When Friends Come From Afar

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China and Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong.

Foreword

The Ten Founders of the Chinese American Service League

Author’s Note

Prologue: Chinatown Diplomacy

Part I: The Early Years in the 1970s



Hong Kong Connections
Eleanor So and Her Seniors
Charitable Organizations and Connections
The Dentist’s Office
A Tale of Two Chinatowns

  Part II: The Busy 1980s



In the Spirit of the Settlement Movement
Linda Yu to the Rescue
A Solution to a Very American Problem
Have You Eaten?
The Next Generation of Social Workers
The Zhou Brothers Plant Roots in Chinatown

  Part III: The Expansive 1990s



The Youth Center on Canal Street
Expanding Senior Services
Senior Housing Becomes a Reality
CASL Needs a New Home

  Part IV: A New Home in the 2000s



Program Consolidation and Expansion
Multigenerational Services in One Space
CASL’s Impact and Recognition

  Part V: New Challenges in the 2020s



Pandemic Response
The End of an Era

Epilogue    Looking Forward

Acknowledgments

Appendix I    Chinese American Service League Board of Directors, 1978–2022

Appendix II    List of Interviews and Written Statements

Notes

Bibliography

Index