Ning-Yuan Li and Anonymous

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Ning-Yuan Li and Anonymous

Ning-Yuan Li was born in 1936 in Nanjing, China to an educated family, and as a teenager became an award-winning fine arts painter. At the time of the interview, he had been in America for four years and had a school-aged daughter. J.L. (Anonymous) was born in Burma, but soon moved to Taiwan. During the "Anti-Japan War," J.L. was orphaned and subsequently joined the fight against the Japanese invasion. Later, he moved to Paraguay and Brazil, where he started a small wrist-watch business. He immigrated to America in 1984. At the time of the interview, he had a daughter in kindergarten. J.T. (Anonymous) also provides narration. Her own full-length oral history (1994.007.03) is available as part of this collection.

In this interview, J.L. (Anonymous) and Ning-Yuan Li provide viewpoints on their different lives that led them to America. Li, fine art painter, describes his early education and sensibilities as an artist and recalls the Chinese Cultural Revolution's impact on fine art in China. J.L., from Taiwan, relates his life story; the era of the "Anti-Japan War," his career as a soldier, and time spent in Paraguay running a small wrist-watch business. Joined by J.T. (Anonymous, also a narrator of her own oral history), J.L. and Li discuss their shared experience as residents of Brooklyn's Chinatown; working conditions for Chinese immigrants, language barriers, armed robberies, and the American systems of education and juvenile corrections. Interview in Mandarin conducted by Gregory Ruf.

Brooklyn Historical Society collaborated with the Chinatown History Museum (now the Museum of Chinese in America) in order to conduct a series of oral histories with residents of the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Cantonese, Mandarin, and English language interviews focused on what was then a new presence of Chinese and Asian immigrants concentrated along Eighth Avenue. Among the topics that are explored in the interviews are tensions between different groups of Chinese immigrants, crime and safety in the neighborhood, Sunset Park's relationship to Manhattan's Chinatown, and how long-term residents of Sunset Park had adjusted to the area's "newcomers."

Citation

Li, Ning-Yuan and Anonymous, Oral history interview conducted by Gregory Ruf, July 02, 1993, New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records, 1994.007.21; Brooklyn Historical Society.