Chinatown: Portrait of a Working Community

Alan Ohashi explores the changing landscape of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Produced during a volatile period in which community re-development initiatives in cities threatened the unique community fabric of various ethnic communities, Chinatown: Portrait of a Working Community juxtaposes the vivacity of the people, businesses and community institutions of one of California’s first and largest Chinatowns against the violent closure, in August 1977, of the International Hotel, a low-income hotel abutting Chinatown along Kearny and Jackson Streets.