Scope and Contents From the Series:

In Asian American Voices in the Making of Washington, D.C.’s Cultural Landscape Asian American chefs/restaurateurs share their lived experiences of opening restaurants in D.C. and introducing their heritage cuisines and flavors to local communities. All narrators have some shared experiences, yet uniquely individualized stories, echoing the diversity of geography, ethnicity, culture, and religions within the category of Asian American.

Scope and Contents In this interview, Sunny Luk talks about helping out at his family's restaurant, race relations between the Chinese and Black residents, attending Catholic school, programs and activities offered to children in Chinatown, and playing sports in high school. Luk talks about his own children, struggling to make a good life for his family, the Chinese Young Club, and the generational differences between first generation immigrants and later generations and their relationships to money. Luk...

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Wallace Lee describes his and his parents journey from Hong Kong to Washington, D.C., where he grew up. Lee recalls meeting people at the Lee Family Association, helping his family's laundry business, attending Catholic school, moving to the suburbs, and playing sports with other Chinatown kids. He concludes by describing the decline of D.C.'s Chinatown, his desire to preserve the area, and businesses closing down.

Scope and Contents Yesoon Lee discusses her childhood in Seoul, Korea during and after the Korean War, attending graduate school for music composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she met and married her husband, moving to Northern Virginia, teaching at Averett College in Danville, Virginia, operating Pica-deli in Alexandria, Virginia, the impact the early death of her husband had on her life, opening Charlie Chiang's Kwai in Ronald Reagan National Airport, opening Mandu in Dupont...

Scope and Contents Yesoon Lee discusses her childhood in Seoul, Korea during and after the Korean War, attending graduate school for music composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she met and married her husband, moving to Northern Virginia, teaching at Averett College in Danville, Virginia, operating Pica-deli in Alexandria, Virginia, the impact the early death of her husband had on her life, opening Charlie Chiang's Kwai in Ronald Reagan National Airport, opening Mandu in Dupont...

Scope and Contents Yesoon Lee discusses her childhood in Seoul, Korea during and after the Korean War, attending graduate school for music composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she met and married her husband, moving to Northern Virginia, teaching at Averett College in Danville, Virginia, operating Pica-deli in Alexandria, Virginia, the impact the early death of her husband had on her life, opening Charlie Chiang's Kwai in Ronald Reagan National Airport, opening Mandu in Dupont...