Culture
文化Community projects, plus the articles, books, and films that tell our history.
Fuzhounese Americans trace their families to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province on China's southeast coast. Large numbers came to New York from the 1980s on, built a community around East Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown and in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and opened take-out restaurants across the country. Our dialect is Fuzhounese (福州话), also written Foochow.
From our community
Flavors of Fujian Fujianese food stories, dish by dish. By Allen Cao & Jess Eng Three Golds Mahjong A mahjong app that plays Fuzhou style. By Teng Zheng A Funeral Procession of Fireflies A feature film in development, set in 1990s Fuzhou. By Cynthia Lin & Weijia Zhou Fuzhounese-English Dictionary Look up the words your family actually says. By Noah Lee Fuzhou Food Home recipes from Fuzhou, one of China's eight great cuisines. By brothers Ray & Rich Labor of Change A youth collective using art and organizing to build a fairer economy. By Wena Teng Earl's Doodles Pen-and-ink drawings of New York City and Fuzhou. By Earl Lin Restaurant Kid in Tech Videos on growing up in a Chinese restaurant and working in tech. By Steven Lin
The reading room
Journalism on the Fuzhounese-American experience, collected from the early 2000s to today.
History
New York Times “The Death of a Family, and an American Dream” Looks back on the 2013 killing of Qiao Zhen Li and her four children in their Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. The New Yorker “Requiem for a Snakehead” Marks the 2014 death of Sister Ping, who smuggled Fujianese migrants through Chinatown, in a federal prison in Texas. The New Yorker “The Snakehead” Patrick Radden Keefe's profile of Sister Ping and the Fujianese settling Chinatown's eastern edge; the reporting behind his book. Documented “The Lost Prisoners of Chinatown's Gang Era” Men from the early-1990s Fujian wave who were sentenced to decades in prison, and the push to free them. New York Times “Making It Ashore, but Still Chasing U.S. Dream” The Golden Venture survivors, 13 years after the ship ran aground off Queens, still chasing the American dream.
Immigration
Slate “Little America” From Fuzhou and Tingjiang's Yingyu village, where American earnings built mansions and grandparents raise U.S.-born babies. Foreign Policy “The Fading American Dreams of China's Most Notorious 'Snakehead'” Reports from Ting Jiang, Sister Ping's home turf, following emigrants who prospered, broke down, or went home. NPR “Chinese Immigrants Chase Opportunity in America” Traces the Fujianese network from East Broadway's fish ball factory and buses back to a near-empty village in Fujian. City Limits “Journey to the Golden Mountain” A 13-year-old smuggled from Fuzhou, the family debt behind the trip, and Sister Ping's case. Slate “A Lower Class of Snakehead” Part of Keefe's China's Great Migration series: a dispatch from Sister Ping's home village.
Chinatown
BBC “The slow decline of American Chinatowns” Why Chinatowns in New York, Boston and Philadelphia are shrinking: gentrification, rising costs, and immigrant families moving up and out. New York Times “FUJIAN, U.S.A.: Within Chinatown, a Slice of Another China” The Times on the four-block Fujianese Chinatown taking shape inside Manhattan's Chinatown, and its storefront job agencies. City Limits “Amazing Grace” The Church of Grace on Allen Street as a support network for Fuzhounese newcomers. Gothamist “Merchants at Chinatown's East Broadway Mall wonder if they'll survive after its rebirth” East Broadway Mall, long the heart of the Fujianese community, seen through a daughter of smuggled parents as it is rebuilt. Documented “The Last Wedding Shop in Chinatown” Fujianese Thanksgiving Day weddings and the last bridal shop on East Broadway. The Caravan “Chinatown's Underground Economy” The Forsyth and Eldridge Street job agencies and the buses that carry workers to restaurants across the country.
Food
The New Yorker “The Kitchen Network” Follows a cook from near Fuzhou from the Eldridge Street job agencies to restaurant kitchens in Maryland and beyond. Eater “The Holdout” The last restaurant in East Broadway Mall: Fujianese fish balls, beef paste soup, and a mall in decline. The Ringer “American Dreams in a Chinese Takeout” Cooks and delivery workers, many from Fujian, carrying smuggling debt and hired through Eldridge Street job agencies. NPR “Chinese Restaurant Workers in U.S. Face Hurdles” Anthropologist Kenneth Guest tours East Broadway Mall, a hub for Chinese restaurant workers and the agencies that place them.
Second generation
The Atlantic “'Satellite Babies' Are Raised Abroad, Then Return to the U.S.—And Their Parents” U.S.-born children sent abroad to be raised by relatives in their early years, and the adjustment when they return to their parents. Documented “In Sunset Park, the Gods Walk the Streets Once More” Fuzhounese families in Sunset Park run the yearly Youshen parade of gods, with young people joining in since 2022. Documented “City Council Candidates Represent Hope for New York's Fujianese Community” Three millennial candidates, the first Fujianese immigrants to run for office in New York. Christian Science Monitor “A test for one Chinese province: How to educate an influx of US-born children” The Fujian end of the satellite-baby story: 10,000 to 20,000 US-born children being raised in Fuzhou. JoySauce “Rapper Vinida Weng is bringing the Fuzhounese community together” Fuzhounese rapper Vinida Weng's Central Park concert as a moment of community pride, with Fuzhou Sisters and an FZA co-founder. NPR “Born In The U.S., Raised In China: 'Satellite Babies' Have A Hard Time Coming Home” Children born in the U.S. and raised by grandparents in China, and the hard return to parents they barely know.
Books & film
For when an article is not enough.
Doubleday “The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream” Sister Ping, the Fuk Ching gang, and the Golden Venture at book length. NYU Press “God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York's Evolving Immigrant Community” An ethnography of the churches and temples Fuzhounese immigrants built in Chinatown. The New Press “Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor” The first major book on migration from Fuzhou to New York, told as a labor story. University of California Press “From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States” How job agencies, Chinatown buses, and suppliers spread Chinese restaurants across the country. Documentary “Golden Venture” Follows the Golden Venture survivors through detention and after. Premiered at Tribeca in 2006.