When Wellington Z. Chen was young he migrated from country to country with his family, always an outsider, always starting over from square one.
He was once an architect, designing formidable skyscrapers with the famous Chinese American architect, I.M. Pei, who created a pyramid for the Louvre. But not before he was a student learning woodshop in the basement of a Queens high school, barely speaking English.
Now he faces his greatest challenge yet—saving Chinatown from escalating rents, scurrying rats, and the brain drain that bested the four other ethnic groups who used to have their own enclaves in the city.
Wellington Z. Chen, executive director of the Chinatown Partnership, in front of his office in Manhattan, New York, on Nov. 18, 2014. Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times
