美国国家公共电台 NPR--A new app guides visitors through NYC's Chinatown with hidden stories

A new app guides visitors through NYC's Chinatown with hidden stories

Transcript¹

Composer George Tsz-Kwan Lam has always liked writing music inspired by places.

"There are all these places in Chinatown that are both hidden and meaningful," he says, stepping out of the way of passersby² while leading a tour of the neighborhood. "To uncover some of those hidden things in a city walk that you might not ordinarily notice — I wondered, is there a piece in that?"

It turns out there's not just a piece, but a whole app.

Lam interviewed five Chinese Americans from around the country, asking them about their experiences in Chinatown, plus questions about their ancestors, their families, their memories. He then set the answers to music, the instruments drawing attention to each person's distinct pattern of speech.

"I was thinking, if I embed³ these stories within music and also within a place, then you as a listener get to hear them in a different way — you start connecting with, oh well, I've walked by this building so many times, going to work, going to a restaurant, and now I can associate [those places] with this voice that's talking how about this person came here or who their grandfather was," Lam says.

He calls the piece — and the free app — Family Association, after the important civic⁴ groups that line the streets of the neighborhood. Chinese family associations have been a bridge between new immigrants and more established ones since the late 1800s. In Chinatowns across the country, they're a place to find resources or an apartment, talk business or politics, maybe get a COVID shot. But they're also a place to socialize with people who share similar experiences — most of the associations are built either around a single family name, like the Wong Family Benevolent⁵ Association, or places in China, like the Hoy Sun Ning Yung Benevolent Association.

Lam stops in front of a tall, white building, nestled among squat⁶ brown tenements⁷. It's the Lee Family Association — its name is in green Chinese characters on the front — and like many family associations, it has street level retail⁸, with the association on the floors above.

"You can see [the family association buildings] have different facades⁹, with different elements that recall China, different architectural details, and then with Chinese characters naming them," Lam says. "I don't think it's something that you'd recognize in the midst of all the shops and restaurants vying¹⁰ for your attention as you walk down the street."

Five of the neighborhood's associations are anchors for the app. Visitors use the embedded¹¹ map to see locations of the associations; because the app uses geolocation, as they walk closer to one of the family association buildings, much of the music and competing voices fall away, and the focus is on one of the five oral history participants, telling their story.

These stories aren't about the family associations; instead they're about the Chinese American experience and how they've felt supported by Chinatown, whether their particular Chinatown was in San Francisco, Boston, New York or elsewhere. But Lam says he thinks of the app itself as a kind of virtual family association, connecting these Chinese American voices with each other, even if they've never met.

And he hopes to connect with visitors, too — at the end of the soundwalk, users are given a chance to record their own memories.

"The idea is that later on I can incorporate some of these memories either into the piece or into another part of the piece," he says.

You can download the app onto an Apple device; users who are not in Manhattan's Chinatown can hear some of the oral histories by moving the map to lower Manhattan, and pressing on the blue and white flags.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

3 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

4 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

5 benevolent   

adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的

参考例句：

• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
• He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人，连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。

6 squat   

v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的

参考例句：

• For this exercise you need to get into a squat.在这次练习中你需要蹲下来。
• He is a squat man.他是一个矮胖的男人。

7 tenements   

n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Here were crumbling tenements, squalid courtyards and stinking alleys. 随处可见破烂的住房、肮脏的庭院和臭气熏天的小胡同。 来自辞典例句
• The tenements are in a poor section of the city. 共同住宅是在城中较贫苦的区域里。 来自辞典例句

8 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

9 facades   

n.（房屋的）正面( facade的名词复数 )；假象，外观

参考例句：

• Terraces of asphalt are placed by the building's south and west facades. 沥青露台位于建筑的南面和西面。 来自互联网
• Preserving historic buildings or keeping only their facades (or fronts) grew common. 保存历史建筑或是保持它们普通的正面增长。 来自互联网

10 vying   

adj.竞争的；比赛的

参考例句：

• California is vying with other states to capture a piece of the growing communications market.为了在日渐扩大的通讯市场分得一杯羹，加利福尼亚正在和其他州展开竞争。
• Four rescue plans are vying to save the zoo.4个拯救动物园的方案正争得不可开交。

11 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。