What is the soundtrack to your living room? From our favorites on the radio to the conversations woven over them, our living rooms ring with the sounds and stories of our families.
Presented by Chinatown Records 華埠錄音, this intimate living room listening brings together music and oral history through the music we love and the histories behind them. Pulling from the ever-growing Chinatown Records archive of 30+ record collections inherited from family and neighbors, we listen together to songs that have long filled Chinatown living rooms – and the histories and memories that come with them.
Free with RSVP!
Rooted in the belief that we can all be DJs and oral historians, we invite you to bring a favorite song of your own to share and soundtrack our living room with us, whether on a vinyl record or online. Come step into these musical portals with us, back to a time – whether 50 years ago while dancing in our youth or to our childhood singing along at family karaoke parties – that etched every word and beat into our memory.
This special listening event will be co-led by Chinatown Records resident DJ’s yiuyiu 瑶瑶 and Buckley Yung 翁百里, who have soundtracked countless Chinatown Block Parties and living room listenings together ever since yiuyiu taught Buckley to DJ in 2023.
Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is a homegrown community effort to celebrate the sonic tapestry of music, memory, & history that comes with inherited family collections. Homebased in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown, DJ historian yiuyiu 瑶瑶 takes on her childhood name to care for & activate the Chinatown Records archive of over 30 record/CD/tape collections inherited from her family & neighbors. Spanning across Chinatown block parties, sonic histories, living room listenings, & beyond, Chinatown Records 華埠錄音 is an ever-growing record of the people we love, who bring all this music to life with us. chinatownrecords.us || @chinatownrecordsproject
Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan (aka yiuyiu 瑶瑶) is a cultural organizer, artist, and oral history educator homebased on Lenape land in NYC's Manhattan Chinatown. She takes on her childhood name yiuyiu 瑶瑶 as a guardian & DJ historian for Chinatown Records 華埠錄音, alongside her family, neighbors, & so many loved ones, who have taught her so much. As a community-taught & -powered DJ historian, she has the most fun bringing the music out of the archive onto the streets for Chinatown Block Parties and training up our next generations of DJ historians of all ages to bring the music to life for us through sonic histories, listening sessions, and oral history workshops. Bringing together music and history, she leads oral history projects and training with Think!Chinatown and so many more community classrooms, so we can all learn to look to our loved ones to pass down, learn, & celebrate our histories together. rochellehkwan.com || @rochellehkwan
Buckley Yung 翁百里 is a longtime music lover, starting with memories of music and records that his parents loved – many that then became among his favorites, alongside his own favorites too. Starting at the age of 13, he began searching out the latest direct-from-Hong Kong records in Boston’s Chinatown record stores. When he moved to New York to begin his first urban planning job after graduate school, he regularly frequented New York's Manhattan Chinatown – the mecca for record shopping on the east coast. Today, he spends his days enjoying the nearly 1,000 Chinese pop records scattered in every nook and corner of the home that he shares with his partner, Charlie. And with every record he brings home, he remembers those happy memories with his parents that started it all! @thevinylbuck