Museum of Chinese in America

Henry Ye of True Light Church is the Director of Immigrant Services at New Life Center, a Lutheran social service organization started shortly after 9/11. Henry was born in Canton in 1979 and moved from China in 1982 to live in Panama for a period with his sister and her family. Henry would eventually move to New York City to attend Lower East Side Preparatory High School and CUNY City College to become a psychologist. He began his career as a social worker with the Chinatown YMCA and a case planner who assisted families in trouble with Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Henry discusses the nuances of child discipline in Chinese culture and how it is in opposition to United States laws and his role in acting as a trainer and mediator between the ACS and parents. Henry then turns to the demographic change in Chinatown from a Taishanese/Cantonese population to a Fujianese population and discusses the tensions between the two communities arising from the difference in language and economic situations. He describes his work with the Fujianese community and the challenges they face as a recent immigration community. These include debt, undocumented immigration, and fear, ignorance, or mistrust of government-funded services. Henry notes that this issue is also compounded by the lack of cooperation between the different Chinese-speaking groups and advocates for unity among all Chinese communities to leverage themselves politically for change and the betterment of Chinatown.