Chinatown Walking Tours
Manhattan Chinatown is transforming rapidly as people, businesses, and buildings in the area change. How can we ensure that the neighborhood remains welcoming and inclusive for people of all backgrounds? The first step is to build understanding, both amongst neighbors and within the community at large.
Please join 3 uniquely themed and curated tours of Chinatown, each looking at different ways that space, aesthetics, and economics influence neighborhood change. Tours are free with registration.
1) Shared Spaces
Sat April 20th, 2024
2:00-3:40pm
Meeting Point: Outside Pearl River Mart @ 452 Broadway
What role do 6 spaces have in shaping contemporary life Chinatown? Through a guided tour of an iconic Asian department store, a legendary Chinatown meat market, an activist architecture gallery, the mall where “Chinatown meets high fashion,” a community library, and a gallery featuring Asian diaspora artists, participants will gain an understanding of what role these spaces have played in shaping Chinatown’s present and future. Speakers from each stop will talk to the group about their space’s relationship to Chinatown.
The tour will feature talks from Mrs. Chen (Founder of Pearl River Mart), Michael Robinson Cohen (Citygroup), Sean Ferguson (Chatham Square Library), Shuang Cai (Latitude Gallery), and John Sa (Deluxe Food Market).
2) Sign Language
Sat May 4th, 2024
1:00-2:30pm
Meeting Point: At the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Monument in Columbus Park (Manhattan)
While most tours of Chinatown focus exclusively on its history, this one examines its present condition. Through a curated tour of architectural signage and the spaces they advertise, this tour will reveal and question the often unspoken dynamics of neighborhood change in Chinatown.
For example, what messages do Japanese storefronts in Chinatown communicate about contemporary Asian-American culture? How is historical Chinese signage used to market to both European tourists and the NYC art elite alike? How do American-born Chinese express their identity in Chinatown? What exactly is Dimes Square, and what do its aesthetics say about the current cultural moment? Who is Chinatown for? Can Chinatown be for everybody?
This tour is presented as part of the Municipal Arts Society Jane’s Walk festival.
3) My Chinese-American Architect
Sat June 1st, 2024
1:00-2:30pm
Peter Poon is a prolific Chinese-American architect who has built many buildings in NYC and Chinatown. (If you’ve stayed in a 2 or 3 star hotel in Manhattan, there’s a high likelihood that Peter built it.) He is also Philip’s dad.
Join Philip for a tour of some of the most iconic (and complicated) buildings that Peter has built in Chinatown over the past 30 years. Stops include Hotel 50 Bowery, the mall at 75 East Broadway, an office building that was used by secret Chinese government spies (really), a community church, an apartment complex, and the PPA office in Soho.
