Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown (2002)

Overview

Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown illustrates the strength and complexity of Philadelphia’s Chinese American community. The documentary explores the role of folk arts and community cultural expression in the community’s continuing struggles for respect and survival. Touching on organizing to stop a stadium from being built in the neighborhood (one of many fights over land grabs and “development”), and on other occasions when the community comes together, the documentary attends to the everyday interactions, relationships, and labor that build and defend Asian American communities.