Cantonese-Speaking Senior Citizens - Where to go?
Hello BPN! My elderly mom is thinking about moving to the Bay Area and wanting to see what the Cantonese-speaking community is like here and what programs, activities and services are available in BART-able locations. She speaks English and some Mandarin, but Cantonese is her native language, so she would love to connect with a group of senior citizens who also speak Cantonese and enjoy a wide variety of activities. She is social, urban (she's from HK) and educated. She's not particularly religious, but is open to going to church-sponsored programs, especially if the church leans progressive (and is more the love-thy-neighbor type). Thanks for any suggestions for community centers, senior centers, neighborhood programs, and the like that have a critical mass of Cantonese-speaking participants.
Parent Replies
Both SF and Oakland chinatowns have large Cantonese populations. Not entirely sure about the churches or community centers, but I want to say that those are probably more robust in SF than Oakland.
Oakland’s Chinatown is right near Bart. I work with seniors, many of them Cantonese speaking. There’s a huge community of them around the downtown side of Lake Merritt. Check out Hong Lok http://www.familybridges.org/hong-lok-senior-centers/
Oakland and San Francisco have the most densely populated cantonese speakers and several services for the elderly, including On-Lok for assisted living services. Google search those cities and "chinese services" or "chinese community service" and I'm sure you'll find several resources. Good luck.
Most of the (elderly) Cantonese community (mostly Guangdong province) congregate in either Oakland/SF Chinatown. It is a predominantly less educated blue collar community (village dialects, et. al.) but their children have thrived with undergrad/graduate education. From my experience, most of the white collar community are Mandarin speakers outside of SF (Ex: Dublin, Silicon Valley).
Most BART-able is Oakland Chinatown which is right at the 12th Street Station. It is a much smaller overall compared to SF Chinatown. My 89 year-old father has lived in SF for 43 years and he takes BART + MUNI to SF Chinatown daily. SF's Chinatown does require taking a bus from Montgomery BART station. Usually when elderly Chinese folks on BART ask me how to get to Chinatown, I tell them to follow all the other Chinese people who get off at Montgomery Station (I am serious) because I don't know which MUNI buses go to Chinatown anymore. There's also SF's Richmond district (more residential area) which has the second "Chinatown".
Sadly, both Chinatowns are desperately in need of a refresh. SF Richmond's Chinatown is a bit "newer" (ie, less than 100 years old) but lacks senior activities. "Younger" (ie, middle-aged or younger) folks go to 99 Ranch supermarket/mini malls which can be demographically unpredictable in terms of Cantonese vs. Mandarin speakers.
My dad stays active with senior ballroom dance groups (SF Chinatown) and takes ESL classes at the Community College of SF Downtown campus (off Powell BART station). My family is not religious, and since my mom passed, we stick with bare minimum Chinese customs. If your mom's used to using her RFID transit pass in HK, she should be fine navigating with SF's Clipper card based public transit. (Thanks to BART/MUNI, my parents used to visit my sister in Boston and comfortably navigated around its T public transit system with ease for Chinatown visits.)
If you'd like, I can check with my dad on the specific details about senior activities when I see him this weekend for the new year activities.
Good luck and happy new year!
Hm... if there's a wormhole connecting Temescal with Park Slope there's definitely one between HK and SF. So you may not know that many Chinese immigrants of a certain generation in North America hail from Guangdong Province, from the Pearl River Delta to be precise. Many live in SF, including many HK immigrants. She need only go to Oakland or SF Chinatown to hear Cantonese spoken. Perhaps a couple places to start are https://www.cccsf.us in SF and in Oakland, http://oacc.cc which is next to 19th St. BART. Lots of people can live here speaking only or nearly only Cantonese. There's a big senior citizen dance scene here (tango etc.) too with lots of Chinese folks- Allegro in Emeryville, Lake Merrit Dance Center at the Oakland Veterans Building. These are pretty easy to get to via BART and bus and def. BART and Lyft
The Outer Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco is great. My wife's family is originally from Hong Kong and every time they would come out from NY to visit us they were always excited that Cantonese was the 1st language spoken at most of the restaurants and hk-cafes along Irving, Noriega (between 19th & 40th). They would go play tennis at the community center against other retired folks who also happened to be from HK. We were a bit sad to leave the neighborhood but there no way we could afford to buy a house in SF. The Outer Richmond neighborhood has a few stretches as well along Geary and Clement... We're hoping to tap into some of the same Cantonese heritage somewhere out here in the East Bay now that we're in El Cerrito. I'm gwailou and my wife's mandarin is better than her Cantonese but we're hoping to introduce our son to his cultural heritage as well. Good Luck!
You didn't mention where your mom will be living, as each community will have a different set of resources. If she is on the East Bay, she should check out the Chinese Independent Baptist Church of Oakland (CIBC) in Oakland Chinatown. They have a thriving Cantonese speaking senior citizen group.