So much of the language we have around activism is militaristic, but if our struggle is going to last, it must center the relational ties that have sustained our communities from the very beginning.

Though I spent a lot of time under her care, my Pau Pau and I didn’t speak much. Our exchanges were generally limited to one-way admonitions in her native Toisanese. Hehk fahn was her most common invitation — “It’s time to eat.”

Serious business is being discussed around the conference table at San Francisco’s Chinatown Community Development Center. Chinatown finds itself at the frontlines of a heated gentrification battle. Crime is rising. So are evictions.