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CBS News
29-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
How New Yorkers from Nepal and Tibet are passing down traditions
How New Yorkers from Nepal, Tibet share their traditions with the city How New Yorkers from Nepal, Tibet share their traditions with the city How New Yorkers from Nepal, Tibet share their traditions with the city Two communities from the Himalayan region are part of the fastest growing immigrant populations in New York City. As we mark Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, here's a look at how New Yorkers from Nepal and Tibet are sharing their traditions. Sharing culture through cooking Sonam Sangmo says she's been making momo dumplings with her mother since the age of three. "It's a family activity where, most Tibetan households, everyone does know how to make momos," said Sangmo, partner and creative director at Oases Restaurant on 14th street. "We have chicken flavor, we have shrimp, we have mushroom and we have beef." The steam filled dumplings have been perfected with her mother's recipe and served with ayurvedic chili oil, as is her family's tradition. "It has nuts in it, it has ginger," said Sangmo. She hopes to educate visitors about her heritage when they visit her new restaurant/cafe. "When you mention Tibetan culture, you almost always have to add Tibetan Buddhism, because the culture itself has been shaped around Tibetan Buddhism," said Sangmo. "It's very simple principles - you have to be kind to others, we believe in karma." At the Oases bazaar, there are soothing scents and cushions for sale that are handmade in Nepal, which is next to Tibet. There are also singing bowls. All of it is intended to bring visitors a taste of the Himalayas. NYC home to growing Tibetan, Nepalese communities Queens is the borough that has become a new home for most people immigrating from Tibet and Nepal, specifically the neighborhoods of Woodside and Jackson Heights. Statistics show the Nepalese population in New York City nearly tripled since 2010. The United Sherpa Association on 75th Street is open daily and often frequented by immigrants from Nepal who practice Tibetan Buddhism and want to come pray in its monastery. The monastery is adorned with traditional colors representing five parts of nature. The organization's president, Temba Sherpa, explains yellow is for the Earth, green for water, red for fire, white for air and blue for sky. He adds more people are moving to the area from Nepal for better business opportunities and education. "We want to promote and save our culture language and tradition," said Sherpa. "Not only language but dance, Sherpa dance and Sherpa music." He shared videos showing that thousands have attended the center's ceremonies at its second location in Walkill, Orange County. Back at Oases, Sangmo says intention is also a key part of the culture. "Having a Tibetan cultural background has helped me with my identity," said Sangmo. "Be very mindful in your speech and in your actions and always try to spread love positivity and kindness."
CBS News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
How unfair representation in film led to the creation of a Chinese film studio in Brooklyn
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we're taking a look back at how unfair representation in early Hollywood led to the creation of one of the first Chinese American film studios in the country. Frustrations with "one-dimensional," "demeaning" characters Sandy Lee can trace her family's history in America back to the late 1860s. By the 1880s, her ancestors moved from San Francisco to settle in New York City's Chinatown and opened a business at 31 Pell St. That same building is now an insurance company, still owned by her family. Her grandfather, Harold Lee, became a prosperous businessman at the turn of the last century. "He had a grocery store. He had a curio shop. He started to change people's money and it became a foreign exchange," she said. In the 1920s, Chinese leaders wrote to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, disappointed by yet another unfair portrayal of their community in film. "The representations of Chinese and Asians in early Hollywood were really like kind of one-dimensional and really demeaning," said Herb Tam, Director of Exhibitions at the Museum of Chinese in America. In response, the board told them to make their own movies if they wanted to change stereotypes. That's when Harold and his uncle Lee Kee Do founded and financed the Great Wall Film Company in 1921. "In the 1920s, they had a small population here, but they still had the yearning for culture and film and art," Lee told Brooklyn reporter Hannah Kliger. "'Do-it-yourself' mentality" The streets of the city can look almost unrecognizable more than 100 years later, but researchers say I.S. 281 Joseph B. Cavallaro along Cropsey Avenue in Gravesend now stands on the site of the former studio. Some of its early films, distributed both in the U.S. and in China, were shot out of Southern Brooklyn. "The film company the Lee family created is really reflective of a kind of 'do-it-yourself' mentality, and an entrepreneurialship within Chinese-American communities," Tam said. The studio eventually moved to Shanghai, producing around two dozen films in a decade. Few still remain, most were lost. The company went dark with the onset of the Great Depression, but the Lee family's impact in the world of cinema continued with the creation of the New York Chinese Film Exchange. "My grandfather also bought a theater right on Park Row... and he renamed it the Silver Star," Lee said. "It was a really big deal. On the weekends, you would go to the Chinese movies." Movies remain in the family's blood. A 1940s photo shows Sandy's uncle Henry Lee perched on a camera truck, shooting a news reel. Descendants include film production designers, media researchers and TV executives, still making their mark in the world of media. Have a story idea or tip in Brooklyn? Email Hannah by CLICKING HERE.
