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Detroit — Sitting in the heart of a place where her father was once known as the unofficial mayor and surrounded by a buzz of long-unseen energy and activity, Lisa Yee-Litzenberg said she felt like she was following in her father’s footsteps.
Yee-Litzenberg said this flurry of celebration at Detroit’s former Chinatown was both a preservation of history and a step forward into the future for a deeply-rooted hub of culture and community.
On Saturday, the Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee hosted a block party as a celebration of the area’s history and hopes for its continued growth as a cultural center.
The area was once a 20th-century enclave of Chinese businesses and residences and Yee-Litzenberg, lead organizer of the event, said it was a way to remind people of what once was and what can be created in the future.
“It’s magical,” Yee-Litzenberg said. “I mean, almost like magically, all these people have appeared here to come together and share in their talents, to create energy and enthusiasm to move forward, to revitalize Detroit’s Chinatown. It’s amazing to me.”
Organizers expected thousands to attend the day-long celebration along the intersection of Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street that once hosted a large community of Chinese immigrants and businesses.
The block party, which the Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee hopes to make an annual event, was at the site of the former historic Chinese Merchant’s Association hall, which was demolished in 2023. The committee was founded in response to the landmark’s demolition, which had served as the heart of Detroit’s Chinese American community, in hopes of drawing in the community and developers for its revitalization.
“At the time, we were really like, how could this happen? And so that kind of rallied all of us to be like, we got to do something to protect the history of Detroit’s Chinatown. So we decided to form this vision committee and do something positive from the negative,” Yee-Litzenberg said.
“So then we’re like, it’s not just about preserving the Chinatown. It’s like, what else can we do to make this bigger and better?”
Saturday’s party included live music and DJs, a Chinese fire dance, and interactive activities designed to educate attendees about the legacy of Detroit’s Chinatown and engage them in its future.
Performances and movie screenings took place at the Masonic Temple and crowds gathered around art and food vendors that sold traditional, hand-made goods.
Ayanna Grays of Inkster attended the block party with friends because she believes it’s important to celebrate all cultures in a city like Detroit. She wore a red Chinese-inspired dress to show her full support of Chinatown’s revitalization.
“I love Asian culture, and to me, it’s a very big deal to have a Chinatown in Detroit,” Grays said. “Detroit’s supposed to be a melting pot, and just to have that extra variety of culture is very important to me. I feel and I really wanted to support it.”
Ngianhormua Yang, an illustrator and business owner at the event who sold his art and spicy chili oil, said that he wants to bring attention to the palettes and flavors of different Asian diasporas in Metro Detroit.
Yang is Hmong, a Southeast Asian ethnic group that is indigenous to China but now resides in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Metro Detroit once had a large Hmong population but over time it subsided, Yang said. For him, the event is about bringing awareness to Hmong artists and creators.
“(Hmong) were so heavily teased about the things we would bring from our culture, and a lot of them kind of shied away from it,” he said. “For me, I don’t want to shy away from it. I want to bring it to the forefront, (to show) I’m very unapologetically Hmong in Michigan.”
Amanda Sweets, who had a station set up for her clothing swap business, The Revamp, said the block party was an opportunity for unity across Asian diasporas because “global change starts with local change.”
“And more festivals like this, more activations like this, where people can come together, learn, build and grow, are needed today,” Sweets said. “As a Filipino American and a Detroiter, it’s really nice to see an opportunity for not only Chinatown, but other Asian American businesses owners, individuals, cultures, to come and be represented, to show up what we are, who we are, what we do.”
Quincy Choi, a Chinese American photographer who sold his pictures at the event down the block from his dad’s old restaurant, said it meant a lot to witness the representation of Chinese communities once again in Detroit.
“Detroit is finding itself again, it’s rebuilding itself and getting its diversity back,” Choi said. “It’s changed so much since I’ve grown up, I used to be here often. But it’s great to have this event here again and be able to see all of this.”
The vision is to bring the Chinese community back and attract businesses to the area, Yee-Litzenberg said. With a $1 million streetscape improvement project underway for the area and a Vincent Chin Street designation, organizers are hoping the historic district will only continue to grow.
On June 19, 1982, two White auto-workers killed Chin at the age of 27 in a racially motivated attack. Chin’s street sign will be at Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street, where activists first met following his death to organize a national human rights campaign in his memory.
“We’re really trying to get people to even recognize that there is a Detroit Chinatown, that there was a Detroit Chinatown,” Yee-Litzenberg said. “That this place has the possibility for, you know, a fantastic future. So we’re trying to create energy and enthusiasm and support.”