On January 12th, Karen Cho, a fifth-generation Chinese-Canadian and a documentary filmmaker, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) and the Asian Arts Initiative, hosted a screening event for Big Fight in Little Chinatown. This event took place at the Chinese Christian Church, located on 10th and Vine Street. The evening also featured a panel discussion between PCDC and Karen Cho. It was a significant moment for the local Chinese community, providing a unique opportunity and a welcoming space for community members to share and explore their thoughts openly.
Big Fight in Little Chinatown is a documentary that delves into the challenges that Chinatowns across North America have faced, specifically the distinct stories and challenges faced by these communities in New York, Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, and Toronto. Each Chinatown reveals its own historical and contemporary struggles.
During the panel discussion, Cho was asked what “Chinatown Community” meant to her. “To me, Chinatown is a historic neighborhood of the future. This place is an urban developer’s dream place, right? You can’t create a community like this, that’s walkable, human scale, know your neighbors, and there’s a feeling to it, it’s sustainable, it’s affordable, all of these things are what all vibrant neighborhoods need.” Cho said, “If someone visits, they want to go to Chinatown because there is an authenticity to it. People want to go to these places because there’s legacy businesses and memory.”
While Big Fight in Little Chinatown does not specifically address the Philadelphia 76er’s proposed new arena, the documentary’s screening in Philadelphia’s Chinatown resonated with the community. The Philadelphia Chinatown community’s successful opposition to the arena proposal shows an example of the documentary’s themes. It represents the collective effort to save the historical and cultural identity of Chinatown against the commercial interest. The screening event also served as a reflection of the community’s success with the recent achievement.
As the panel discussion came to a close, Cho delivered a message: “I hope people will walk around their city with a critical eye, and not even necessarily Chinatown, but look around the city. I think really looking at your city and asking the questions ‘who are we building the city for?’ and ‘who do we want to build the city for into the future?’ is one of the biggest takeaways for the film.”
