‘The New Generation at the Forefront’: In Conversation with the Students for Preservation of Chinatown

Is there anyone in particular that inspires you to keep doing advocacy work when you're tired of facing adversity?

TF: First, the basics– sign the petition, run by API PA, it’s on their website. Follow social media accounts of movements, it may not seem like much, but it is hard to get accurate information from mainstream media. It wasn't until around December of 2022, that there were any articles actually against the area. These developers are super wealthy, and have a very strong hold on the media. I mean pre-December, everything was an interview with David Adelman. Be very critical about what you're reading and you’re consuming. Who's writing this article? Who are they interviewing? SPOC’s instagram is a great way to stay updated on new information about the case and what we’re doing to organize. Everyone is free to join!

KC: I think also, especially if you're a student that goes to a private institution like Penn, just try to be more aware of what your school invests in and what your tuition money is actually going to. I think, especially at these private institutions, it's really easy to just be very disconnected from how your institution affects the city that you live in. But Taryn and I will always stress how important it is to just be aware of what's going on. Challenge your institution. Don't just walk around and pretend everything's normal, and not pay attention, because you're responsible for it too. Your tuition money pays these terrible people. So always try to be more aware of where you are and the land and space you take up.

Is there anyone in particular that inspires you to keep doing advocacy work when you're tired of facing adversity?

KC: My mom's name is Debbie Wei. She used to be part of AAU, but is now just organizing against the Arena. But she's very experienced. She was very, very big in organizing against the stadium and the casino. And I feel like every time me and Taryn are in a rut, we always ask her and I feel like she always knows what to do. Because her and all the other activists that we grew up with— they really know the community well. Taryn and I are really thankful that we have those resources, because it's really helpful to know what works and what doesn't. Not everyone necessarily has the privilege to do that. I believe community is really, really vital in organizing against big things like this.

TF: Yeah, I definitely agree with that, her mom in particular, Auntie Debbie, she's phenomenal. I would also say my mom was an activist, and was very involved in the stadium and the casino fights, but also in founding the Folk Arts Cultural Treasure School. She's always been a strong mom, but also an Asian American female activist, at the forefront of the Chinatown movement pushing to preserve the community. That’s always stuck with me. And I know it's stuck with other people too, because while doing all of that, she was also a kung fu teacher at our school. That's crazy. Also I would say, what gives me a lot of energy when this work becomes very heavy, I would say it's definitely my fellow SPOC girl, Kaia. SPOC in general, we're expanding, and the most recent core group really shows up to everything. You really get to connect and talk, and everyone is on the same page. Everyone's just as invested and excited; putting all of their energy and work into this. I think it'd be really rejuvenating after a really long and exhausting day, especially at Penn. It’s nice to be around people who really, truly care.

KC: Taryn and I have also been best friends since we were really babies. At this point, we're always on the same page and really able to read each other's minds sometimes. Anytime either of us is really frustrated or down, we always will pick each other up because we just know each other really well.

What do you believe is the most important aspect of successful advocacy as you have experienced throughout this project?

TF: Not necessarily just SPOC, but I think for Chinatown as a whole, in the overall fight against the arena— getting internal Chinatown businesses, residents, and community organizations to stand up to this arena and its developers is very crucial to the fight. There's such a long history of Chinatown being preyed upon by large developments, like arenas, casinos, highways— because they're banking on the fact that these community residents will fight back. There's many contributing factors to that, you know. Chinatown is mostly low income, predominantly non-English speaking. And so, developers relying on a lack of education would lead to them being smoothly able to build this arena. And so creating a vast education network internally to Chinatown, I think, has been one of the biggest obstacles, but also became one of the strongest things that the internal coalition has.

KC: I think it is always important to stress the amount of power that students have, especially students that go to larger, private institutions like Penn and Drexel. We are the ones that pay for these institutions to survive. But also, we don't have a lot more time and resources than other people would. A lot of the people in the safe Chinatown coalition, they have jobs, they have lives. They can't dedicate their entire life to organizing. We as students have lots of resources from the schools that we can take advantage of. And the schools have an obligation to listen to us because we're what makes them thrive. So I think that that's why students are especially important in this fight is because we're the ones that are putting money in David Edelman's pockets. We have a lot of power in terms of telling him what we want done with that money.

What sparked the origin of your group? And how did you begin your involvement in community organization yourself?

KC: When the arena proposal was first announced, we were part of the Save Chinatown Coalition, who were the first people to start organizing against the arena. Since my mom was already a part of it, she really just wanted us to be there, as young people, providing insight as to how we could get young people organized. But as we were doing more research, we realized that university students, specifically Penn and Drexel students and their institutions, have really close ties to the developers. David Adelman is the CEO of campus apartments, and also developer of this arena. He owns a majority of the apartments in University City and has a relationship with Penn, and Josh Harris and David Blitzer both serve on the Wharton Board of Trustees at Penn. Since these universities have really strong ties, we thought starting a student coalition would be a really good way to get students to organize and care about the arena.

TF: We started off our organizing with a bang— with a protest in November. And that was a huge way of having students who physically took over the main walkway on Penn's campus. We walked from the president's office area to one of Warren's main buildings, where we spoke about Josh Harris, David Blitzer, and then finally ended at the campus apartments building that David Adelman was a part of. We took over 38th and then Walnut Street. It was huge— students had come from all across the city and even outside of the city bounds. After that kickstart to our organizing, I would say, we've also received help and guidance, from not only from the Save Chinatown Coalition and longtime organizers, but also the CBC Townhomes Coalition. They have been a huge help because our fights are so interconnected. They understand having to deal with a massive influence, like Penn. They continue to show up for us, and then we show up for them.