It is also the neighborhood’s only unionized restaurant since the closing of Silver Palace, which was Chinatown’s first unionized restaurant and a site of its own labor struggles. It’s actually because people have birthdays, they have weddings, cultural events.” “You destroy Jing Fong, you basically destroy Chinatown,” says Kai Wen Yang of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association.
When I asked one person why they were at the rally they told me, “Everyone has celebrated their birthdays at Jing Fong.” The need for this place to bind the community together was a theme repeated throughout the rally. Photo: Scott Heins Photo: Scott HeinsĪs Chinatown’s largest restaurant, and New York’s largest Chinese restaurant, Jing Fong is a gravitational center in the neighborhood. more From left: Vincent Cao (left) of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association and Zishun Ning (right) of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. In response to a city jail-expansion plan that would give the the Museum of Chinese in America $35 million in funding, one group, the Chinatown Art Brigade, called for the younger Chu’s removal from the museum’s board.įrom left: Vincent Cao (left) of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association and Zishun Ning (right) of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower. They’ve also come under fire from local activists who say they’re contributing to gentrification. The New York Times has described them as “one of the largest landlords in Chinatown” according to 318, the Chus are the largest in the neighborhood. While East Bank isn’t home to Jing Fong, it is owned by the same landlord, father and son developers Alex and Jonathan Chu, whose family has reportedly been involved in Chinatown real estate for 50 years.
The action was organized by 318 Restaurant Workers Union and Youth Against Displacement, which represents around 70 of Jing Fong’s 150 employees, and supported by other anti-gentrification and workers groups including Take Back the Bronx, the Laundry Workers Center, Educators Against Displacement, and more. “We want to work, we want to live, and we want to prevent Chinatown from being destroyed.” A server employed there for 16 years, he was one of two employees who spoke on behalf of the 70 people who will soon be out of work and thrust into the restaurant industry’s employment crisis. “Us workers, we demand the original or new business owners to continue to operate a restaurant to guarantee job opportunities,” said Liang Chen, speaking to a large group of Jing Fong workers, local residents, and activists spilling out onto Centre Street. (An Upper West Side location remains open.) The restaurant will remain open for takeout and delivery, as well as keep its outdoor patio, “until further notice,” per a statement. In February, the restaurant’s owners had announced they would vacate the current location and close the dining room on March 7.
Jing Fong workers, community members, and activists gathered on Tuesday to protest the Chinatown restaurant’s closing.Īt the corner of Canal and Centre Street in Chinatown, it was a sunny 25 degrees outside, but the cold air wasn’t the only thing that was biting: Dozens of people had come out for a rally outside the East Bank building to support the employees of the dim sum banquet hall Jing Fong.
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