'Busing the Buffer Zone' Turns Chinatown Mothers' Boycott History Into Art, Theater
- Daria Mohan Zhang
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
The exhibit “Busing the Buffer Zone” uses art and theater to explore the experience of Chinatown mothers who boycotted busing of students in Boston Public Schools in 1975. The exhibition, which includes a play by Christina R. Chan and an exhibition at the Pao Arts Center, runs through March 28. The stage readings are slated for March 28 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Pao Arts Center. An open rehearsal is March 20.
Chan told the Sampan the play focuses on the real-life history of the Chinese American mothers. In September 1975, children in Chinatown were bused to Charlestown community as a part of the desegregation “Phase II” policy for Boston Public Schools. But, said Chan, the Chinese American kids who were bused to the neighborhood were met with threats and harassment from white students. Finally, on Sept. 7, mothers in Chinatown organized a boycott before the first school day and demanded guardrails for their children.
Chan said the boycott worked because three days later, the Department of Justice told a translator, who was a Chinese teacher and assigned to the white neighborhood, to tell those mothers their demands would be met. The boycott was called off.
“The staff from the Justice Department said, ‘We needed the Chinese kids as a buffer between the white kids and the Black kids,’” she said. “(They) had nothing to do with trying to educate the Chinese kids, (but) how they were playing the chess pieces.”
Chan told Sampan that she wanted to write this play because she read an article in the Boston Globe in 2022, an interview with the translator, activist and educator Suzanne Lee.
“When I read it, I thought ‘Oh my god, how did I not know this history?’” she said.
She said she was in school at that time and would have been bused if she hadn’t gone to an exam school.
Chan added that when she went to the 50th anniversary of the mother’s boycott last September, she found one of the organizers was her mom’s good friend.
“There are stories in my backyard…People in my community that I didn’t know about, so it’s amazing to me,” she said. “(Also,) they didn’t make it into mainstream media. No Chinese were mentioned in the desegregation in Boston.”
Chan said as a playwright, her artist statement is writing about “hidden or raised stories about (Chinese people).” She said those boycott mothers overturned all the stereotypes.
“We see heroes. They are always males. But then you don’t see someone who doesn’t speak any English. They work in a factory. They have families to raise. They are Asian. They are women…We have heroes right in our community,” she said.
Moreover, Chan said the theme of “mother’s love” is a universal one that everyone can connect to. The story shows those mothers’ persistence in protecting their children from harm.
Chan said she wanted the audience to acknowledge the ordinary people, the moms, who had combined created enough pressure to achieve the goal. She wanted this story to continue to be told, as a part of a “cultural lineage.”
When she wrote the whole script, Chan told Sampan, she made it fit the time of a play and could protect traumatized people who lived through a real event. It’s not a docudrama, she said.
The stage reading is co-produced by the CHUANG stage and she received the grant from Live Arts Boston. Chan said the stage reading means the script is still a work in progress, and she could refine it after the reading.
“I totally hope someone picks it up and produces it,” Chan said.