A 5th generation New Yorker traces her family history and finds the roots of anti-Asian violence - and Asian resistance

05/25/23 • 35 min

In this episode, author and CUNY professor Ava Chin, a 5th generation Chinese New Yorker, discusses her new book, Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.

The book artfully explores themes of exclusion as it relates to all Chinese Americans, plus personally for Chin with her father, a "crown prince" of Chinatown that she didn't meet until adulthood. Chin reveals personal family stories against the backdrop of the U.S. eugenics movement and draws a connecting line between the current rise in violence against Asians in North America and anti-immigration laws more than 100 years old.

Chin also showcases the resilience, love lives and dreams of Chinese immigrants as well as their resistance to the attitudes and laws of the era.

In our conversation, Chin said:

> This story goes back to a period in time, in the era of reconstruction, when the country, when the young country was asking itself, who is an American and who is not, who is one of us? And the decisions that they made back then in the 19th century set us on a course as a nation towards viewing all Asians as being foreign and suspicious. And so the great aim of this book is to shed light on Asian American stories and place Asian Americans into our proper space into the larger American story.

In this episode, author and CUNY professor Ava Chin, a 5th generation Chinese New Yorker, discusses her new book, Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.

Chin also showcases the resilience, love lives and dreams of Chinese immigrants as well as their resistance to the attitudes and laws of the era.

In our conversation, Chin said:

Previous Episode

Decolonize your garden: This long weekend, dig into the complicated roots of gardening

The May long weekend is the unofficial start of summer. And for those of you with home gardens or access to community space, this is the weekend to dust off your gardening tools and visit the garden centre for the growing season ahead.

As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s good time to ask some questions about its origins.

Whether you plan to get marigolds, plant a vegetable garden or create a pollinator patch — all gardens have complicated roots.

In fact, the practice of gardening is deeply tied to colonialism — from the formation of botany as a science, to the spread of seeds, species and knowledge.

Coveted tulips

Some of the most recognizable plants today, such as tulips, are the result of early colonial conquests. Originally found growing wild in the valleys where current China and Tibet meet Afghanistan and Russia, tulips were first cultivated in Istanbul as early as 1055.

Later, after they were hybridized and commodified by the Dutch, they became highly coveted status symbols because of their gorgeous, but fleeting, blooms.

Exploratory botanical voyages by colonial European powers were integral to the expansion of empire. These trips fueled the big business of collecting global plant samples and also led to the emergence of botany as a scientific discipline.

Botanical gardens served as labs

Botanical gardens played a key role, serving as the laboratories where plant specimens were organized, ordered and named. “Scientific objectivity” asserted a Eurocentric point of view, disrupting and displacing Indigenous Knowledge and ecological practices.

The movement and transfer of plants around the world went hand in hand with the transportation of people to provide a labour force, through slavery and indentured servitude.

The plantation system cleared out local ecosystems and replaced traditional farming methods with growing cash crops — like sugar-cane, tea and cotton. These were products meant for European curiosities, markets and profit and not for the local populations.

Plant and racial hierarchies

This colonial system of organizing agriculture laid the groundwork for categorizing people in a similar way, establishing a social hierarchy which dehumanized non-Europeans, helping justify slavery and Indigenous genocide, and eventually leading to racial categories.

This history has shaped our current relationships to the land, and our gardens. It also informs beliefs about land ownership and access; who has a right to enjoy the land, versus who is expected to be working on it. Who has the literal and figurative space and freedom to garden?

Shifting attitudes

But the soil is shifting. There is a growing shift away from the colonial status symbol of the lawn and manicured gardens, in favour of pollinator-friendly native plants.

There is also a growing understanding that centuries-old Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices — like controlled burns — can help manage wildfires, and foster a more resilient landscape.

With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens.

Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the "weeds" we pull?

Next Episode

A trans scholar and activist explains why trans rights are under attack

This year we’ve seen an aggressive push to implement anti-trans legislation across the United States. There are currently more than 400 active anti-trans bills across the country.

Some legislation denies gender-affirming care to youth – and criminalizes those health-care providers that attempt to do so. Other bills block trans students from participating in sports and still others have banned books with trans content.

These bills have at least two things in common. They all aim to make being trans harder in an already hostile society and they are being spearheaded by the far-right.

Where does anti-trans sentiment come from?

The enforcement of a gender binary likely has much to do with the preservation of white power. And, violence against trans people continues as a result.

Is Canada better?

What do things look like in Canada? Are we a safe haven or are we following some of the same trends?

Recently, a petition signed by almost 160,000 people asked the Canadian government to extend asylum to trans and gender non-conforming people from nations in the West, previously considered safe.

To get a better understanding of trans histories in Canada, we are joined by Syrus Marcus Ware, a scholar, artist, activist and assistant professor in the Faculty of Humanities and School of the Arts at McMaster University. He is a co-curator of Blockorama/Blackness Yes! and a co-editor of the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.

We discuss the history of anti-trans and queer actions in Canada. We also speak about backlash and ways to move forward.