What is it about Chinatown? Is it the sea of faces? The dizzying bustle, the cacophony of tongues, the pull of the unfamiliar? In American Chinatown, acclaimed travel writer Bonnie Tsui embarks on a journey to find out what Chinatown means to its inhabitants ' and to America at large. She explores the lives, stories, and struggles of those in the country's five most famous Chinatowns: New York (the biggest), San Francisco (the oldest), Los Angeles (the film icon), Honolulu (the crossroads), and Las Vegas (the newest). American Chinatown is the first book to use stories from these iconic neighborhoods to unravel the unique complexities established by a century and a half of Chinese immigration. Bonnie Tsui is a frequent contributor to The New York Times. A former editor at Travel + Leisure, she has written for National Geographic Adventure, Salon, and Cond?? Nast Traveller. She is the editor of A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise, a collection of essays on the outdoors, and is a recipient of the Radcliffe Traveling Fellowship, the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, and the Jane Rainie Opel Award. Reverend Norman Fong (host) has been the Program Director of the Chinatown Community Development Center since 1990. He is also a Presbyterian Minister of the San Francisco Presbytery a Parish Associate of the Presbyterian Church of Chinatown. Fong is a third-generation "Chinatown kid," whose father came to San Francisco's Chinatown in 1919 through Angel Island, and is also the co-founder of the oldest soul band in Chinatown, Jest Jammin. Co-sponsored by the Mechanics' Institute Library, Chinese Culture Center, and Chinese Historical Society