NYC Chinatown 1986 original footage.mpg
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- Опубликовано: 31 мар 2011
- In 1986 I visited the evening market in Chinatown in New York City for the first time. I filmed with a big ARRIflex ST 16mm camera with a 120m magazine with 7250 Kodak 16mm color reversal Tungsten 400 ASA film and a Schneider Cine Xenon 1:2/16mm lens . This equipment is good for 10 Minutes recording duration at 25 f/sec. The stereo sound is recorded with a SONY WM-D6C with two Sennheiser mics in stereo.
Thank you to Judy for telecine & color correction and Marion for the original sound recording.
![Harlem, New York 1930s in color, [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/1.gif)
Maybe somebody in 1986 could say "this is a useless footage" But know, this is a priceless footage!! Thanks for sharing, it´s very exciting!!
Very true I just came upon this.
It's nice to see people walking, mingling,and talking to each other, rather than mingling with their ipads and smartphones! Social skills are seriously lacking in this day and age! Great snapshot of life in the Mid-80's NYC!
i was also surprised to see that no one was playing le "Pointing" game. When the hell did that start XD
Also seems like it wasn't uncool to move out of someone's way while walking through a crowd. When le hell did and why did peeps get so hostile LOL.
What information AM i missing?
I lived in Little Italy/Chinatown for 50 years.
Did ya know Vinny Vella? 🇮🇹
the man selling vegetables at around 7:08 is my grandpa!!!
Ishe still alive
Hau Duong yep :)
Did you ever show him the footage?
Amelia Watson clone yes i have, he told me about his memories and it was v sweet 🥰
@@zoemok3574omg thats so cool! could you share any interesting memory from your grandpa?
This makes me so nostalgic. This is the New York of my childhood.. this and your subway video really take me back. Please post everything you have! :D
Slanging fruits probably made good cash look at the crowd,
I remember when i was a little kid my uncle used to live around this area it was Christmas eve 1987, he had burnt the turkey so he ran down out of his apartment to grab those ducks displayed on the windows, it was the best thing i ever tried taste awesome with mash potatoes and gravy. Brings back memories thanks for sharing
wow 豆苗 was $1 for 3lbs
now its about $3 for 1lb
what is 豆苗 ? thanks
@@jean-paulxavier2906 bean sprouts
At 01:44 you can hear a lady say " ...豆苗 1 蚊 3 磅..." in Cantonese.
edit: Oh wow, guess I misheard it back then. She says "豆芽" instead. Still bean sprouts.
Now its about $5-$6 for 1lb
Thank you for sharing. Growing up, I go down to Chinatown every weekend because my parents used to worked down there.
Those news paper stands bring back memories
Memories...my old stomping grounds....
Nice video brings me back. I was hoping to see some footage of my favorite places in Chinatown in the 80s...Chinatown ice cream factory, Wah Kue toy store, Ultra Toy store, Chinatown fair, hop shing, Jing Fong ...lol those were the days.
this is somethin else, a piece of history forever preserved on the internet.
I came across this video looking for the front of a restaurant I remember going to back then and lo and behold there it was at 0:46 in Mon Bo.
I love old school videos. I did not even existed until 1991!
My dad used to sell fish with my uncle just like in the beginning of the video!! Those were some grimey days.
Thats how the whole city is now. From the Lower East Side to Harlem and Washington Heights. Its sad seeing NYC become nothing but home to the rich and out of state college kids..
Lots of memories going there by subway as a kid. We used to go out there to yum-cha during summer months when dad had his dad off. Streets were much wider despite it is narrow because back then , the streets didn’t have zebra stripes & citibikes & bike lanes. Fond memories indeed !!
everything seems so much cleaner then..damn. good times
The soul is off now. Chinatown nyc is narrowing ten times in 2019.
Chinatown has change alot... some of the old shops are not there anymore, u see more and more gentrification and they got rid of most the old folks and more and more hipsters moving in, rent is high and the variety of goods has change, we used to have cool toy stores, buy fireworks, buy discounted sneakers, cheap food vendors, lots more souvenir shops, and cheap movie theaters to watch kungfu flicks... now it's all hotels, Dunkin donuts, Starbucks, Popeyes, verizon, pharmacy etc I miss the old new york and the old chinatown (except the crime lol)
Definitely don't miss the gang problem.
I just went back to 1986.🤭😊 This is great.😃 👍🏻 I loved it.😌❤️ The fact that I can see what was going on back in the day, it's overwhelming to me. 💛 And seeing all the people living their lives back then, just awesome.😃 So thank you so much for sharing this video of beautiful Chinatown and for a I nice walk to the past.❤️💙😁
Thank you for sharing. I grew up here and i do not have any videos. Much appreciated.
I was there as a kid in 1983 visiting my cousins in NYC. I think it was the closest experience I got of Hong Kong. I loved going there. The Chinatown we have in Vancouver, Canada is so small.
Philadelphia is small too only two blocks
That's because the real Chinatown of Vancouver is Richmond. Most Chinese I grew up with in Richmond did not bother with Chinatown at all - in fact its quite run down and unsafe due to its close proximity to the East Hastings area which is filled with (often violent) homeless and drug addicts.
@@user-gz7fh8vo6e I'm guessing you're very young. When I grew up in Richmond, there was barely any Chinese living here. I was usually the only Chinese kid in my class. The" first" Aberdeen centre wasn't even built yet. There was only a couple of chinese stores, so most Chinese at the time usually have to go to Chinatown to buy groceries. Back then, Chinatown was still run down, but it was very busy because we didn't have a choice.
omg what memories thanks so much for uploading this. CT was my all time favorite hangout spot, in the 1980's and in some respects even today. My landmark was always Confucius Plaza Building on the Bowery :) loved the building shape.
at 1:32 you can hear the person say "youre going on TV"
wow thank you so much for the upload. I recognize some of the places my parents would take me, brings back so many memories
Ironic shot of the fire engine passing 70 Mulberry at 4:21. That historic building had a massive fire in 2020 and they demolished the top three floors afterward. They finally decided to rebuild what's left of the building, adding two new floors.
It nice to see old footage of NYC China Town in Manhattan it a different place now then it was in 1986 some streets still look the same. Time changes people change,money changes but places stay the same well sometimes later
Wow memories. Thank you for uploading the video.
Looking back, it may not been much then with just everyday scenes from the community, but for those who grew up during that era who are older now, it means a lot now.
One of the MANY reasons I love NYC! :) Thanks for the post!
I LOVED THIS. THANKS FOR SHARING!!!
Great.video.bring.back.old.times.a
Lot.of.the.stores.and.fish.markets
Are.not.there.any.more
Thanks! I really appreciate video like this without the cameraman talking and the natural sound of ny!
no cellphones!
Thanks for sharing this. I recognized someone from the video.
I need to see the window display from Wah Kue...the coolest toy store ever. They had the widest selection of models I had ever ever seen.
Yeah, they were the place to go for model kits, actions figures, cards and whatnot. Sadly they closed a few years after 9/11.
Yes I remember the star wars display recreating luke and leiah swinging on rope...loved that place
Go to Flickr and search for "wah kue new york." Peter Yee's family owned the store and he posted a few photos of its interior and exterior. I wish I could find footage or photos of a small store across the street. I think it was named something like Kel Lee. That was the place to get new comics and magazines in lower Manhattan in the 1970s. Packed wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with all sorts of titles. And Ruby's Book Sale on Chambers Street was the place to get cheap back issue comics. I picked up X-Men 108 for 25¢. It's now worth at least $50 and some places ask thousands for mint condition copies.
This shows the original early 1970s storefront for Wah Kue, before they were renovated in the mid-'70s.
ruclips.net/video/15iFHXACiUw/видео.htmlsi=owLQ8AnIW17z-PRw&t=67
love this cool footage from 30 years ago
Good video I like watching old videos like these
Fantastic footage!!
Dam the chopped duck look so good
Just beautifull my friend! Thank you, i will film my city as well. Try to capture the atmosphere and it will remain forever
Awesome
I live a few blocks from Chinatown. It still looks exactly like this.
thank you for agreeing. I used to be a resident of this neighborhood and thank god my family and I had a chance to get away from all the gentrification and the housing conditions are not that great anyway. Brooklyn is now the new area of emerging Chinese communities and although they are not fully developed yet, at least it is affordable for them and Chinatowns are developing fast in Brooklyn now and more authentic.
This the Chinatown that I like. When it was not all commercialized and gentrified. It was actually a place where Chinese can settle. Now, it is not even a place where Chinese people can settle anymore. It is too commercialized and too expensive and now the culture is being destroyed. It really is not the same anymore.
Does anyone know how large Chinatown was during the 80s? What streets were the borderlines of Chinatown back then? I was born in the late 80s so I don't really know too much about it. But from what I heard, Bowery and Hester Streets were the borderlines of Chinatown back then and beyond those streets there were Chinese but mixed neighborhood. Was East Broadway and Division Streets even part of Chinatown before the Fuzhou influx? I am just wondering.
I grew up there and left for the Air Force in 1985. The borders: East Broadway from Chatham Square to Allen Street. Up on Allen Street towards uptown till you reached Canal Street. Canal Street headed towards the Holland Tunnel to Mulberry St. Mulberry street to Chatham Square. That was considered "Chinatown" but of course, a lot of residents lived outside those "borders". After I left, the 1990s, it grew even more as more immigrants came from China before China started to prosper. Some of the Fukien immigrants expanded on East Broadway to as far as Rutgers Street and beyond. They also settle on Eldridge Street all the way up to Delancey Street.
@@Smackdaddyt Thanks for this information. I do remember even until the 1990s, Manhattan's Chinatown was still mostly Cantonese speaking even the eastern portion still had a lot of Cantonese speakers, though there was already a significant growing Fuzhou population within eastern Chinatown during the 1990s, which they were almost exclusively concentrated in the East Broadway proximity and there was some spillover of them mixing in with a lot of Cantonese speakers on the Eldridge Street proximity, however by the late 1990s and especially the early 2000s is when the Fuzhou population rapidly grew even bigger and then dominated the eastern portion of Chinatown leaving still some long time remaining Cantonese residents, many are older generations and some long time Cantonese businesses, but the western older established portion of Chinatown still remains traditionally Cantonese dominated, which is still somewhat to this day. I was always puzzled in why the Fuzhou population was able to occupy many blocks in the eastern portion of Chinatown and many Cantonese residents left that portion of Chinatown, but yet, the original established Chinatown to the west still retained its traditional dominant Cantonese population and business dominance with not much Cantonese residents moving out of that portion and not much Fuzhou people were able to move into that portion of Chinatown. I am wondering if it has to do with their occupancy always being full and maybe there is a lot Cantonese associations that own many of the building properties there.
@@supertrouper So here is what i know on this subject. By the 1990s, for whatever reasons in China, China did not help or want to modernize the province of Fuijan. Canton or as China calls it Guangdong was one of the early Special Autonomy Zone for business. So at this point, no more Cantonese people wanted to emigrate to the US. They now have jobs and the business boom is starting for that area. Fuijan however, suffered and their people were still poor. So that mass migration continued to enter the US. Plus at this time, the infamous Sister Ping (Criminal human trafficker), who was shunned by the Cantonese Associations. They did not allow her to be a part of Chinatown in terms of criminal play. The drug trade was done by the Canto (Toisan) and their followers. Fukienese turned to illegal immigration and fake marriage arrangements for the purpose of getting a green card. She actually made more money doing the human trafficking rather than drugs. Now, this part of human trafficking at that time was not for prostitution but just immigration. Prostitution by some of the new immigrants was done on its own voluntarily to pay off their travel fees. Now when they arrived, East Broadway heading towards Rutgers and beyond was where cheap rents or "affordable" rents were still available. By the 90s, all housing towards the other side of Chinatown was encroaching Little Italy to Soho and beyond Canal Street. All these lands were bought up and it was the start of gentrification. No longer affordable. So the new immigrants took hold on E Broadway, Eldridge and all those hoods. Until of course, gentrification hit those areas also. So by this time around 200o or so, this is where you see Brooklyn and Queens start absorbing all the new immigrants. Many of the poor immigrants were still coming but also rich immigrants with money started buying up properties in both Brooklyn and Queens. So by this time, the FJ have developed their own network. The suburban Chinese restaurants used to rely on new immigrants for workers but there are no more Canto immigrants so now the FJ filled that role. Hence all those buses on the east coast to all those small towns. This is what created the "Chinatown Buses" to every small city on the east coast. Every small town had a Chinese restaurant that needed to hire. So, the FJ were so smart, you could call from China, find out where they needed employment, get on a boat, arrive in NYC, then get on a bus to that small town in North Caroline or Georgia and someone will pick you up where you will work off your debt. So you're right, it is due to occupancy being full. Now as each tenant of that generation leaves, it is filled by some gentrified kid from suburbia. But now, we may see another change as Covid is slowing down gentrification and I hear it is driving them away. Apartments in those old buildings that rented for $500 in the 1970s skyrocketed to $3000 ( Year 2000). All so that some out of town person wanted to "Experience living in NYC". Enjoy!
@@Smackdaddyt Thanks for this information. Yeah I have heard about the illegal smuggling and snake head gangs. From what I looked up and what I heard, even though Manhattan's Chinatown was still very Cantonese during the 1980s, small numbers of Fuzhou immigrants were already growing on and around East Broadway including they had their own Fuk Ching gangs. Though, it looks like many Cantonese people were not aware of their population at the time as their numbers were small and many of them learned to speak Cantonese and blended into the then Cantonese dominated community including many of the earlier Fuzhou immigrants spent time in Hong Kong picking Cantonese language and culture. Even Sister Ping also spent time in Hong Kong before arriving over to the USA. During the 1990s, I remember Manhattan's Chinatown as all Cantonese though saw some Mandarin speakers here and there, which I now realize some were Fuzhou speakers, however I started hearing that the Fuzhou population was already largely occupying in the East Broadway area by the late 1980s to early 1990s and my guess is because most of the Cantonese and other Chinese visitors never really frequented that part of Chinatown, that could be why many of them never knew much about their population. However, it seems many of the Fuzhous arriving during the 1990s were learning Cantonese and trying to blend into the community at the time. But it was really during the late 1990s and early 2000s when the Fuzhou population dramatically expanded with Eldridge Street area as the last portion for them to occupy in large numbers and then they became more noticeable by then to the other Chinese speaking populations and yes, you are right, gentrification immediately just came abruptly into the whole Manhattan's Chinatown/Lower East Side area right around the same time the Fuzhou population had reached its peak in the early 2000s before they would start expanding even way more largely in Brooklyn's Sunset Park Chinatown and now Sunset Park is the largest Fuzhou Chinatown in all of NYC. Cantonese immigration into NYC never stopped, it just shifted into the out boroughs starting in the 1990s with Brooklyn as the most primary destinations, though many of the Cantonese also migrated from Manhattan's Chinatown to Brooklyn, first it was Sunset Park, but now much more largely into Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay, which they have created several newer Cantonese Hong Kong Chinatowns with Bensonhurst in Brooklyn being the largest Cantonese Chinatown in all of NYC resembling Manhattan's Chinatown to the west. From what you are mentioning and what I have heard, it looks like many Cantonese property owners in Manhattan's Chinatown did not want to rent to Fuzhou tenants especially in the western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, which I think could have possibly played a role in the original western Chinatown of Manhattan still remaining traditionally Cantonese dominated in addition to the filled up occupancy as you mentioned as well as the Cantonese heavily established it as their own busy business district and I think those Cantonese landlords in that section got together to want to keep it traditionally Cantonese dominated. Now you mention it, I do remember the eastern portion of Chinatown was more quieter with lesser pedestrians and like you said, the higher available affordable vacancies may have helped with allowing the Fuzhou population to grow in that section, which also involved the eventuality of many Cantonese residents also starting to leave that section. However, the eastern portion of Chinatown is not 100% Fuzhou, there are still some long time Cantonese residents remaining including you still see clusters of Cantonese businesses here and there that still attract Cantonese customers that live around the area and also some of the apartment buildings in that section are still mostly Cantonese residents, which I think largely has to do with the Cantonese landlords not wanting the Fuzhou tenants. Most of the Chinese property owners in Manhattan's Chinatown are still Cantonese speakers and even in the Fuzhou part of Manhattan's Chinatown, many of the building properties are also still owned by Cantonese landlords and some of them don't want to rent to the Fuzhou tenants. Nowadays, 30% of what is currently still Manhattan's Chinatown is now hipsters. About East Broadway around Rutgers Street going up to Essex Street, there are barely Chinese people walking around there now, it is like 65% hipsters walking around there now, the hipsters have taken over that section largely. Actually nowadays, the eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown has gotten much quieter with fewer people and this is before the pandemic.
Chinatown looks and feels mostly the same today.
Wrong
Elaborate the key differences
Enigmatism415 clothes, car, lights, shops, more tourists, atmosphere, etc.
The Chinatown locals aren't wearing anything that would catch me off guard today... Yes the cars are an unavoidable difference, but they come and go. I see these kinds of lights and shops there today though.
Enigmatism415 Shops are different, clothes, tourism, etc. Watch carefully.
Ahhhhh I remember those days, I could buy fireworks right on the street and at night from the Italians from the back of a trunk
Love those times
ahh great footage
I was looking for footage of Mott St since my father had a restaurant at 20 Mott in the 80s. Wish I have a photo or video of that place.
WOW thank you for the memories. Chinatown is no longer Chinatown.
I was here last week. Still pretty much how it is today.
4:55 My old apartment building is on the right side next to the yellow flashing Big Wong sign
there's still gangs today it's just that they're not as ignorant as they use to be, they're more underground
Life before the smart phone
Read the camera details. So, what do you think about smart phones these days and how we all have a capacity to make documentaries and it fits in our pockets? Could you go back and do a part two of this? You walking around with such a big camera was such a luxury then. I'm fascinated because I just visited NYC for the first time last weekend and spent most of my time in Chinatown. Loved it
It's the last original neighborhood left.
Back then when the rent was affordable and selling fresh produce was profitable. Now sadly most of these stalls are closed and there are more hipsters than Chinese people in Chinatown.
There were a lot of good things about the 80's but the filth and grittiness wasn't one of them.
Feeling like watching a movie
miss it
people say new york "lost its soul"
it looks about the same nowadays but there is less crime and the city is cleaner
a city doesnt "loose its soul"
sure it does, when the midwest transplants came and soho became a mall, and LES is full of bougie west coast style eateries.
My year growing up here. 80s Chinatown was more like HongKong town
@dvdfath That's because back in the those days, Asian gangs roams the street & every parents including mine wouldn't allow me to roam the streets in Chinatown. Of course at the time of this footage was taken, I was only 7 yrs. old. The generation nowadays don't have to deal what I did and can roam around freely without having to dodge bullets.
Wow
wow can't believe some parts of chinatown still looks the same lol
I think end of may 1986
Hi there, I wonder any chance I can use your "NYC Chinatown 1986 original footage" in my school video project?
I notice the streets especially canal street did not have pot holes and repaired pot holes like the last time I was there in 2012. The city seem to have more money then.
Starting to resemble my neighborhood of Belmont MA..Old Mitt's town.
It looks like much of this footage is either shot wide open, not in focus or soft lense? One of the three, or a combination of the three. The exposure is OK, the focus is lacking in my opinion.
The price of lobster hasn't changed
Hi. I am a student from NYU, and I was wondering if I can talk about using small part of this video for project with my school? Could you provided a way of contact, such as email? Thanks!
Hi - I would really like to license this from you - but could not find a way to contact you about this video. Do you have an email I can reach you on?
Like so much in nyc and america when chinatown was chinatown its the last ethnic enclave left in nyc and you have belmont in the bronx for the italians but that too like chinatown is shrinking.
I wish I could go way back when. The world is so cruel.
Those birds look delicious.
@supertrouper yea too many tourists and street vendors
Chinatown looks the same today as it did before. Only difference is that gentrification taking over these neighborhoods surrounding lower Manhattan and people moving out
old school...
wow look at the prices of groceries!
Mustve gone up 3-4 folds
1 dollar per lb...................... Those days are gone......
Pretty much the same as today! I still don't know how they handle the duck barehanded!
38 years ago, time flies!! I see my mom there shopping!
A-Team van @ 3:37 :)
影到我屋企門口!
triads were prominent back then
I'm very familiar with the Chinatown in San Francisco and visiting Manhattan I was weirded out, so to speak, by the lack of Cantonese dialects. Can anyone explain this better?
Cantonese is still the dominant dialect in Chinatown, but the influx of Mandarin speakers and other Chinese ethnic groups like the Fukienese as well Koreans and Vietnamese beginning in the 90's began diversifying the community. Mandarin has been making inroads trying to assert itself as the main dialect of Chinatown, but the Cantonese community with long traditional ties to pre-independent Hong Kong and Taiwan who both have no love for the Beijing government continues to resist the change.
It depends where you go. The western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown is mainly Cantonese, which is the older original Chinatown. The eastern portion was still not fully developed as part of Chinatown in 1970s/80s, but by the 1990s when an influx of Fuzhouese came into that section, it became more fully Chinese. You will see some Mandarin speakers that visit, but don't live in the neighborhood.
Pt.1 Traditionally Manhattan's Chinatown was all Cantonese, but poor working class. An influx of middle class Taiwanese immigrants began arriving to NYC in the 1970s/80s, but could not relate to then Cantonese culture and language-dominated enclave as well as the working class culture. The Taiwanese settled in Flushing, Queens and slowly created an upscale Mandarin speaking Chinatown.
Pt. 2 Later on, influxes of different Chinese regional groups also began to arrive into NYC and mainly settled with the Taiwanese because it was just easier for them to be in an enclave where they can easily just speak Mandarin since they also could not relate to Manhattan's Chinatown Cantonese dominated society, which traditionally highly discouraged Non-Cantonese Chinese people from settling into the enclave. For a while it did allow Manhattan's Chinatown to keep its traditional dominated Cantonese enclave.
Pt. 3 However, large numbers of Fuzhou immigrants, also speak Mandarin frequently started to arrive into NYC during the 1990s, but they were mainly without legal statuses and could only find low paying wages. Since the Mandarin Chinatowns in Queens were too pricey, their only choice was Manhattan's Chinatown, despite the Cantonese dominance where they could find affordable housing and be in a Chinese enclave and they were main non-Cantonese population to resist being discouraged from settling in a Cantonese dominated enclave and they suffered the most discrimination from the Cantonese.
wish i was borned in 80s~~~
I was 11 then…
В городе нет энергии и оборудование холодильных камер,теплый климат распространяет бактерии,это серьёзно.
Such tiny skinny folks. I bet most people you see these days around there are taller and heavier.
Stupid bike lanes, and the tallest jail being built. Those were the days.
Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown.
East Harlem 1986
it sounds like a pa 200
Prices of the vegetables are about the same in the 1980s and today 2018.
1980s lobster more expensive than today
It’s 2.99 now
Ah the days when the Chinese spoke Cantonese not Mandarin brings me back
was that Elvis at the start
It's a shame I don't see any videos of the 70s or 80s of Little Tokyo like this picture I found cbsla.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/cafe-dulce.jpg looks like it was taken either 80s or the 70s, not even a Japantown which I want to see videos of them in the old days, but no videos of old Koreatown too!
+@China Boss What, do you meant to say laptops, Japan and k are US laptops?