Category: Chasing the Legacy of the “Chinatown Old Left’’ of San Francisco

The Chinatown Old Left also known as the ‘‘Chinese Marxist Left,’ the term coined by H. Mark Lai (the “dean of Chinese American history”). Mark Lai was a bilingual Chinese American, who not only was a participant and activist, began documentation of Chinese progressives during the 30’s/40’s/50’s encompassing three groupings: intellectuals, labor activists and small businessmen. The majority of whom were not necessarily Marxist in ideology, but were definitely progressive, left leaning, concerned Overseas Chinese.