Chinatown

A lot of my peers died.

in elementary through middle school, varying backgrounds, even in elementary school, being in LA Chinatown, I felt like an outcast because my family predominantly spoke a Chinese dialect called Toisan, whereas a lot of them were immigrants from Hong Kong.

So Cantonese was the more prominent dialect.

So even there, I felt like an outsider.

And even if the family dynamic was broken, you still had a mom and a dad in the picture.

So I was also singled out like that because I felt that the others felt she's just not like us.

First of all, she doesn't live in L.A., Chinatown, but she comes to school here.

And then second of all, Her mom's like that.

...

in Chinatown, Los Angeles.

[laughs]

Nigga-

China Islamic.

And then in Chinatown...

Kim Chewy.

Kim Chewy, yes, yes.

I'm actually surprised that some of them are still open.

You know, the amount of churn that there is in the San Gabriel Valley restaurant scene is really... really intense.

I remember looking into the closure of Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, which is another Jonathan Gold Chinese restaurant.

And it was something like an $8,000 bill that took them out.

So that is brutal.

Um, all right, we got a fire in Chinatown on Channel 9.

Is that, is that live?

Looks like it.

And we heard from fire officials who say it's going to be a long night.

Listen.

This is in Chinatown.

Basically, we're trying to protect all the surrounding buildings-

So many things here...

they look the part and they are the part and they're cheap they've really i think through the development of all these cities through the development of all their technology through the development of everything throughout the country that is one aspect that's developed really well as as well and it just seems that all the products that i've came across and i'm like there's no way it's like it's not possible you know what i mean i remember like yeah i live in la chinatown any place you'd go and get the knockoff stuff you're like it lasts a weekend you know what i mean it lasts a month whether it be holes or rips and clothes or stuff like that that is not not there anymore it's it's really surprising that was one of the things that caught my eye i'm just like wow they have really done a good job and even looking at some of the clothing like of the high-end stuff that they love to manufacture and like put the logos on it you know this was a freaking crazy story that i heard from one of my teammates here he's been here 15 years he's born in america but he speaks fluent mandarin and he's his family's from here he said louis vuitton did three factories right there there was three factories out here that were manufacturing fake louis vuitton clothes and bags and all this stuff Louis Vuitton tried to sue them because the product was so good that they were having an issue.

They're mass manufacturing these products.

Louis Vuitton, here in China, there was no lawsuit to win.

This one might be the oldest for me.

So when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents who worked in the family store in Los Angeles, Chinatown.

And almost every day, my grandmother would take me for a walk through Chinatown over to the historic center of Los Angeles, the Plaza.

And for those of you who've ever been here, this is where Olvera Street is.

There's a bandstand in the middle, and over there is Union Station.

Or she was never recovered at all.

Nobody knows.

And so, but I wanted a happier ending than any of those, you know, so to think about, I was really actually thinking a lot about where Los Angeles was going and, you know, jumping by jumping ahead to 1926, this was a period I knew really well of what was happening in Los Angeles, Chinatown.

And so in the space of basically one year, he had two big hits.

He thought he was off and running, big star, a little bit of financial stability for his refugee family living in Chinatown in Los Angeles.

They had fled Vietnam.

But then this phone stopped ringing.

He's such a charming, sweet, thoughtful, smart guy.

Just a joy to speak with.

And he and I got together at a great restaurant in New York's Chinatown called Phoenix Palace.

It's a Cantonese restaurant.

Yes, it was.

It was only a few years since we immigrated to Chinatown, Los Angeles, and I was busy acclimating into this new life, learning this new language, and we were ESL students.

So we would go on every Saturday morning to get extra help with vocabulary and reading comprehension, and normally it's really quiet.

Until that one Saturday, while we were studying, we noticed that people kept showing up, more and more people.

Yeah,

I mean, it's a moment you never forgot.

You finally reunite with your mom and siblings in Los Angeles's Chinatown in 79.

They had gone ahead and you had been separated from them.

Yes, it was.

It was only a few years since we immigrated to Chinatown, Los Angeles, and I was busy acclimating into this new life, learning this new language, and we were ESL students.

So we would go on every Saturday morning to get extra help with vocabulary and reading comprehension, and normally it's really quiet.

Until that one Saturday, while we were studying, we noticed that people kept showing up, more and more people.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a moment you never forgot.

You finally reunite with your mom and siblings in Los Angeles's Chinatown in 79.

They had gone ahead and you had been separated from them.