Memories from Golden Song 金曲回憶: Living Room Listening with Chinatown Record

Think!Chinatown hosts Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 in our living room for a very special listening event with superstar aunties from Chinatown’s Knickerbocker Village Naturally Occurring Retirement Community.

Bringing together music and oral history, yiuyiu 瑶瑶 (aka Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan) gathers us for an intimate living room listening through the Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 archive of over 30 record collections inherited from her family and neighbors. She invites superstar aunties from Chinatown’s Knickerbocker Village for a public debut of Memories from Golden Song 金曲回憶 music video, produced in collaboration with Mei-Yin Ng, Chinatown Records, Liam Lee, and Knickerbocker Village aunties. Don’t miss your chance to meet our neighborhood superstars!

Rooted in the belief that we can all be DJ historians, we invite you to bring a favorite song (on vinyl record / online) to share and soundtrack our living room with us. Come step into these musical portals with us, back to a time – whether 50 years ago while dancing in our youth or to our childhood singing along at family karaoke parties – that etched every word and beat into our memory. Bring your family, friends, & neighbors too!

Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is a homegrown community effort weaving together the music, memory, & history that comes with inherited family collections. Homebased in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown, DJ historian yiuyiu 瑶瑶 takes on her childhood name to care for & activate the Chinatown Records archive of over 30 record/CD/tape collections inherited from her family & neighbors. From block parties to sonic histories to workshops, Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 evolves as an ever-growing record of the people we love, who bring all this music to life with us. chinatownrecords.us | @chinatownrecordsproject

yiuyiu 瑶瑶 is a cultural organizer, artist, & oral history educator homebased on Lenape land in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown. As a community-taught & -powered DJ historian for Chinatown Records, she has the most fun bringing the music out of the archive to the streets of Chinatown, into the living rooms we share, and going back-to-back (b2b) with family & friends, who have taught her so much. Chosen to be a DJ by them, she especially loves training up our next generations of DJ historians of all ages to bring the music to life with us. She will always be a dancer first. @rochellehkwan

Memories from Golden Song 金曲回憶 is a collaboration between dancer and teaching artist Mei-Yin Ng, Chinatown Records, cinematographer Liam Lee, and Manhattan Chinatown seniors at Knickerbocker Village. Since 2024, this holistic experience for seniors combines physical strength movement classes with sonic history workshops and mixtapes to produce music videos and more for Chinatown’s golden songs and our memories of them.

Mei-Yin Ng was born in the backwater port town of Klang, Malaysia – poised from birth to create art using the human body and technology. Saving all her ringgits to study dance in America, she was soon on a one-way flight bound for New York City. Her extensive prop training in Chinese dance inspired her to meditate on the use of props, and later technology, as an extension of the human form. She founded MEI-BE WHATever in 2002 as a collective field for collaboration and experimentation of technology in just this vein. MEI-BE WHATever has performed at festivals, museums and theatres in US, Asia, Europe, North and South America. She also brings her experience as an artistic director and choreographer to produce live, participatory performances with Chinatown seniors across North America.

Liam Lee is an Emmy nominated documentary cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is passionate about capturing life and strives to create lasting images in his work. He’s been fortunate to travel all over the world working with outlets like HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Showtime, Discovery, and Vice. He’s always trying to push himself creatively and looking for challenging projects to take on.

Special thanks to Hamilton-Madison House KV Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC), Maryna Lysenko, Council Members Christopher Marte & Sandra Ung, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council, Tiger Baron Foundation, and our superstar aunties at Knickerbocker Village.

This event is part of the Chinatown Arts Festival, a month long celebration of culture in Manhattan's Chinatown. Showcasing both traditional Chinese arts groups and emerging Asian American artists, this year’s festival is packed with exciting programs for all ages. Check out our long list of free and low-cost events at www.thinkchinatown.org/artsfest

Think!Chinatown is a place-based intergenerational non-profit in Manhattan’s Chinatown, working at the intersection of storytelling, arts, and neighborhood engagement. T!C is the team behind neighborhood cultural programs like Chinatown Arts Festival, Chinatown Night Market, Chinatown Block Parties, Chinatown Storytelling Festival, and more. Find more at www.thinkchinatown.org