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Chinatown Service Center

For the Chinatown installment of Departures Youth Voices, we partnered with the Chinatown Service Center's Youth Council, a program that has been around for decades. We were very fortunate to work with them because they are the main—and perhaps only—hub where youth from around the area hang out.

Our hope for the Chinatown Youth Voices Project was that it would provide a voice for the new generation of ethnic Chinese in the area, while also representing the great diversity of voices from the area's past, present, and future. Learning media production against the background of the neighborhood in which you live gave students an opportunity to discover who they are very directly - an empowering experience that is not commonly had in educational settings.

The majority of the students at the Chinatown Service Center were enrolled at Chatsworth High School. The rest of the kids were students at Central High School of the Performing Arts down the street on Sunset and Grand.

Enjoy what the students produced for the Chinatown Youth Voices Project.

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Battambang is a Cambodian Chinese restaurant that was bought in 2003. The owners take pride in being mentioned by the Los Angeles Times. The one really cool thing is that my aunt and uncle own and operate the restaurant.
Chinatown Branch Library is a public library located in Chinatown. Many different age groups come here to read a large selection of books and play with the computers. I interviewed my friend Christine who goes with me when we do homework.
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Departures: Chinatown Student Producers share the story of how their families got to Chinatown.
Ivan
My mom immigrated from a small farming village by plane. She immigrated because most of her family was already in America. She thought it'd be a better life here in America.
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My mom, Wendy Phoeng, was born in Cambodia on January 22 1959. Living in Chinatown has been a lot more convenient for her.
View of Downtown L.A. From Annie's hill
There are many poeple and places in Chinatown that are great to meet and see, respectively. It's those things that make our little home town unique
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Hola. Ni hao ma?
In this Departures installment, the team searches for youths with a strong attachment to historic Chinatown.
Chinatown has been my home ever since I was born. My neighborhood is somewhat calm and dirty. The neighborhood has somewhat changed from as long as I can…
Growing up in Chinatown is like no other community; practically everyone is a neighbor and by that I mean everyone.
I currently live in Chinatown, Los Angeles and have lived here almost my entire life. I moved to Chinatown a couple months after birth in Houston, Texas.…
A place that has a deep personal meaning for me is my apartment building. I have chosen this place because many events important to me have happened here.
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