Wong, however, was not here to discuss the trays of food the kitchen staff lined up for dinner as her speech was translated sentence by sentence from English to Cantonese. She had traveled fifty miles from Fitchburg in the midst of a competitive re-election campaign to raise money.
It is events like this that both symbolize and demonstrate the growing political strength of Chinatown’s community. Once considered one of the weaker voting blocs in the city of Boston, as of 2009, more than four times as many of its largely Chinese-American residents turned out to vote in city elections than they had ten years earlier.
Wong, who grew up working in her parent’s restaurant in Haverhill, was elected the state’s first Asian American mayor in November 2007. She brought to the job the lessons of her childhood: hard work, the importance of family and the need to give back to her community.
At the October event, Wong spoke of the increase in Asian-Americans entering the Massachusetts political scene. She singled out Suzanne Lee, the former Josiah Quincy School Principal, in the midst of a competitive race for Boston’s District 2 Council seat against incumbent Bill Linehan.
“A lot of you know Suzanne Lee is running to be your city councilor here in Chinatown,” she said. “There is a growing trend of more Asians who are entering politics all across the state.”
Even though Fitchburg residents cannot vote for Lee, and Chinatown residents cannot vote for Wong, the event exemplified the strong ties among Asian-American political candidates, and a community that has been the first home for thousands of Chinese immigrants in Boston.
“Every candidate tries to campaign in Chinatown because it has become a political force,” says Lydia Lowe, the executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association.
In a neighborhood that the census shows to be among the city’s poorest and one that for years lived next door to Boston’s Red Light District, this political force has not always been strong. Lowe, in fact, suggests Chinatown initially was designated as the city’s adult entertainment zone because so few of its residents voted.
