https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag Two spaces in the neighborhood of Chinatown, Manhattan, NY en-us 2022-06-07 17:45:44 UTC 2022-06-26 20:31:44 UTC hello@padlet.com yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2213945763 At this park, 
I see trees and flowers, birds, people playing mahjong and basketball, the statue of Sun Yat-Sen (Founder of Republic of China), public bathrooms, and tents.
I hear people chatting, birds chirping, raindrops hitting the leaves, cars passing by, and music.
I smell the rain, the cigarettes and weed.
I taste the iced boba milk tea in my hand.
I feel the chill brought by the rain, the wet floor, and the handle of my umbrella.

The above sensory experiences turns my gloomy mood caused by the rainy weather into a bright one. I feel relaxed walking in the rain, observing people doing recreational activities, and drinking my favorite beverage. I stop at the statue of Sun Yat-Sen and look around for a moment. This statue reminds me of the history I have learned at school. I recall how Mr. Sun devoted himself to overthrowing monarchy and building a democratic government in China. I recall at that time Taiwan was a Japanese colony but many Chinese immigrants were still nostalgic for their homeland. I recall when I took a walk in the rain in Taipei City several years ago and saw a frog eating an earthworm. I start wondering why I do not see a frog today.

]]> 2022-06-07 18:06:00 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2213945763 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2213963252 This is a market that has appeared in a Chinese movie filmed in Chinatown, Manhattan. Although the market is not big, it sells a great variety of Chinese food products, including fresh meat, vegetables, sauce, and cans.

I see Chinese-looking customers, food products, shelves, fridges, and clerks.
I hear people speaking Mandarin and Cantonese, Chinese music, and customers opening and closing doors of the fridge.
I smell a mixture of scents of meat, vegetables, and people.
I feel the heat of the crowd, the cold air when I pass a fridge, and vibration caused by the loud music and footsteps of people.

I enter the market and start browsing from the left to the right. I am attracted to the rice dumplings (zongzi) at the first stall because the Dragon Boat Festival is around the corner. I then move past several customers on the crowded aisle, looking closing at the shelf of sauce and cans to see if there are pickled bamboo shoots. Unfortunately, there are none. I leave the market and walk into the rain again.

This market reminds me of the traditional supermarket in my neighborhood in Taiwan. There are many vendors selling groceries on the street. Compared to this enclosed market, the supermarket in my hometown is outdoor and open. The music played here is not something I am familiar with, but I have heard something similar in other parts of Chinatown. If the music is from Taiwan, I would definitely feel nostalgic and sing along.]]> 2022-06-07 18:23:54 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2213963252 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2214007812 I sat for around 7 minutes here watching pedestrians in the rain. Behind me was the famous Nom Wah Tea Parlor, a Cantonese restaurant. Some people were waiting outside for a table. I dined at this restaurant once with my friends from college who also came here to pursue their master's. In front of me were many barber shops owned by Chinese immigrants, one of them was Kelly's hair salon, where I went for a haircut twice. I liked this salon because of the inexpensive service and friendly barbers who spoke my mother tongue. I had a good time chatting with them.
One of the biggest features of Doyer Street is that it is covered with bright-colored graffiti and decorated with Chinese lanterns. It attracts tourists to take a pictures of the beautiful road surface. The tables and chairs in the middle of the street also make it a pedestrian-only area. I can think of two major points for curriculum development.
1. The history of the decoration: Who decorated this street? When? What is the difference before and after the decoration? How does the decoration affect business in this area?
2. The hairdressing industry: Why are there many hair salons and barber shops in this area? How are these businesses related? Why is the price much lower than other local haircut services? What is the impact of COVID-19 on the industry?

These questions are related to how Chinese immigrants first settled down in this area and how they survived and thrived. I would like to refer to Massey's "A Place Called Home?," which talks about globalization. When it comes to globalization, people often think about a dominant culture invading other cultures and leaving them with "disorientation, a sense of fragmentation of local cultures and a loss... of a sense of place" (p. 162). Yet we seldom pay attention to the effect that minor cultures have on the dominant culture. Take Chinatown for example, the massive immigration of Chinese people to this area has substantially changed the local culture. From the signs written in Chinese and the language spoken in this area, we feel like we are in China. How does the development of Chinatown affect the local culture in lower Manhattan? In addition, as Massey has pointed out about identity, "social relations always have a spatial form and a spatial content" (p. 168). I wonder how immigrants living in this area would describe their relations with other immigrants, local Americans, and tourists that visit their businesses. How does time (the fourth dimension) change their relations and self-identification? And how does it have to do with the development of this area? I think my focus on Doyer Street and hairdressing industry can be a start of more inquiries in the neighborhood.]]> 2022-06-07 19:12:22 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2214007812 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2214009005 Aside from Kelly's Hair Salon, there is another place I like located on Doyer Street--Taiwan (Wu-Chang) Pork Chop House. It is my favorite Taiwanese restaurant in NY, but it has been closed since the first day of this year. Luckily, I heard it reopened on June 7th. I will definitely go there for delicious Taiwanese food again.

There are many other stores with signs written in Chinese in Chinatown, but what I would like to discuss here is how they tend to include the name of a specific place. In this case, "Taiwan" is the place and it even has "Taipei" written in Chinese. What does it do? In my opinion, since Chinatown is mixed with people from different parts of the Chinese Kulturkreis (culture circle), including the name of a place gives people the information of what the store sells. In the meantime, nostalgic people can easily find the stores that originates from their hometowns, which gives them a sense of belonging. For example, when I see Taiwan on a sign, I have an urge to take a look even though I do not want to buy anything. Furthermore, with "pork chop" in the title, I can think of the Taiwanese style of fried pork chops and relate to other dishes that I usually see at a restaurant like this in Taiwan. Similarly, when I see stores from other places, like Sichuan or Hunan, I will immediately know that they sell very spicy food. 

All in all, signs written in Chinese are not only a source of the taste from home culture, but also provide the information of a certain branch of Chinese culture if they include the name of a place. Whether for locals, immigrants, or tourists, these signs form a sense of "Chinese" as a whole but with an amalgam of "Chineses" that is one-of-a-kind.]]> 2022-06-07 19:13:53 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2214009005 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2217968027 To film this video, I put my cellphone down to the height of a 2-3-year-old kid, trying to see in the way they see. I found that the surroundings are much taller than I had thought. The video begins with the playground that is designed for preschool kids. Then, it moves on to another playground for bigger kids. Finally, it ends at a stair where teenagers gather.]]> 2022-06-11 03:55:16 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2217968027 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219961256 2022-06-13 20:53:13 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219961256 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219966117 2022-06-13 21:02:52 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219966117 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219967115 2022-06-13 21:04:54 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2219967115 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220137610 2022-06-14 01:18:55 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220137610 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220138913 2022-06-14 01:20:06 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220138913 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220142881 2022-06-14 01:23:27 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220142881 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220277382 I combined two clips of birds that I observed in the park. While people talked loudly here, I noticed that birds also chirped quite loudly. The trees in the park offered them a place to stay, and the trash people left on the ground became their main dish. There is a triangular animal-plant-human relationship in this park. The two birds in the clip were also different. One hid behind the leaves and the other exposed itself to humans, like people in this park doing their own things at their own pace.]]> 2022-06-14 03:34:11 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2220277382 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2221093521 2022-06-14 18:30:25 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2221093521 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227024668 This is another Taiwanese restaurant that I found near Doyers Street. The food was really good and had typical Taiwanese style. In the restaurant, there was a poster in Chinese teaching people how to save a choked person. Another poster, also in Chinese, told people the story behind Taiwanese rice.]]> 2022-06-21 17:29:07 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227024668 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227062027 Ping pong (table tennis) is a very popular sport in China (also known as the Ball of the Country). It is not surprising to see people playing tennis in the park as setting up a table is much easier than building a basketball court. When we were roaming in the park, I sat and watched two people playing it with Yuanyi and Joe. We tried picking up the ball and cheering for them, but they did not reply anything. There was another middle-aged man doing the same as we did, but he came up close to the players and asked if he could play it. The players just answered a few words and kept playing. I guessed he was rejected.]]> 2022-06-21 18:26:55 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227062027 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227064364 I saw this cute cicada while roaming in the park. The asphalt surface served as a canvas for children to draw with chalk. I remembered I used to draw on the sand with a stick when I was little. Later, the sand was replaced with cement so I could not do that anymore. I was delighted to see that children here had a place to draw. Also, the motif was an insect, which corresponded with our focus on more-than-human beings. I noticed there was a piece of balloon in the picture, too. Perhaps someone played water balloons to cool themselves down. Even though it was a piece of trash, it still indicated that this park was child-friendly.]]> 2022-06-21 18:30:57 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227064364 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227066728 I spotted this old lady collecting wine bottles for recycling in the park. She walked toward a trash can with a plastic bag in hand, picked up two wine bottles made of glass and walked back to her basket, which contained some other recyclable objects. In my hometown, there are also many old people doing the same thing, not only do they make money from it, but they also establish a friendly relationship with their neighbors. I have also heard that some people do it not because they need the money, but because they are just bored. They think doing so can kill time and help the environment at the same time. i did not have a chance to learn the old lady's intention of doing this, but I thanked her for what she had done.]]> 2022-06-21 18:35:01 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227066728 yc3810 https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227069821 2022-06-21 18:40:07 UTC https://padlet.com/yc3810/j2h3faa58bpesag/wish/2227069821