Adriene Lim, Oral History, Lunar New Year, February 11, 2024

It's Sunday, it's also Chinese New Year. Please tell me, oh, my name is Daiki, please tell me your name.

Adrienne Lim.

Adrienne Lim, great. And tell us why you're here today.

I'm here to celebrate Lunar New Year, and it's Year of the Dragon, which was my mother's sign. I'm a water tiger, but I still enjoy Year of the Tiger celebration.

And you mentioned to me that you're originally from, or just from Detroit.

I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Lived there most of my adult life. During a time period when the US automobile industry was getting threatened by the Japanese automobile industry. It was a hard time to be Asian American in the Detroit area at the time. And I lived there when the Vincent Chin murder happened. I was about the same age as Vincent Chin was at the time, and I remember thinking that that anti-Asian hate was just really bad at the time. So for me, these types of Celebrations are so important because you have those bad aspects of being Asian American at times and these are the good parts.

And obviously for Asian Americans, especially historically minded ones, historically minded Asian Americans. Vincent Chin is obviously very significant. Would you say that that's something that comes back to you a lot, especially the last few years that we've been through?

Oh, definitely does. I mean, as a little girl, you know, Asians at the time were about only 1.5% of the population in Detroit. So everywhere you would go, people would say things or stare. Staring was the best. At worst, they called you chink almost every day. Growing up, we were definitely, racial slurs were used. And My grandfather, for example, was once kind of attacked by these white teenagers who said, you're a dirty Chinaman. So when I was only about six years old at the time, but those things stick with you. And now the anti-Asian rhetoric that can happen. I mean, it never went away, in my opinion. It just kind of went underground more, sometimes not so underground. For example, I just learned that Pete Postra, who is the incoming Republican Party chair in Michigan, where I'm from. He's just incoming to that role. And yet, when he was running for office, he did some really anti-Asian ads with stereotypical Chinese hats and all that. And he was against the senator at the time, Debbie Stabenow, and his whole ad campaign was called Debbie Spend It Now. And he used anti-Asian type of rhetoric in it to say that she was for Japanese Chinese competition and not for American interests things like that in that region were extremely powerful for racist type of rhetoric. So now that I live in the DC area, to me it all comes home. It's very political. Asian Americans have to keep struggling for their civil rights, in my opinion. I've seen it where it can be taken away from you really quickly. So, you know, I'm here to see I love seeing the community come together. I love your project and I'm grateful just to be at a time when we can come together and fight for what's right.

Tell me about the significance of DC Chinatown to you. I mean Chinese New Year happens all over the DMV. There's obviously other celebrations going on. Why? Why Chinatown?

To me, Chinatowns are just so important. In Detroit, we only had a small one, but my uncles were my uncle, Ken Yee. He was one of the original founders, along with Helen Zia, of the American Citizens for Justice, HEC, H-H-H-ACJ, And that was one of the first Asian American civil rights movements. So it runs in my family, Chinatowns, where community come together. Now I'm a little worried that Chinatowns are losing some of their cohesion. But I know it's because we have more Asian Americans around and it's spreading to suburbs and all around. But I hope that we keep some type of nexus where the history and the legacy of all that we have come from can be, you know, preserved and maintained.

And I guess, could you tell me more about the, what about Chinese New Year is very special to you? Maybe like a special favorite food, favorite tradition, something along those lines?

Well, it's such a, to me, it's a strange thing. I won't go into all the details, but I kind of lost some of my Asian, the Chinese heritage. In fact, my Chinese friends will tell me, you're not Chinese, you're Asian American. They'll say things like that to me, like, you're too American. But to me it's meaningful to remember growing up with the red envelopes, the dragons and the lions. It just makes me so proud. There's something about it. That's kind of magical So I just love it.

I guess final question. Where would you like to see? Chinatown the DMVs API diaspora and community. Where would you like to see Chinatown, the DMVs, API, Diaspora, and community, where would you like to see them go in the future?

Oh, I, well, I, more, just more and more, because we still are quite a minority numbers wise. And that was due obviously to the laws that held us out, excluded us from immigration back in the Chinese Exclusion Act and other things. Which By the way, I'm about one quarter white. My grandmother on my mother's side fell in love with a Chinese man who could not be naturalized back when the Chinese were swishing. If you were a white woman, a U.S. Citizen at the time, you would lose your citizenship. A lot of Asian, younger Asian Americans don't remember that. My grandmother lost her citizenship because she fell in love with a Chinese man. Later it was repealed, but she didn't repatriate until the 60s because she was so angry about it. But even that I remember. Again, if we don't stay together as a community and form alliances, then it can all be taken away. To me, the struggle continues. So, D.C., Asian Americans, we gotta stick together.

Anything else you would like to add?

No, just Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Thank you for coming out.