Chinatown

The stained glass windows, pipe organ and varnished wood could be taken for any U.S. church, at any time. So could the cheery, sing-along hymns – at least until hundreds of voices rise up to praise the lord in Mandarin.

Tian Fu Church started in Sunset Park only five years ago, sharing space with a small Latino congregation in a church built a century ago for a Norwegian parish. Tian Fu’s founder, the Rev. Zhaodeng Peng, said his flock in New York City’s third Chinatown has grown to include more than a thousand believers .

Seeking Help

More than a quarter of Sunset Park’s foreign-born residents come from China. Many are young and arrive with limited English skills, destined for initial employment in one of the city’s many Chinese restaurants.

“New immigrants need help,” Peng said. “They need God in their lives. That’s how we’ve grown so fast.”

Peng studied theology in Shanghai before moving to a seminary in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province. Most of Tian Fu’s members hail from that same mountainous corner in southeast China

Fujianese Influence

Fujian has more history with Christianity than most of China. According to the Rev. Gunshik Shim, who oversees Eastern Long Island for the national organization of the United Methodist Church, Protestant missionaries were finding converts in Fuzhou in the early 1850’s. “It’s very historical and meaningful for their descendants to come here and start their own congregation,” he said.

Ken Guest, a Baruch College anthropologist and the author of “God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York’s Evolving Immigrant Community,” also suggests that some immigrants bring their religious beliefs with them in spite of the atheistic policies of China’s government.

“In Sunset Park, the Chinese immigrant population is primarily rural peasants,” he said. “Their religious practices haven’t been disturbed by the Chinese Communist Party. Especially the Fujianese.”

Like ‘Home’

After Sunday services, ShuYing Li oversees the distribution of steamed pork buns and fish ball soup with a weathered smile. She said her family were Christians in Fujian before emigrating in 1991. For her, Tian Fu is a social as well as a spiritual place.

“The church is like my home,” Li said. “I meet with other seniors, and we’ve become good friends.”

Not all of Tian Fu’s members were Christians when they arrived in Brooklyn. Evangelism is encouraged, and Peng awards certificates to members who bring in 12 or more converts, after the Twelve Disciples of biblical fame. Peng’s wife and co-pastor, the Rev. Qibi Shi, holds an introductory Bible study session after each service.

Youth Connection

Peng said young immigrants are drawn to the church’s social network.

“We are well connected, and many employers come to this church,” he said. “Even if they need a boyfriend or a girlfriend, we can help.”

The isolation experienced by new immigrants working long hours for small businesses can highlight the appeal of the spiritual and social comfort of the church.

“We are grateful to pastor Peng. Whenever I’m confused or unhappy, I call him for his suggestions,” said Meibing Liu, a housewife with two young children.

She said her husband persuaded her to join the church. “I found him totally changed after he became a Christian,” she said. “Before that, he was so unhappy. He always complained about life and worried about our kids’ future.”

Pressure to Convert

Not all of Sunset Park’s Chinese residents have joined the church. Lan Cheng is a high-school junior from a Buddhist family. He said friends and relatives have encouraged his parents to become Christian, but they declined.

“We still keep Buddhist traditions at home and go to temples sometimes,” said Cheng.

Tian Fu, which will become a dues-paying charter member of the United Methodist Church in June, will soon take over the church building, though Peng said the Latino congregation will remain as a tenant.

He said he baptized 106 converts in 2008, and more than 200 already this year.  And all the new recruits are encouraged to spread the good word among their family and friends.

“Many say, I can’t, I don’t understand the bible very well,” Peng said. “I tell them that’s why they should bring them to church.”

When state Senate candidate Dan Squadron went to Chinatown to accept an endorsement from the Sing Lin community group, he got a second gift: a Chinese name.

Squadron was tagged as Si Cot Ching, an approximation of the name “Squadron,” modified into Cantonese sounds and spelled with three Asian characters. He went on to defeat Senator Martin Connor, a 30-year incumbent,  in the Democratic primary.

“If you want a good Chinese name, you have got to come here,” said Eddie Chiu, 60, director of the Sing Lin, a non-profit group based on Mott Street. (more…)

A day after Mayor Bloomberg and Rolex executives hailed a raid on counterfeit designer good shops in Chinatown, enterprising vendors were back hawking bootlegged wares on Canal Street.

Peddler whispered designer names to shoppers snaking along the sidewalk, heralding bargains still to be had — even if many storefronts were indefinitely shuttered.

A vendor named Tun stopped briefly to show a laminated card with pictures of designer bags for sale, and said he’d be right back before slipping around the corner. Reappearing minutes later, he pulled a small package from his jacket and unwrapped a knockoff Louis Vuitton handbag.

A genuine bag of the same size runs $300 to $600 in city boutiques. Tun’s price: $35.

Asked why he immigrated from Vietnam to work on the streets of New York, Tun gushed, “It’s the Big Apple: very, very sweet!”

‘Counterfeit Triangle’

It was anything but sweet the day before for those peddling designer knockoffs from Chinatown storefronts. On Feb. 26, the mayor’s Special Enforcement Unit and cops from the Fifth Precinct seized about $1 million in bogus goods and closed 32 shops in what Bloomberg dubbed the “counterfeit triangle” of Canal, Baxter and Centre streets.

Targeting property owners George and Carl Terranova, police got a restraining order to keep vendors out and began a lawsuit, citing building code violations. The Terranovas, who promptly issued a statement promising to cooperate with the city, must demonstrate that new tenants will sell legitimate goods before the stores can open again, officials said.

Legit Businesses Hurting

The closure of the storefront operations didn’t stop vendors like Tun, who said his boss brings in containers of knockoff goods worth thousands to resell on the street. On a good day, Tun will make $80, from which he pays $15 daily rent for a private room.

Nearby, the Lucky Stone shop was still open, displaying water fountains and carved stone dragons, giving some life to the street amid closed graffiti-laden metal gates on neighboring stores.

Robert, the shop owner, said he was grateful that police supervisors allowed him to reopen after determining his business was legitimate. He did, however, lose a day and a half of business.

“It’s slow today, too,” he said, explaining the lack of open stores had cut foot traffic.

Sitting inside a Centre Street kiosk, the “newspaper man” as he identified himself, said complained that innocent businesspeople suffered when cops shut the entire block for the raid.

“They lose their livelihood. The little guys always suffer,” he said.

In one of the closed shops, an NYPD detective stopped packing confiscated handbags, belts and wallets to talk with two women standing on the other side of a metal barricade set up by authorities. The detective explained in Chinese that the women could have access to their grocery and bamboo shop once they return with letters of permission from various city agencies.

“No illegal!” one of the women declared. She rubbed her eyes with her fists — apparently expressing her sadness to be out of work.

Clear Consciences

Experiencing a different kind of disappointment were Sammie Jones and Patrice Eldridge who came from Texas hoping to find the same Prada bags they had picked up in Chinatown last year. Neither had any qualms with buying bogus bags.

“[The designers are] not really reimbursing the people that are making them. They’re getting made in sweatshops and it’s costing them nothing, then they’re selling them to us at 500 or 600 times a markup, so it doesn’t bother me at all to come to Chinatown and buy the knockoffs,” said Jones.