Lower east side, lower east side…. What’s in the lower east side?! That is what was going through my head as I read the assignment. Ok, well Union Square. And then what? I later discovered there’s more to that part of town than just the square and the park. There’s “Alphabet City,” which I had not realized were the avenues that were named for letters, as well as lots and lots of galleries. Two out of our three interviewees spoke to us extensively about the museums and galleries that displayed different types of art. One said there were heritage museums dispersed around the area, we just had to find them. The third interviewee, an employee at the Blue Man Group, spoke to us mostly about street art. He suggested many places where art is expressed on the walls and on the street corner rather than behind glass at a closed off museum. He told us of a mural with painted cats smoking and doing drugs (on 3rd st and avenue B) and of a man who plays strictly bass guitar and allows for other people to bring their instruments to join him. He (the interviewee) made a point to say that the there are many places to see art in a room, but he preferred the more prominent street displays.
Our walking journey began in Union Square park, we thought it to be the center of the neighborhood. And it happened to be really convenient to get to. From there we wandered around, a little more south and east with every turn. In order to find people not too busy to share their thoughts with us, we tried to leave the busy areas behind and look for the side streets where there are more houses than stores.
Whilst walking through these parts, I the thing that caught my eye was the architecture of the houses. They all looked very much alike, something I am not used to in my Long Island neighborhood. Most buildings were only a couple of floors, about 3 or 4, very unlike the skyscrapers that dominate further downtown. They were all made of a dark brick and had similar stoops in the front. The door frames were the most intriguing part. They were very elaborate, even the ones that seemed to be worn. Mostly white, if I recall correctly, and stretching down into Greek-themed doorposts like the pictures below.
If you ignore the Frankenstein, you will see that the doorposts on either side look very much like columns of Greece as well as Rome, only less round and more box-like. The Greco-Roman theme even extended to the inside of lobbies as in the picture below. Looking carefully, you can see the same type of columns and decorations along the walls. It may not have been interesting to anyone else, but the oneness in feature caught my eye immediately.
Just a side note, I noticed that none of the apartment buildings had doormen or any type of security. Just a little ways north of where we stood, in the Upper East Side, basically every building had a door man, so why the change? It was a great contrast in my mind the differences between neighborhoods thought they were in such a small radius of each other.
An entertaining up side to all of the walking were the leftover Halloween decorations that were still up. We made some interesting little friends as we walked through the neighborhood and enjoyed the collective creativity of the lower east siders.
朋友你好 -Hello friends! (in a simplified version of Chinese) Throngs of people, scattered gift shops, narrow streets, and let’s not forget about the wonderful restaurants were seemingly ubiquitous in Chinatown. This was my first “authentic” visit to Chinatown, in which I had a chance to explore and take several interesting snapshots of the region (and try some amazing FOOD!). First, let me start off with the nature of the people that lived in Chinatown. For the most part, I observed a homogenous group of people (predominantly Chinese) and many of the people seemed pretty amiable. For the three interviews we filmed, the people were very responsive and patient with us, which I found delightful. There were also people from different backgrounds, but not too many, who were interested in trying out the food and did their grocery shopping there. Moreover, the majority of the people were speaking in their Chinese dialects and most signs were also written in Chinese, so it was tough trying to identify certain areas, but much thanks to Jodi and Rui Yan for helping us boys!!
In addition, I would like to randomly add: I did not know that Chinatown and Little Italy were so close to each other! I remember walking with my group and seeing Little Italy, thinking we better head back to Chinatown. Another thing I found amusing was my group and I saw a sign that said “Little Chinatown.” I was pondering, “Is this Big Chinatown then?” (of course, jokingly). Now that the “amusement part” is over, I would like to talk about art in Chinatown. In fact, I actually am in accord with Rui Yan that Chinatown lacked significant pieces of art. I do not know whether the creative items in the gift shops count as art, but I noticed a dearth of interesting pieces of art in Chinatown. For instance, even during our interviews, most people said they came here for the food and shopping, rather than to view art. Nevertheless, after an hour of roaming around, we encountered a Chinese theater for opera, in which entrance was free (how exciting!) Honestly, even though I did not understand what the people in the opera were singing, the voices were nice and the setting was well-arranged. Furthermore, we spotted a statue of Confucius, a famous Chinese philosopher, who emphasized education, morals, and family values. Just like Rui Yan, I felt that this statue symbolized Chinatown as a whole because it exposes the Chinese culture to us and how important family and traditional customs are to the Chinese people. I don’t recall seeing any other forms of art in Chinatown, unless graffiti on the walls count… 😀
My favorite part about being in Chinatown was Columbus Park. I greatly enjoyed watching people practicing their ‘tai chi’ and playing their musical instruments (unique instruments, too!) In fact, there was also singing, which I found interesting. We spoke to the aged individuals who were playing music for entertainment purposes and found them to be very knowledgeable about the area and in Chinese culture. I found the instruments they were playing very creative and interesting and then I realized the talent of these people and how hard some people work to earn a decent living in this country. Thus, I contributed some money to these old musicians, for they deserved it. Now going back to the food, the restaurants were extremely crowded. The first restaurant we went to had a very long wait and then we scurried along to this restaurant well-known for its dim-sum (yum!). I just had to say this because I never seen such packed eateries before.
Even though this was my first trip to Chinatown, I felt that I really enjoyed it, especially the cool gift shops with all sorts of accessories and Columbus Park. Chinatown may not be the best site to visit for art, but it is definitely a worthwhile place to hangout with friends and family to shop and eat (which most people come here to do). After all, Chinatown is mainly a tourist attraction and recreation/cultural center. In my opinion, Chinatown is an interesting place to be in, but be warned for it can get very and I mean very crowded, sometimes making it uncomfortable to be there. Combined with the narrow streets and tons of traffic, you definitely do not want to travel there by car…Nonetheless, I am glad that I got the opportunity to experience Chinatown. Now here are some interesting pictures that I would like to share:
NYTimes Arts
