Born in Hong Kong, Bernie Wong moved to the United States in the early 1960s to attend college. A decade later, she cofounded the Chinese American Service League (CASL) to help meet the needs of the city’s isolated Chinese immigrants. Susan Blumberg-Kason draws on extensive interviews to profile the community and social justice organization. Weaving Wong’s intimate account of her own life story through the CASL’s larger history, Blumberg-Kason follows the group from its origins to its emergence as a robust social network that connects Chinatown residents to everything from daycare to immigration services to culinary education. Blumberg-Kason also traces CASL activism on issues like fair housing and violence against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At once intimate and broad in scope, When Friends Come from Afar uses one woman’s life to illuminate a bedrock Chicago institution.

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

1. Hong Kong Connections
2. Eleanor So and Her Seniors
3. Charitable Organizations and Connections
4. The Dentist’s Office
5. A Tale of Two Chinatowns
 

Part II: The Busy 1980s

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

Part III: The Expansive 1990s

1. The Youth Center on Canal Street
2. Expanding Senior Services
3. Senior Housing Becomes a Reality
4. CASL Needs a New Home
 

Part IV: A New Home in the 2000s

1. Program Consolidation and Expansion
2. Multigenerational Services in One Space
3. CASL’s Impact and Recognition
 

Part V: New Challenges in the 2020s

1. Pandemic Response
2. 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