1-9 Bowery

Confucius Plaza

Architect: Horowitz & Chun / Built in 1973-1975

2024

1-9 Bowery

Manhattan Bridge Colonnade & Arch and blocks south of the bridge (Schematic render of the buildings that stood here, according to the footprints indicated on the 1930 fire insurance maps)

Architects: Carrère and Hastings / 1912-1915 (Bridge opened in 1909)

1930

1-9 Bowery

(Schematic render of the buildings that stood here, according to the footprints indicated on the 1905 fire insurance maps)

1905

Interview

With JUSTIN YU (VICE PRESIDENT OF confucius plaza HOUSING)

Interview conducted in September 2026.

+ Please give me a brief introduction of yourself. Tell me about your childhood and your journey to New York City.
My parents are from Manchuria in the northeast of China, but during the Sino-Japanese War, Second World War, I was born in Chongqing. A few months after I was born, the Japanese surrendered on V-J Day. We moved back to Beijing, and my father went to Manchuria to be an official for the government while my mother stayed in Beijing to teach. She was a literature teacher at the Catholic University.

In 1948, my father called us to tell us the Communists were coming. At that time, Manchuria was already with the Communists. He said, “You’d better move. You’d better go to Taiwan.” My mother took my sister and I on a train from Beijing to Nanjing to Shanghai. From Shanghai, we took a boat to Taipei. I was four and a half years old. I remember there being so many people, hundreds of people. I remember being in a small boat.

After we moved to Taipei, we then moved to Taichung, in the middle of Taiwan. I went to kindergarten, elementary school, junior high and high school there, and then went back to Taipei for college, where I studied economics. After college, I served two years in the army. Then I came to the U.S. in 1971.

At the time, many college graduates from Taiwan came to the United States. Taiwan was still an agricultural society back then. There was very little opportunity to find jobs. A lot of my friends came here. I went to other cities at first. I stayed six months in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for graduate school at St. Francis College. I thought: This place is too lonely. I moved back and decided to stay in New York.

At first, I lived in Flushing. All of the stores on Main Street were closed and it also seemed too lonely. Then I moved to Elmhurst. I met my wife–who is also from Taipei– and got married.

Justin Yu on Division Street, outside Confucius Plaza. Photographed during our interview session, September 2026.

+ How did you come to be connected to Chinatown?
In the 1970s, Chinatown was very, very vibrant. At night there were a lot of limousines–actors and actresses from the theater area coming for a late-night snack. At 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock, it was so busy. I was renting a place in Brooklyn and thought, Why not move to Chinatown? You can eat all the time.This place is nice. Maybe I can find a better life here. I actually came to Chinatown all the time until I moved into Confucius Plaza in 1976.

+ Tell me about your first encounters with the protests at Confucius Plaza.
I saw in the Chinese newspapers that they were going to construct Confucius Plaza. I came down to take a look. There was nothing. Just a big hole.

The first time I didn’t know and thought, Why are a whole bunch of Chinese men over there picketing? I saw the demonstration. I saw the protesters. I joined them. I joined them quite a few times and that’s how I met a few founders of the building, like Mr. Ye Ming Lo and Mr. Eng.

I was a young man then, and I could speak Mandarin and English. At the time, my Cantonese was not so good. Some of the people there were from China and spoke Mandarin. They wanted to work on the construction site. I asked what was going on and they said, “Yeah, well, the Italian construction company doesn’t want to hire us.”

The protest was really because they were building this whole building in Chinatown, and they didn’t even want to hire local Chinese. They said they had no experience, they had no expertise, and this and that.

We argued quite a few times. I told them: “We built the Great Wall a few thousand years ago. This is nothing.”

Anyway, they ultimately settled. The construction company eventually hired 20 Chinese construction workers, and 20 joined the custodial staff of Confucius afterwards.

Justin in one of the common areas of Confucius Plaza. The walls exhibit framed artwork and photographs, including of the original building sponsors, September 2026.

+ What was the process of moving into Confucius Plaza and how did you come to open a store there?
I was working at a textile company from the South that sold cotton and made textiles. Really, really boring. My wife was working for a publishing company in Midtown.

When we moved to Chinatown, I met Mr. Man-Bun (M.B.) Lee. He was a senior of The Lee Association and president of the CCBA [Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association]. He knew my uncle. He said, “Hey, we have all these empty storefronts in Confucius Plaza. After the construction is complete, why don’t you take one?”

Back then, in the late 1970s, nobody wanted to take the Confucius Plaza storefronts because that was considered on the border of Chinatown. You would get off the number 6 train and have to walk a long way to Confucius. There was also nobody on East Broadway or Division Street. You could still see Jewish hat shops selling fur hats and yeshivas.

In 1974, Mr. M.B. Lee said, “You take a store.” I replied, “I have to move in first.”

So I went to Mr. Eng, a sales agent who had an office on East Broadway. I said, “I want an apartment. I want a storefront. Maybe my wife and I will run a little store. Everybody is doing business. My wife said we should sell children’s things, have a toy business.”

In 1976, they told me that I could move in. The first group, including founders Mr. Lee and Mr. Lo, moved into Confucius in 1975. They moved into building number 10 because they are more prestigious people. Number 10 is the leaders’ building. Number 20 is for regular people.We are the regular proletariat, so we moved into 20. That was sometime around Christmastime.

Number 10 has 19 floors, with duplexes on the second and third floors. They finished this building first. Number 20 has 44 floors, no duplexes.

When we moved in, I told them, “I want two bedrooms.”

They said, “Why do you want two bedrooms?”

I said, “We’re planning to have a kid.”

He said, “No, no, I know what you are trying to do. You’re trying to have a storage space, because you want to store goods in there. You’re only getting a one-bedroom.”

Actually… I was planning to make it a storage space!

Our stationery and toy shop was called Wan Yu. When I opened the storefront, there was nobody there. Only me. In the beginning the store was a struggle, because there were not many people.

Then a newspaper called World Journal opened up. They were looking for reporters. I like to write in Chinese. Business was not that good for a few years, so I found a job at the newspaper. I became a journalist in ’78 or ’79 for about 35 years.

Justin in the building’s courtyard, September 2026.

+ Tell me about your roles with the Confucius Plaza building.
At the beginning, I wanted to be on the board, but they wouldn’t let me. They told me that I was too young, that I had no qualifications to be on the board.

In the ’90s, people started retiring. Then they said, “Oh, you speak English. You can join the board as the English secretary.”

So in the late ’90s, I joined the board. In the beginning, there was no limit for elections on the board, so we set up new rules: you can be elected for three consecutive terms, three years, but then you have to step down. If you want to run again, you can run again. I stepped down quite a few times as the English secretary and as a board member. I ran again. I’m the highest vote-getter.

By the way, by then my wife and I had learned Cantonese. When we were working in the store, all of my customers were Cantonese. We also picked up Cantonese quickly because back in Taiwan, we had a lot of classmates from Hong Kong and Macau and we heard them talking all the time. So I picked up Cantonese pretty quickly. In about a year, we could mingle and talk.

In the 2000s, Mr. Chu was the president of the Confucius Plaza board and I was the vice president. When he retired, I became president. I have been president, vice president since 2000. Right now, I’m the vice president.

+ You’re also the founder of the Healthy Living Senior Program at Confucius Plaza. Can you tell me more about that?
In the 2000s, people were getting old and needed more care. I needed more assistance with the seniors. There were a lot of forms to be filled out for them to apply for food stamps, etc. We figured we needed some help, so we spoke with City Councilwoman Margaret Chin. She was very kind and got some grants for us. Then we were able to have exercise programs, singing, dancing, chair yoga at Confucius Plaza; activities that we held in the community room.

Unfortunately, the year I stepped down, sometime in the 2000s, one young board member said, “Oh, this is no good. This is a waste of money.” He canceled the whole thing.

One of the original architectural renders of the building, as seen from Division Street.

+ Tell me about the history of the building. How long was the process to bring the building from an idea to reality?
I talked to [one of the founders] Mr. Ye Ming Lo all the time. He taught me the story of the beginning of Confucius.

In the beginning, they were thinking about this empty lot and the few desolate buildings at the site, which I saw with my own eyes, too. Even before I came to the United States, they had already started the process in the late ’60s.

First, they had a “Wah Yuin” company, which was needed to initiate this. Then they needed a local organization to be the co-sponsor and they found the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. At that time, I became the English secretary of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, too. Mr. Lo was chair.

When they spoke about money, Mr. Lo’s wife was working at Citibank. Citibank gave them some ideas; they were ready to give them a loan, but they needed a guarantor. They got HUD–Department of Housing and Urban Development–to be the sponsor. At that time there was Congressman Abel Green, who helped. He was a bureau chief of Northeast HUD. He kept coming to Chinatown, and I got to know him.

About $60 million was guaranteed by HUD. Then construction started. We’re still paying the loan!

It took a couple of years to build, maybe four or five years. In 1974, they finished all the structure and put in the windows. There are two main buildings, some offices and storefronts.

+ Tell me about the history of the building. How long was the process to bring the building from an idea to reality?
I talked to [one of the founders] Mr. Lo all the time. He taught me the story of the beginning of Confucius.

About $60 million was guaranteed by HUD. Then construction started. We’re still paying the loan!

It took a couple of years to build, maybe four or five years. In 1974, they finished all the structure and put in the windows. There are two main buildings, some offices and storefronts.

Groundbreaking of Confucius Plaza, early 1970s. Photograph courtesy of Confucius Plaza and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

(Left) Justin in the building lobby, by a framed illustration honoring Confucius himself, alongside framed Chinese calligraphy
(Right) Original building sponsors, 1970s.

Certificate of Incorporation of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York, dated 1932.

+ What is the relationship of the Chamber of Commerce to Confucius Plaza? What is the history and purpose of this organization?
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce was a co-sponsor for Confucius Plaza. Today, it maintains an office in Confucius Plaza. Because they were an initiator for the building and they’re a nonprofit organization, Confucius Plaza charges them reasonable rent. They used to be on Bowery, next to the HSBC Bank, before they sold their building. Our current board chair, Mr. Moy, is also the president of Confucius. So actually, the two are in one. I used to be the chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce and at the same time, the president of Confucius.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce was organized by old-time Chinese merchants in 1904, over 100 years ago. The purpose is to help businesses. After Hurricane Sandy, Chinatown was doing badly, so we started a “Revive Chinatown” program. During COVID, I was also the president of the CCBA and did everything in Chinatown—taking donations, dealing with food shortage, giving away masks, giving COVID shots.

Inside the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, September 2026.

+ Who is the architect of the building?
Mr. Chun. Wei-Foo Chun. His name in Chinese is 陳偉夫.
I saw him. He was at the opening.

+ What major renovations has the building undergone?
The design of the building is a curve.

The design of the original window was not great; it also needed to be designed like a little curve. In the beginning, after a few years, the windows started to crack. The windows were pretty fixed, not according to the building’s footprint. The window problem was very, very great. We heard the snow come in, the rain come in, the wind come in.

In the beginning of the 2000s, we changed all the windows–about 5,000 windows– for both buildings.

When living in Number 20, I could see the Manhattan Bridge before and the noise from the railroad and subway was so loud. Now it’s much quieter with the new windows. Maybe now my ears are not as good, but it’s much quieter!

The other big renovation that we’ve had to do is related to Article XI. Every five years, based on the city code, we have to change the bricks. It’s a huge job and costs a lot of money. Now we are preparing to change all the bricks. Thousands. They have to take out the broken bricks, repair them and put in new ones. That’s why the building still looks younger, not like it’s 50-some years old.

Every five years, we change thousands and thousands of bricks. We also changed some of the iron bars inside. Because of wind, snow, water and moisture, they become rusty. We changed all the lights to energy-saving bulbs about 25 years ago.

Before, we had rugs on every floor. Carpet is very hard to maintain. We removed the carpet and put in new tile. When we had the carpet, we had to change it every five years because people were using it and the cleaning was very hard. Now it’s much simpler: it’s easy to clean, easy to maintain.

Justin admires some of the cherry trees he planted at Confucius Plaza, September 2026.

+ Describe the layout of the building and its outdoor spaces.
When you walk in through Confucius Plaza, on your left hand is building Number 20 and on your right hand is Number 10. There’s a lobby. In Number 10, you have three elevators and in Number 20, you have four. When you go up, all of the laundry rooms are on the fourth floor and there’s the roof. There’s a community room downstairs in Number 20.

We also have about 20-some storefronts. Number 15 was mine before we retired about ten years ago.

There’s a big courtyard where kids can play. Before, there were no trees. Right now, you see a lot of trees. I think this is the biggest accomplishment for me. I didn’t build the building. I didn’t construct it. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t finance it. But I did plant the trees. I planted all the cherry trees. I planted a lot of trees for Confucius on the terraces, on Division Street. In the springtime, it looks so beautiful.

We put the fence in in the early 2000s. At that time, the sidewalk was so wide and you could see all the vendors over there doing business on the Confucius sidewalk. It made the place so dirty, so we pushed our fence out, planted trees, and the vendors moved under the bridge. Now it’s no longer our headache.

We used to have some wooden planter boxes for people who wanted to plant flowers.That was good for a few years, but then someone complained and said that the wooden planters looked like coffins. We had to remove it.

There is always a complaint. We have cherry trees. People said, “Why are you planting Japanese trees? You don’t like Chinese trees?” I said, “Cherry trees originated in China.”

We have about 760 apartments: studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, three-bedrooms, four-bedrooms, and duplexes. Now I have two bedrooms.

+ So you got your 2-bedroom apartment in the end?
Yeah! I have two daughters who were born in Confucius. I told Mrs. Moy, the manager, but she would always tell me to wait. I’d complain, and she would say, “You wait.”

I waited 18 years to move into a two-bedroom. When I finally got it, my daughter moved to California for college, where she graduated from Claremont McKenna. So once they went away to college, I got the two-bedroom!

When my elder daughter came back, she became a lawyer and a DA in the Manhattan District office. I said, “Don’t stay with me. Find your own home, please.”

She sent me a card with a picture of little birds coming back to the nest. It read: “Daughter birdies are coming back… and the Daddy and Mommy birds fly away. That’s funny. I remember that.

Building Number 20, the community garden tended by Mr. Sam, Building Number 10, September 2026.

+ Who are the current residents? Has this changed over the last decades?
At the beginning, the old-timers, like me, moved in. We still have about 50% of us here. When we moved in, I was 30 years old and one of the younger ones. Right now, I’m still one of the younger ones!

We have a lot of people who are over 100 years old. There’s Mrs. Lee, 106, across the hallway from me. Mrs. Tang is 107. They are all ladies! Originally, I lived on the 28th floor and all of my neighbors were widows. The men don’t live that long.

In the beginning, we had about 80% Cantonese-speaking, about 10% Hakka, and about 10% Mandarin-speaking. Right now, the Mandarin speakers from Taiwan, Chaozhou or Wenzhou are almost all gone. There’s only me and a few others. Still, 75% of people are Cantonese-speaking. About 15% Hakka, about 7% Fujian/Fuzhou speakers, and 3% non-Chinese speakers: Spanish, Black, and white.

+ What was on this plaza before the building was constructed? Can you share any information about the area’s past lives?
It was a whole empty, empty place. There were few people. There were a few old red brick buildings here and there. At that time, people still lived there. In the rest of the place, you didn’t see anything.

On Division Street, you could get on the bridge. You could walk directly to the grocery store and then there was a stairway to go to the Manhattan Bridge. Now you can’t.

The second time I saw the site, there was a big hole. They had already started the demolition, and the people outside were demonstrating. After I joined the demonstrations, they became my friends. I knew the founders and I knew the protestors. Then they became our building staff. Now they have retired and are all gone.

+ What are some of your favorite memories of Confucius Plaza spaces?
In the beginning, the apartments in Confucius Plaza were more expensive than others in Chinatown. Back then, you could get a one-bedroom elsewhere for $75. Confucius charged $250. A lot of people didn’t want to move in. In Chinatown, there were safety issues, so many people moved to other places. Eventually, everything got much better.

In the ’80s and ’90s, rental prices outside of Confucius were going up like crazy, but Confucius maintained the same maintenance charge of $250. The other one-bedroom apartment rents became $300, $400, $500. Now it’s $1,500, $2,000. We still charge $400. We also keep the building very, very clean and safe.

So that’s a favorite memory—that it’s reasonable.

Another favorite memory is that my two daughters were born here and grew up in our store.

Justin with Mr. Sam in the Confucius Plaza courtyard, September 2026.

+ For you, what meaning does Confucius Plaza hold? How do you see it as an important building for our Chinatown community?
The building itself is a structure. You walk into Chinatown and you can see it. But the building really maintains the stability of our community. We have 3,000 people and sometimes more; a lot of people, many not registered, still live in the building. They have become a sizable force for Chinatown, because we are losing people. We need the business from residents, like those of Confucius Plaza. We need more Confucius Plazas. Otherwise, we’re going to lose business in Chinatown.

The most important meaning that Confucius Plaza holds is that we are here to stay. We have this building. We are here to stay, we are here to support our businesses. We are here to support our activities. We are here to join the festivals and the different family organizations. We are here to stay to celebrate Chinese New Year.

As long as Confucius Plaza is here, we’re not moving. It’s not a small apartment building; it’s a sizable building. Of the original people who moved in, we have somebody leaving us weekly… but we also have new people coming, new applicants waiting to come.

Confucius Plaza is not only a historical building. It shows the Chinese coming to a new age in the ’70s. At that time, it was new. Before that, we didn’t have our own buildings and few people knew we had architects. Before that, few people gave us a huge loan like this.

+ How do you envision Confucius Plaza in the future?
Fifty years for a person is a lifetime. But for a building, it’s aging. So many of our facilities, our pipes and our structures need to be upgraded. The upgrade costs a lot of money.

All of the pipes are inside the walls, so now it’s become a big headache for us. Not only the pipes within the building, but also the pipes that go into the city sewer and the pipes that bring the fresh water in–they’re all aging. On the first floor, we have flat areas where the water and wind come in and are constantly dripping downstairs. How to prevent water going down is another issue for Confucius.

The other thing is, when Confucius was constructed back in the ’70s, electricity was very, very cheap. We don’t have gas meters or water meters. Everything is in one big meter; no individual meters, so everybody uses electricity without thinking. They don’t think, “When we go out, we should turn off the air conditioning, turn off the heat, turn out the lights.” They don’t think about it. Electricity has become so expensive. Electricity alone eats most of the maintenance charge.

The cost of labor is also going up like crazy. Before, we paid $15/hour for our security guard. Now we have to pay $35. Our custodial staff, building maintenance staff, all belong to unions. When you get a new contract, there is a 10% increase.

With the income we receive now, most of it goes to the utilities. But in the meantime, we have to maintain the building, we have to repair it, we have to replace parts. We have to fulfill Article XI. We have to maintain the roof, which has become an issue.

Our supervising agency is NYC Housing Preservation and Development. They haven’t told us to increase the maintenance charge, so we haven’t had any increase in the last 15 years. We are now in the condition where, if we don’t increase it, we are going to have a running deficit.

Eventually the city is going to ask us for a huge increase, like a 35% increase. This is where the big headache is. Long time ago, I kept telling them to increase it by 3% a year to avoid this trouble. Now if you ask people to increase so much in one year, it’s going to be a problem. People cannot afford that much increase. People feel pain. If you increase 2% to 3% every year, people don’t feel anything.

+ Can you paint a picture for me of a Chinatown of the future, 100 years from now?
In the Chinatown of the future, all of the buildings you have documented in your project will still be here. And Confucius Plaza as well, based on what we are doing now. Since the building is on city land, we signed a new land lease with the city. We first signed one for 75 years and are already 50 years in. We are now signing a new lease for 100 years. That means we want Confucius Plaza to continue to stand here many years from now.

Because of technology improving the building maintenance, I believe Confucius Plaza will still be here. We hope Confucius Plaza will still be functioning symbolically—the Chinese initiated a Chinese plan, the Chinese started businesses, and the Chinese moved in. The Chinese designed buildings in Chinatown.

Justin in the Confucius Plaza courtyard, September 2026.

Interview

WITH CHLOE CHAN (FOUNDER OF "MOTT STREET GIRLS")

Interview conducted in April 2022.
All photographs included in this interview are courtesy of Chloe Chan, unless otherwise noted.

+ Please give me a brief introduction of yourself.
I’m Chloe, I’m a second-generation Chinese-American raised in New Jersey. My parents came over from Hong Kong in the early 1990s after getting married there. My dad came over to work and my mom to study. It was more skill-based immigration.

My parents brought us to Chinatown because they wanted a connection to Chinese culture. When I was seven, my whole family moved back to Hong Kong because Chinatown wasn’t enough — they wanted me to learn Chinese. [I was there] from second to fifth grade.

[Today] I work with Chinese immigrants in public health with my day job.

Chloe Chan outside of Rome Piano, photographed during our interview session. Photograph by Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, April 2022.

+ How did you come to be connected to Chinatown?
I came to Chinatown every weekend. It was always something I really looked forward to; the town I grew up in had few Chinese or Asian people. Going to Chinatown was exciting; I had the experience in Hong Kong, so the language and foods were familiar to me. And [in Chinatown, there were] people who looked like me.

We always got food in Chinatown, so I looked forward to picking the restaurant we would go to.

Chloe as a child with her mother and father.

+ What Chinatown buildings do you have a special relationship with?
I started going to Roma Piano when I was five or six… and that was another reason we had to go to Chinatown too. I didn’t really love it — I’m not a great pianist. I didn’t look forward to it, but nonetheless I was there until I was a high school senior. It was a pretty big part of my life.

We also went to another place called Yardley’s in Confucius Plaza to get passport photos done.

I also remember I really looked forward to getting the Chinese newspapers in Chinatown; they had free newspapers at the salon or bakery (with a bun and milk tea, you got a Sing Tao newspaper). There was a gossip magazine on Hong Kong celebrities that I looked forward to.

Childhood photographs of Chloe with her grandmother.

+ How long has Roma Piano been in this building?
Definitely before my time! It’s been in the community for a long time.

+ Describe the building.
It’s one of the commercial units on the ground floor [of the Confucius Plaza] to the left.

It’s a very old school inside — very crammed. Lots of actual pianos on display. Always students sitting outside waiting to go in with their parents. There were at least eight rooms in the space with two aunties with glasses who were always there… My parents recently went back to go say hi to the staff and they were still the same!

I don’t love piano, so it was always a dread to go. I remember at Chinese New Year time there was always free candy they had out.

There was a counter and some pianos for sale, but then rehearsal rooms gathered around the store. There were tile floors.

It was a small room with a piano and a stool and you had to slide on the stool to get in. The teacher was waiting on one end of the stool. There wasn’t a lot of space — real estate is expensive.

I switched teachers; they were music school students. I think I had three to four different teachers there. I remember some of the teachers were super strict, but the younger teachers were often nicer. One of my teachers used to bake things for me.

It was all Chinese kids — either from Jersey or Long Island or who lived in Chinatown. Our family friend’s daughter also went there. It was relatively affordable.

+ Do you know of any major renovations or changes to the building since it was first constructed?
I feel like the interior was relatively the same for all those years. The stores around changed; I think there are new community centers on the ground floor that changed, but otherwise it’s been the same.

+ What are your most impressionable memories of this building?
It felt so routine, so it brought a sense of comfort. Waiting for my lesson, I would read my Chinese newspaper and knew I would be able to look forward to a meal in Chinatown.

We always went to Big Wong… We went there a lot. When my parents came to America, it was one of the first places they always went to. (Big Wong has been here since the 1970s). We always got the beef chow fun, the congee, the roast duck and roast pork.

We also always went to Nam Son, a Vietnamese restaurant.

It was always there — this is what we were doing every weekend — and it brought a sense of security.

Chloe with her father, December 2000.

Dim sum throughout the years.

+ How have you seen Chinatown change over the past decades?
I think the biggest changes are that the businesses I grew up with have closed.

For example, one which was shocking to me: a bakery on Mulberry, Lung Moon Bakery the (storefront is still there). We always got our mooncakes there. It’s been there since the 1960s/1970s and was a place you take for granted. When it closed during the pandemic, it was really sad. It was super old school; trays of egg tarts by the entrance. My parents would always get mooncakes there because they cost less than the imported Hong Kong cakes. We also got egg tarts there. It felt old, that they’d been there a long time.

There’s been many phases of me and Chinatown. When I was a kid, it was my parents showing me around. When I was in college at NYU, I lived close by and would go discovering on my own. During college, I went to Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Noodle on East Broadway. This also closed down during the pandemic.

Lunar New Year festivities.

+ How do you see the work you’re doing today in Chinatown as culturally significant and building community?
I first got involved in July 2019 when I was volunteering at MOCA (Museum of the Chinese in the Americas). My impetus to volunteer there was that I always wanted to learn more about Chinese-American culture and didn’t really have the opportunity – they don’t really teach it in school! It was mostly white history and I wanted to learn more about Asian history.

I came upon the opportunity to be a museum tour guide. I stopped in February 2020, when the pandemic struck. It was a life-changing experience; I heard bits and pieces of why the Chinese came here – they were tricked into coming for Gum San… I didn’t really understand until I worked at the museum and pieced the history together. I didn’t hear before about present-day struggles, like Vincent Chin.

In February of 2020, the museum closed down. My friend Anna and I had had the opportunity to become licensed walking tour guides for the museum… We missed giving tours so we had an idea in March 2020 when we were staying at home and had more time — and this was Mott Street Girls.

We submitted our application to Airbnb Experiences. It was October 2020 when we gave our first tour. It used to be just about the tours, but then slowly with social media it became a platform to speak out about issues. Seeing the bakery close down, we wanted to amplify small business owners and their stories. We wanted to be a platform to advocate for and build relationships with small business owners. We continue to lead tours and even Chinatown locals have been booking our tours. This history isn’t taught in our schools — people may have walked these streets but they don’t know the history behind the business or the landmarks.

I actually met my current boyfriend through my third tour!

+ What are the most important landmarks on your tour?
The small businesses — it’s important to tell their stories for future generations to hear. These are Ting’s Gift Shop, open since 1957 [closed as of spring 2024] and Wing On Wo, open since 1890.

… Also understanding that the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and today’s current climate is not that different. How we were treated back then — I’ve heard stories about Chinatowns being destroyed and people lynched — it’s not that different from today, with us not feeling safe.

Interview

WITH DICK LEE (CURRENT RESIDENT OF CONFUCIUS PLAZA)

+ Tell me about yourself and your journey to the United States.
I was born in China. At that time, the Communists came a week before I left my hometown, Hoisan [Taishan]. Then in the early 1950s, I left Hong Kong. I was about 13, 14 years old at the time. I went first to Ontario, Canada with some friends who had arranged the trip and was there for about four years, then moved to Detroit. I came down to New York to visit for vacation and happened to meet one of my same villagers, who had also just gotten out of China, and they invited me to stay in their apartment for a week. We hadn’t seen each other for so long, but this “uncle” was really nice. He treated me like family, so at times, I would come and stay for a week. In the same building, there was a guy who said, “We need help in my restaurant…”

So I moved to New York City in 1956 and started working at a restaurant called “The New Deal” in Brighton Beach. I got myself an apartment around the Lower East Side with a group of friends from Detroit.

In 1959, I went to beauty culture school for six months to train as a beautician around 42nd Street in Midtown, at Hollywood Academy Cosmetics. From 1960 to 1966, I was the first man working as a beautician in Chinatown.

A friend asked me to help at a restaurant in Virginia, so then I went there for about two years and then came back to New York City.

Those days, to me, it was fun to move from one occupation to another – I could learn different things and see what I liked.

Dick Lee, photographed at The Lee Association at 41 Mott Street during our interview session, February 2026.

+ How did you come to be connected to Chinatown?
In 1968-1969, I went back to Hong Kong because my mom was sick. She passed away and I spent almost a year there. After I took care of my mother’s funeral, I tried to go back to the U.S., but my uncle wouldn’t let me go unless I got married. So during that time after I lost my mother, I finally met a girl and got married in 1969. I got back to the U.S. in 1970. My wife came a year later and we settled down in Chinatown.

I worked in a Chinese restaurant in midtown for a few years. In the 1970s, I left the restaurant business and worked for a real estate company. In 1972, a bunch of friends and I opened a restaurant on 20 Elizabeth Street – Mon Hung, a seafood restaurant. At the same time, I worked as a salesman for a real estate company.

Later in the 1970s, I sold the restaurant and started working for a Chinatown real estate company. The boss had a connection with the owner of the development called Chung Pak, at Walker, Baxter and Center Streets. Before that, it was planned as a commercial and residential development. In 1983, Mayor Koch rented that space for a jailhouse… and all of Chinatown protested! We didn’t want the jail! But the city had the right to take the property to build the jailhouse. I spent a year rounding up the tenants to protest. I was upset. Then I left the real estate business.

Afterwards, I had a little flower shop in Chinatown at 33-35 Pell Street, but it didn’t make any money because the rent was so high. The post office had an opening, so I applied to be a postman in 1986! I worked there until I retired in 2006. Most of the time I was on Canal Street station, serving Chinatown.

I have two sons, who also grew up in Chinatown.

+ What was Chinatown of the past like?
During the 1960s, immigration opened up and more people from Hong Kong came. Before that, it was mostly men. You had more families and women coming in. During those days, Chinatown was really busy, especially at night. All neighborhoods were closed, but Chinatown restaurants were open 24 hours… At least until the 1990s, when gangs came in and changed Chinatown.

A slice of sky, April 2022.

+ Where have you lived in Chinatown?
When Confucius Plaza opened in 1976, I moved in. I have lived there ever since.

+ How long have you lived here?
In 1976, I moved in with my wife and two kids. Since the kids were growing up, we needed more space. In those days, the rent was really reasonable – like $200 or $300. Year after year, it has kept going up.

+ Who are your neighbors?
In the 1970s, moving in, you didn’t know each other. Only one Italian family lived there, but most were Chinese. Right now, we have quite a few Indians, African Americans and it is more mixed. At the time, I was one of the younger groups… After fifty years, people have gotten older and it’s more and more like senior housing!

+ Describe the interior of the building to me – walk me through it.
When we moved in in 1975-76, New York City almost went bankrupt trying to finish the job. We were supposed to have ventilation access fans, but they didn’t have money for it, so they cut down on materials. The doors were cheaper products than what the design was supposed to be. They didn’t have the money to finish the taller building. They only finished one of the buildings.

The building is part of the Mitchel-Lama program. The ground floor belonged to the City. Part of the funding was supposed to come from the City, but they didn’t have it, so there were delays.

Even a year after we moved in, the courtyard was not done. Supposedly they didn’t have the funds. Good thing that the tenants gave deposits and the interest rate was good – that helped to pay building expenses.

During that time, they had made cuts and used cheaper materials, so the bathrooms and other spaces were supposed to be of different quality. They just barely qualified as decent living conditions. After that, we did a lot of renovations ourselves.

Right now, the building still owes money for repairs and loans.

+ Do you see this building as an important part of the Chinatown community?
Yes, because during the 1970s, they had just opened up immigration and people had no place to go. It was hard to find a place to live in Chinatown. When the building opened, it helped out.

+ What are your fondest memories of this building?
It has always been convenient for me. I work in the Chinatown area, so I never had to take public transportation to get to work. I would walk wherever I needed to go. This is why I gave up my car. In Chinatown, you don’t really need it!

When I look at the building – it’s tall – I say, “this is my home!”

1-9 BOWERY - HISTORIC IMAGES

Custodial workers strike at Confucius Plaza, 1979. Photographs courtesy of Eric Ng.

Photograph of crowd on Bayard taken January 1976. Confucius Plaza can be seen under construction in the background.
Photograph by Emile Bocian. Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection.

1-9 BOWERY - BUILDING PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs taken between 2022 – 2024.