BY CASEY MINER AND HUDA AHMED  The 12th St. corridor in Oakland is a 12-lane freeway sandwiched between two perfectly normal city streets. There are no crosswalks or traffic lights, but morning commuters don’t care; the quickest way to BART is to look both ways and hope for the best.

William Wong is a renowned journalist and writer who was born and grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown. He is the author of Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America and Images of America: Oakland’s Chinatown and a co-author of Images of America: Angel Island.
510report’s Guo Shipeng interviewed him for a story on the 65th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which fell on Wednesday, December 17. Wong responded to Guo’s questions with long and interesting answers, in which he told about his parent’s hard journey for a better …

Special thanks to Chinese Historical Society of America for the exhibition photos. Click HERE to view the exhibition online.
By Guo Shipeng
It was a tranquil afternoon in the heart of the Oakland’s Chinatown on Wednesday, December 17.
Guan Shujuan was watching her four-year-old daughter playing around the “Junk Boat”, a replica of one used by early Chinese immigrants to sail across the Pacific and a popular play structure for kids on the Lincoln Square.
“What act? Anti-Chinese act?” the slightly built woman looked bewildered when asked if she had heard of the …

By Guo Shipeng
Cantonese Opera is probably the most common subtype of Chinese opera in the United States.  In the Bay Area, it is popular among first-generation Chinese immigrants, people at least in their 40s, if not older. But in recent years the Red Bean Cantonese Opera House in Oakland’s Chinatown has been trying to introduce the traditional art to the community’s American-born youth. 
Its youth troupe has trained dozens of “little Red Beans” so far, who have performed in its annual full productions in the summer. 
It is no small achievement and …

By Guo Shipeng
More than 30 members of the Chinatown’s Red Bean Cantonese Opera House came home safely last week after attending the 5th International Cantonese Opera Festival in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, which is formerly known as Canton. 

By Adelaide Chen
Four generations of the Moal family have had an auto business on East 12th Street since 1946. Since then, two major changes have taken place. The company now specializes in building custom cars, and the area is no longer zoned for industrial use.

By Guo Shipeng
Li Zhijian was a millionaire in local currency terms before he emigrated to Oakland from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in June.
Like many fresh immigrants in  Chinatown who come to America for a better life but are overwhelmed by cultural and social differences, the 45-year-old former construction contractor is struggling with elementary English classes in an adult school in the hope that he could find a paying job soon.

By Guo Shipeng
Ho Ming’s first experience with the Oakland police was far from pleasant.
He still remembers the frustration he felt, trying to explain to an officer in broken English, how someone broke into this car and stole $2,000 worth of equipment he used for his business. That was in 1985, when Ho was an immigrant fresh from Hong Kong.

By Guo Shipeng
A steady stream of Chinese residents cast their votes in several polling stations in Oakland’s Chinatown throughout Tuesday, many supporting Obama in line with the community’s long-time leaning toward the Democrats.
But a considerable amount of Chinatown voters cited traditional Chinese family values and voted for Prop 8 that would ban same-sex marriages, disappointing a group of campaigners against the proposition who stayed outside a polling place for a whole day to try to win over people.

Story by Angela Kilduff and photos by Casey Miner
Even before the polls closed on November 4, excitement – mixed with a bit of anxiety – permeated the streets of downtown Oakland.