐人街。这个新社区在八九十年代渐渐发展,至今已被公认为纽约五个行政区中的三个主要唐人街之一。1999年,美国华人博物馆与布鲁克林历史学会合作,探索了这个新社区的发展。两所机构联合推出了展览“立足安居的好地方: 布鲁仑新华人社区”。

展览于1999年举行时,两家机构把目光投向了布鲁克林日落公园新兴的唐人街。早在1993年,美国华人博物馆就与布鲁克林历史学会开始合作,通过对当地居民的一系列的口述历史采访,来记录这个街区的发展。这些口述历史中的绝大部分可以在美国华人博物馆在线数据库中收听。