The "Save Chinatown" movement marked an important transition for Chinatown from secluded immigrant enclave to engaged ethnic neighborhood. The movement has had lasting effects beyond the preservation of Holy Redeemer Church. In Chinatown today there are over fifty restaurants and twenty-some businesses pinched and frustrated by disappearing space. As activist Debbie Wei says: "you just feel surrounded--it's sort of like a little cage."(1) The community continues to fight for its survival in the midst of ongoing urban renewal.

PCDC works with city, state and federal governments to revitalize Chinatown through urban development projects. These projects have included: Mei Wah Yuen (Beautiful Chinese Homes), which provides 25 subsidized townhouses; Dynasty Court, a multi-family 55-unit project; Gim Sam Plaza, a residential and commercial complex; and On Lok (Peace and Harmony) House, a 54-unit rental residence for the elderly and handicapped. Hing Wah Yuen (New Chinese Homes), the most recent PCDC project, predicts that the future of Philadelphia's Chinatown, as PCDC leader George Moy puts it, lies to "the north of Vine Street."(2)

A recent influx of new immigrants from the Chinese province of Fujian (Fukien) and Southeast Asia has diversified Chinatown's residential and business community and presents new challenges to organizations providing services to residents. Activism continues to be a part of Chinatown's tradition. Asian Americans United, founded in 1985, champions the concerns of recent immigrants by protesting welfare cuts, challenging anti-immigrant sentiment, and pushing for educational reform.

Like many other historical sites, Chinatown has also become a tourist attraction, attracting thousands of visitors and each year to enjoy the taste of authentic Chinese cuisine and the creative expression of ethnic identity. Chinatown is now a recognizable site on the Philadelphia landscape, featured in tourist literature and many public representations of the city.

But Chinatown is more than an image or a tourist destination. It is a thriving urban village, a living neighborhood where residents create, work, socialize, worship, and raise families. Homes, professional offices, ethnic businesses, cultural centers, churches, murals, and gardens are visible signs of the community's life and commitment to be Asian and American. As it builds for its future and commemorates its past, Chinatown remains a stepping stone for recent immigrants as well as a cultural and social touchstone for Asian Americans in the Greater Philadelphia area.

Endnotes: (1) Philadelphia Daily News, "Chinatown Feeling" Monday, September 15, 1997. P.4. (2) Interview with George Moy, President Emeritus of PCDC. Interview from the Chinatown Oral History Project of 1997.