Storytelling through Shared Song with Chinatown Records

Summary

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All Of It — Storytelling Through Shared Song with Chinatown Records

Podcast: All Of It (WNYC)
Host: Kusha Navadar (in for Alison Stewart)
Date: April 24, 2024
Guest: Rachelle Kwan (DJ, oral history educator, creator of Chinatown Records)
Episode Theme: How music and family histories intertwine, and how Chinatown Records preserves those connections through shared song and storytelling

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the powerful role that music plays in connecting us to our personal and family histories. Guest Rachelle Kwan, founder of Chinatown Records, joins to discuss how inherited records sparked an intergenerational conversation within her own family and Chinatown communities. Alongside listener stories and All Of It team anecdotes, the episode illuminates how songs become living records of memory, community, and love. The segment also celebrates WNYC’s “Public Song Project,” encouraging listeners to record and share public domain songs that hold personal significance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to the Public Song Project

• [00:55] Host Kusha Navadar invites participation in WNYC’s Public Song Project, seeking submissions of covers or adaptations of works in the public domain.
  • “Your song can be a cover or, you know, it could be an adaptation of a novel, a poem, hey, even a film. As long as it's based on the public domain, it's fair game.” ([00:56], Kusha Navadar)

2. Chinatown Records: Origins and Mission

• [03:48] Rachelle Kwan traces the beginning of Chinatown Records to her father’s hidden record stash, found unexpectedly under the family coffee table.
  • “I moved [the coffee table] for the very first time…and then found cases of records underneath that I’d never seen in the 20 plus years that I’d lived there.” ([03:59], Rachelle Kwan)
• The collection, spanning from the 1920s-2000s, reignited musical and cultural conversations between Rachelle and her father.
• Key insight: For Kwan, records became keys to memories, unlocking not just music but family history embedded “in my bones.”
  • “I never really thought about that music…until I saw them, until I heard them again, and I realized that they were so deeply embedded in my bones…I knew the voices.” ([05:15], Rachelle Kwan)

3. Songs as Generational Bridges

• The conversation extends to the symbolic role Chinatown Records aims to play: not just as an archive of vinyl but as an ongoing record of community and familial history.
  • “I like to think about Chinatown records…not only as vinyl records, but…it’s also to record, it’s to actively participate in recording these histories and thinking about, how does this music, how do our personal archives, how are those part of these larger histories?” ([11:59], Rachelle Kwan)

4. Notable Finds in the Archive

• [06:42] Kwan highlights a favorite: an Anita Mui album (the “queen of Canto pop”) full of Madonna covers, adored first by her father, now beloved by new generations at block parties.
  • “We're also, at the same time, creating these new memories together on stacking these memories on top of these songs…now it's a lot of people's favorite album at these Chinatown block parties.” ([06:56], Rachelle Kwan)

5. The Power of Covers

• [07:54] Kwan’s delight in cross-language covers is palpable, sharing a Chinese cover of “Proud Mary.”
  • “I love this song because whenever I play this one out and about people are like, oh, I know this song. And then once she starts singing, they're like, wait, do I know this song? And I'm like, yes, you do know this song. It's just in a different language.” ([07:54], Rachelle Kwan)

6. Audience Sharing: Songs as Memory Vessels

• [09:18] Callers and texters share family stories tied to songs. Memorable moments include:
  • Michael in White Plains recalls “Big Rock Candy Mountain” passed down three generations.
    • “My dad used to sing to him the song Big Rock Candy Mountain…the hobo song...and now I sing it to my sons…I have a band together [with them]…music is just such a central part of our life.” ([09:23], Michael)
  • Kristen in Chappaqua remembers her late brother through Nazareth’s “Vigilante man,” an “anthem to him.” ([17:58], Kristen)
  • Elaine in Long Island recounts walking into a restaurant after her mother’s passing, hearing “Stardust” by Hoagie Carmichael, her mother’s favorite. ([22:24], Elaine)
  • Grace, originally from India, movingly describes a Tamil song sung at her ill father's bedside, awakening joyful recognition and memories of her parents’ bond.
    • “…he started singing this song, which was one of my favorites. And the minute he started singing it, my dad opened his eyes and he started smiling from ear to ear.” ([24:03], Grace)

7. “Sonic Family Histories” and Oral History in Action

• [16:35] Kwan explains “sonic family histories” — using music as a prompt for elders to share life stories:
  • Clip: Rachelle and her father reminisce over making home mixtapes from film soundtracks in Hong Kong. ([16:53-17:25])
  • [25:36] Rachelle plays a cherished conversation with her grandmother (“popo”), the first time she learned about her grandmother’s life before coming to America, facilitated by music and shared listening.
    • “This is actually one of my favorite clips because this is the first time that I ever learned about my grandma's life before she became my grandma. And she talked about dancing in Hong Kong.” ([25:36], Rachelle Kwan)

8. How Community Builds the Archive

• Collections have grown through word-of-mouth—neighbors, friends, and strangers offer family records for preservation.
  • “As word spread, people from the neighborhood told their friends…and they'll DM me, they'll email me, they'll find me in Chinatown…‘Can you take it?’” ([11:31], Rachelle Kwan)
• The result: over 30 family collections, mostly New York’s Chinatown, but also San Francisco and Seattle.

9. Songs and Emotional Time Travel

• Throughout, both guests and listeners describe the uncanny feeling of a song instantly transporting them through time and memory.
  • “I feel like I've just jumped into this portal…didn’t realize how deeply embedded into my body the song was until I heard it again.” ([19:08], Rachelle Kwan)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Music’s Place in Family:
  • “Music is just such a central part of our life…maybe my dad imparted that to me and gave me that gift, and it’s very special.” ([09:36], Michael)
• On Discovery:
  • “I didn't know that you like Chinese music.” ([04:32], Rachelle Kwan, quoting her father)
• On the Archive’s Dual Meaning:
  • “Obviously we're dealing with vinyl records, but it's also a historical record of our families. It's also to record…these larger histories.” ([12:03], Rachelle Kwan)
• On Community and Connection:
  • “We can all start with our families. We can start with the music that we grew up with, the music that we love. And that's a way for us to start these conversations with people that maybe we never really had that bridge [with] before.” ([12:23], Rachelle Kwan)
• On Songs as Emotional Circuits:
  • “I feel like I've just jumped into this portal…to remember our loved ones.” ([19:17], Rachelle Kwan)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 00:55 | Introduction and call for the Public Song Project | | 03:48 | Rachelle Kwan introduces Chinatown Records | | 06:42 | Discovering Anita Mui’s Madonna covers | | 07:54 | Chinese cover of “Proud Mary” | | 09:18 | Michael shares “Big Rock Candy Mountain” tradition | | 11:08 | Kwan explains how the archive grew | | 16:35 | “Sonic family histories” explained; mixtape clip | | 17:58 | Kristen’s memory of her brother and “Vigilante Man” | | 18:49 | Grace’s ICU music therapy memory | | 22:24 | Elaine’s “Stardust” story | | 25:36 | Audio: Conversation with Kwan’s “popo” (grandmother) | | 27:54 | How to connect with Chinatown Records / closing |

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Community & Team Contributions

• Songs and memories shared by the All Of It team (e.g., El Malik Anderson’s story of “Happy Feelings” by Maze: “I thought they were saying Happy Phyllis, which is my mom’s name.” ([20:35], Kusha Navadar))
• Social shoutout: Paula Poundstone tweets about “Brand New Key” and the wish for musical time travel. ([21:55])
• Producer Simon Close’s intergenerational story of “Deep In My Heart,” recorded for the Public Song Project and linking back to his grandfather via family recollection ([26:57]).

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For Listeners / How to Get Involved

• Contribute to the Public Song Project:
  Submit your own cover or adaptation of a public domain work before May 12.
  wnyc.org/publicsongproject
• Share Collections with Chinatown Records:
  Contact Rachelle Kwan via her website: rellehkwan.com
• Attend Chinatown Block Parties:
  Look for live DJ events with Chinatown Records in New York this summer.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a heartfelt exploration of how music acts as a vessel for memory, emotion, and personal history, especially when shared across generations and communities. Through candid storytelling and the open invitation to contribute personal songs, it invites listeners to consider their own sonic family histories and the ways they might be preserved for the future.

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Transcript

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[Kusha Navadar]

All right, Unc.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

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[Kusha Navadar]

This is all of it. I'm Kusha Navadar filling in for Alison Stewart. The final day to submit to the Public song project is May 12, which means you've still got a couple weeks to record a song based on work in the public domain. Your song can be a cover or, you know, it could be an adaptation of a novel, a poem, hey, even a film. As long as it's based on the public domain, it's fair game. And if you're looking for inspiration and more resources, check out our website. We'[e-mail] publicsong project. We got links to help you explore the public domain. There are instructions on how to use your local library to research and record a song. And also there's a very special playlist of songs sent in by friends of wnyc like they Might Be Giants, Rhiannon Giddens. There's also Valerie June. Once you send your song in, here's what we'll do. First, we'll compile it into a big playlist of all the submissions, and then we'll select a few favorites to be featured on wnyc. In fact, some submitters will also get to perform at our just announced event that's at Lincoln center on July 20. The contributors who get to be featured on AIR will be picked, like last year, by a panel of judges. They include some in house names like John Schaefer of New Sounds and Paul Cavalcante of New Standards, as well as Lincoln Center Chief Artistic Officer Shanta Thake. Another one of our judges is my next guest, Rachelle Kwan, a DJ and oral history educator behind a cool project called Chinatown Records. Chinatown Records started with a music collection from Kwan's father. It's grown into an archive that spans Chinese music and more from, you know, the 1920s all the way up to the 2000s. And as part of the project, Kwan leads Workshops and what they call sonic family histories. They use the music to dive into personal connections. And, you know, using music to dive into personal connections. That's also a great place to start if you're still thinking of a song to record for the Public Song Project. So listeners, to get you in the mindset, we'd love if you would call in to tell us about a song that means a lot to you or reminds you of a loved one. It could be a song you inherited in a record collection or one you heard around the house growing up, or one that you associate with a specific experience shared with another person. And it doesn't have to be in the public domain, although if it is, get to recording it for the Public Song Project already because you are running out of time. Any song that makes you think of someone you love, we want to hear it right now. Give us a call. We're at 212-433-WNY. That's 212-433-9692. And here now to talk about Chinatown Records and how she approaches this kind of musical storytelling is Rachelle Kwan. Rachelle, welcome to wnyc.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Hi. Thank you so much for having me today.

[Kusha Navadar]

It's great to have you here. So your dad's record collection, the Seeds of Chinatown Records, what was in the collection?

[Rachelle Kwan]

Oh, you know, when I first found the collection. So I know you talked a little bit about it starting with my dad, but I think the story of how I found it is really funny. I actually was. So I'm originally from the Bay Area in California, and a few days before moving here to New York, I dropped something between the coffee table and our couch, and I moved it for the very first time in this home that I grew up in and then found cases of records underneath the coffee table that I'd never seen in the 20 plus years that I'd lived there. And, yeah, and then I was like, hey, dad, are these records? And he's like, yeah, I didn't think that you'd be interested in them because they're all Chinese music. I didn't know that you like Chinese music. And then as we were digging through them, I realized it was a lot of the music that I grew up hearing in our living room. We would have people over, his. His friends over to sing karaoke parties, and then in the car, all of these songs that I didn't really recognize until we started talking about them. So it's a lot of my dad's era. He's from Hong Kong, so it's like 80s. Very, very 80s Hong Kong.

[Kusha Navadar]

What was special to you about getting those records from your dad?

[Rachelle Kwan]

I guess I just had never really thought about. I never thought about that music all, you know, as something that was so important to me until. Until I saw them, until I heard them again, and I realized that they were so deeply embedded in my bones. I knew. I knew the voices. Like one of the. One of the people that I grew up hearing in my home was this singer called George Lam or Lamzicheng. And he was the person that I was always hearing on our way to school at my aunt's house, in the karaoke parties. And, yeah, I, you know, I love music. I've always collected records, but never really thought about Chinese records and Chinese music until I found these ones from my dad.

[Kusha Navadar]

If listeners, if you're just joining us, we're talking to Rachelle Kwan, who is the creator of Chinatown Records. And we're talking about songs that mean a lot to you, specifically because they remind you of somebody else. So if there's a song in your heart like that, give us a call, send us a text. We're at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. So, Rachelle, your archive spans the 1920s to the 2000s. What's a real gem you came across in one of your collections? Something that was interesting either for historical reasons or just because it was sentimental.

[Rachelle Kwan]

I think it was from my dad's collection. It's this album from the queen of Canto pop in Hong Kong, Mo Yin Fong or Anita Mui. And I think she has, like, at least three Madonna covers on there. And it's so funny because when I will play that record, it reminds me of my dad. I remember hearing all of these songs growing up, and then, you know, I play them at block parties. People come up and talk about how they used to listen to this song. But then we're also, at the same time, creating these new memories together on stacking these memories on top of these songs where we're thinking about these past memories from my dad. But then now it's mine and my sister's favorite album because I play it all the time. And now it's a lot of people's favorite album at these Chinatown block parties. It's her cover of Crazy for your is always our closing song. Once it comes on, everyone's like, okay, it's time to go home.

[Kusha Navadar]

We pulled a clip of a song from a mix that you made a few years ago. This is a Chinese language cover of Proud Mary. So tee up. The song, what do you like about it? How does it fit into the mix?

[Rachelle Kwan]

I love this song because whenever I play this one out and about people are like, oh, I know this song. And then once she starts singing, they're like, wait, do I know this song? And I'm like, yes, you do know this song. It's just in a different language. So I love, I love covers.

[Kusha Navadar]

Let's hear a little bit of it right now.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Sam.

[Kusha Navadar]

Listeners, we're here with Rochelle Kwan from Chinatown Records, and we're talking about music that reminds you of somebody that is important in your life. And if you have a song like that, you should give us a call. 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. We got our first caller, Michael, in White Plains. Hey, Michael, how you doing? Welcome to the show.

[Michael (Caller)]

I'm doing well, thank you. How are you?

[Kusha Navadar]

Good, thanks. What's your story?

[Michael (Caller)]

My dad was a child of the Depression, and when he was a toddler or a small child, his dad used to sing to him the song Big Rock Candy Mountain, the hobo song, on a sunny day in the month of May. And he sang it to me as a child growing up in the 60s and 70s. And now I sing it to my sons who are teenagers. And we have an amazing love of music in my family, we're all musicians, and my sons and I have a band together. And music is just such a central part of our life that we're always singing the songs, playing music, and maybe my dad imparted that to me and gave me that gift, and it's very special.

[Kusha Navadar]

Michael, that's so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. And I want to tell you that we've been looking this up. In the meantime, we believe that Big Rock Candy Mountain is in the public domain if you or anyone wants to record it for the Public Song project. And the producers pulled a little bit of magic. We have a little bit of Big Rock Candy Mountain ready for you. Here it is.

[Michael (Caller)]

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning down the track came a hobo hiking and he said, boys, I'm not turning I'm headed for a land that's far away.

[Kusha Navadar]

Beside the big shout out to our tech board op, Juliana Fonda, who did all of the work to get that ready. And Michael, thank you again so much for that call. Rachelle, you know we already heard from one caller. I'm sure we're Going to hear from more. I'm wondering how you get these albums for your collection. And if somebody wants to give something to you, can they do that?

[Rachelle Kwan]

Yeah, it's a whole family affair. So, Michael, I hope that you cover it maybe with your teenage sons. The whole project started because I have a pretty big mouth. And so I was in Chinatown having lunch with my neighbor, and I told him about my inheriting my dad's collection. And he was like, oh, you should take my grandfather's collection. You should also take this turntable, this mixer, and now you can DJ for everyone. And I was like, oh, is that how everyone becomes a dj? And so as word spread, people from the neighborhood told their friends, and then their friends of friends would just randomly reach out to me. So they'll DM me, they'll email me, they'll find me in Chinatown at events, and they're just like, oh, I have my grandfather's collection, I have my mom's collection, I have my collection. Can you take it? And so if you can find your way to me, you can absolutely share your collection with me. You know, even just in the past month, I've inherited six collections, and now it's probably up to about 30 family collections, and all of them span Chinese music. They're mostly based in Chinatown here in New York, but also in San Francisco and starting to in Seattle, too. And it's, you know, it's so cool to see each individual collection because each collection, you know, tells not only the story of this music, but the families that had these collections. I like to think about Chinatown records a little playfully, like Chinatown Records. Obviously we're dealing with vinyl records, but it's also a historical record of our families. It's also to record. It's to actively participate in recording these histories and thinking about, how does this music, how do our personal archives, how are those part of these larger histories? Like your last guest from the Schomburg, they were talking about how to look into your own archives and see those as important stories as part of this larger cultural fabric. And that's what Chinatown Records is really about. It's, you know, not only about Chinese people. Not only Chinese people listen to music and have memories about them. But we can all start with our families. We can start with the music that we grew up with, the music that we love. And that's a way for us to start these conversations with people that maybe we never really had that bridge to start those conversations before. And that's exactly what happened with my dad.

[Kusha Navadar]

It's so perfect. You bring that up because we're gonna take a quick break. But when we come back, we're gonna go into our own anthologies and we're gonna show some songs that mean a lot to us here on the all of it team. We're gonna take some more of your calls. We're gonna talk more about Chinatown Records. This is all of it. We'll be right back after this. Stay with us.

[WNYC Announcer]

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[Juana Summers]

Years since eastern Kentucky was hit with historic rain and flooding. Residents missed appeals deadlines without realizing it.

[Rachelle Kwan]

People will come three years down the line and say, hey, I want to appeal fema, and they can't.

[Juana Summers]

I'm Juana Summers exploring the challenges of receiving disaster aid on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

[Kusha Navadar]

From NPR News, today at 4 on WNYC. This is WNYC, 93.9 FM and AM820, NPR News and the New York Conversation. This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Curtis Kusha Navadar in for Alison Stewart. And we're talking about music. We're here with Rachelle Kwan from Chinatown Records, and we're talking about songs that remind you of somebody that you love, somebody that you remember. It's connected. And we've been talking with Rachelle about how records from her dad's collection started this project of taking in records that specifically look at your own anthology. And Rachelle, you know, we're hearing from listeners and listeners. Quick plug. If you have a song that reminds you of somebody specifically, we're taking your calls right now. We heard from Michael in the last segment talking about a song that his dad left him. We want to hear from you. Give us a call. Send us a text, 212-433-9692. And Rachelle, I want to talk about sonic family histories, which is part of the core elements of Chinatown Records. In fact, I want to start by playing another clip from the mix that you sent over. This one features you and your dad. Can you quickly say what's the music we're going to hear in this clip?

[Rachelle Kwan]

Yeah, this is actually. So in Hong Kong Kong, there was a lot of soundtrack music during like the 50s, 60s, 70s. And so this is from one of those, one of those albums that is just film soundtrack, backing music.

[Kusha Navadar]

Let's hear it.

[Michael (Caller)]

I do a mix with the song that I like, then I can, I can listen in music.

[Rachelle Kwan]

So you made your own mixtape?

[Michael (Caller)]

Yeah, I do. I do have a collection of.

[Kusha Navadar]

Listeners. We're talking to Rachelle Kwan from Chinatown Records and we're taking your calls about songs that remind you of somebody in your life. Give us a call. Send us a text. 212-433-9692. We got another caller here. Rachelle. This is Kristen in Chappaqua. Hey, Kristen, welcome to the show.

[Kristen (Caller)]

Hi, how you doing? Thanks for having me.

[Kusha Navadar]

Absolutely.

[Kristen (Caller)]

So I have a song that I'm not sure anybody else will have ever heard of this song, but I would be interested, interested to hear somebody has. It's called Vigilante man and it's by a band called Nazareth from the 70s. And it was a album called Razzmatazz that my brother played over and over and over again while we were on a family ski holiday in Austria. And I remember he was long haired listening to this music and I was probably a kid of six or seven and I thought he was the coolest guy ever. But anyway, I lost him at the beginning of the pandemic. And every time I play this song, it's like an anthem to him.

[Kusha Navadar]

Oh, Kristen, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm sorry about your loss and what a wonderful song and gift to have. And Richelle, you know, this is, you know, they say that smells really Stay with us. I think that sounds really Stay with us too. Has your own work kind of echoed what Kristen was talking about, having a song that reminds you of people that are passing.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Yeah. I mean, even for when I kind of got back into this Chinese music, I, you know, haven't listened to this in 20 years probably. And. But then the moment that the songs come on, I feel like I've just jumped into this portal. It's like I go back in time and I remember when I was 6 or 7 years old in the car on my way to school hearing this song, and I didn't realize how deeply embedded into my body the song was until I heard it again. And, and I think that's really what Chinatown Records is about because I'M not. You know, the DJing is part of the sonic family histories. It's the way that I DJ is I talk to my family members. I talk to the people who give me their collections. I talk to the people who come to when I dj. And if I play a song and people come up and they're like, oh, my God, I love this song. It used to. It reminds me of my mom. I'm gonna keep playing that song whenever I go out to dj. And these songs are really meant for us to think about. How do these songs actually take us back in time to remember our loved ones?

[Kusha Navadar]

We've got a text that I want to read. It says, let's do the Twist by Chubby Checker. And let's do the Twist again, also by Chubby Checker. Great memories of family gatherings with music and dancing always apart. And especially my cousin Jamesy, a great dancer who for me will always be the, quote, coolest guy on Earth. Joanne from Socrates, New York, originally from the Bronx. Shout out to Chubby Checker. Shout out to Joann. Thank you so much.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Oh, I love that.

[Kusha Navadar]

And, you know, before this segment, we, the producers of all of it, got together and shared some of our own. I want to highlight one that our producer El Malik Anderson said for a song that reminds them of family. This is from El Malik Maze featuring Frankie Beverly is such a beloved R B band among Milwaukee alongside Earth, Wind and Fire and singer Charlie Wilson. Of course, when I was younger, my dad would play their song Happy Feelings over and over again, but I was so young that I didn't know the words, so I. I thought they were saying Happy Phyllis, which is my mom's name. And I thought my dad liked it because it was about my mom. El Malik, thank you for that contribution. Here's Happy Feelings. Shout out to our teammate El Malik for bringing that to our attention. We're here with Rachelle Kwan from Chinatown Records. We're talking about music that reminds you of people you love, people in your life. What's that song? Give us a call. 212-433-9692. Or you can hit us up on social. We're at Olivet, wnyc. In fact, we just got a tweet from Paula Poundstone that reads, I used sing brand new key to my baby's first hours. What I wouldn't give to be back there. Is your station in charge of time travel? Well, I guess right now we kind of are because we're bringing people back, you know, so that's wonderful. Thank you Paula Foundstone. For that, we've also got Elaine in Long Island. Hey, Elaine, welcome to the show.

[Elaine (Caller)]

Hey, it's nice to be here. Thank you.

[Kusha Navadar]

Can you hear me? Yeah, absolutely.

[Elaine (Caller)]

Okay, great. So when my mother passed away in 20, 2010, my sister and I went into a restaurant and could not believe the song that we were hearing was my mother's favorite song. And it's something from a very long time ago because she grew up in the 1930s. The name of the song was Stardust, and it was by someone named Hoagie Carmichael. And I'm thinking that he was one of those, you know, typical era bandleaders from that time, but she was a singer, and she loved that song. So to walk into a restaurant and hear it on the loudspeaker was pretty amazing. Just, you know, the fact that she had just passed.

[Kusha Navadar]

So, Elaine, thank you so much for that. We've also got Grace in Long Island. Hi, Grace. Welcome to the show. Hi.

[Grace (Caller)]

Can you hear me all right?

[Kusha Navadar]

Yeah. Hi.

[Grace (Caller)]

Hi. So it's so fascinating hearing all of these songs about mums and dads. Mine is one as well. I'm originally from India, and a couple of years ago, my dad was really ill and was in the icu, and there was this doctor who was taking care of him. She wanted to try music therapy in the hospital. And I was visiting when she brought this guitarist to my dad's bedside in the ICU to sing a song. And, you know, in India, there are lots of. Lots of languages. So the guitarist turned to me and asked me, what language should I sing in? And I said, Tamil, which was the. Which was the language my parents spoke. And he said, I know one Tamil song. And he started singing this song, which was one of my favorites. And the minute he started singing it, my dad opened his eyes and he started smiling from year to year. And it was such a. I can visualize it so vividly even now. And we were all worried that we would lose him and to see him feel that way. And then. Right. He said, where is mommy? She really likes this song. So not only was this song so important for me, because it reminds me of that moment, but it also. Oh, my goodness. It also reflected how important their relationship was. In as ill as he was feeling, all he was looking for was my mom. So it was a very, very special song. I mean, I would say what the song is, but I don't know if it translated.

[Kusha Navadar]

I was gonna ask you, but it's okay. I think the story is enough. Grace, thank you so much. Yeah. Richelle and I are here right now just nodding our heads, teary eyed. Teary eyed. Yeah, both of us, especially me. Grace, thank you so much for that contribution. You know, I want to get in the time we have left to one more piece from Chinatown Records. Rachelle, I want to play another clip. This one features your popo, your grandmother. You're speaking Cantonese in it. Just quickly, can you give us a sense saying to each other in this clip?

[Rachelle Kwan]

Yeah. This is actually one of my favorite clips because this is the first time that I ever learned about my grandma's life before she became my grandma. And she talked about dancing in Hong Kong.

[Kusha Navadar]

Wonderful. Let's hear it. You know, you talked about the 80s being your dad's collection. That sounded a little 70s to me, which I really liked. You're gonna be Rochelle, one of the judges for the Public Song Project. So to go out of this segment, I want to share producer Simon Close's pick for a song with some family significance. This song was actually recorded by the band Freeco for the Public Song Project. It's called Deep in My Heart, and it's originally from the operetta the Student Prince.

[Rachelle Kwan]

And.

[Kusha Navadar]

And Simon picked it because he shared this recording in an interview on Morning Edition a few weeks ago. His grandmother was listening to the interview and emailed him to say that she remembered watching the 1954 film version of the Student Prince with his grandfather, who passed away a couple years ago. Sadly, his grandfather apparently loved that music. Here it is.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Deep in my heart. I have a dream of you.

[Kusha Navadar]

And Simon, thank you so much for that story and for this and for all of your work on the Public Song Project. Relle, I want to make sure if folks can get in touch with you to give you some records, what can they say do?

[Rachelle Kwan]

Yeah, they can find me on my website, relle H. Kwan.com and you can find me DJing in Chinatown all summer long with Think Chinatown. We'll be throwing our Chinatown block parties. We've got great lineup of DJs.

[Kusha Navadar]

Wonderful. Richelle Kwan is a DJ, cultural organizer, and oral historian behind Chinatown Records. Richelle, thank you so much for joining us.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Thanks for having me.

[Kusha Navadar]

And listeners, if all these songs and memories have gotten you feeling a certain way, consider contributing to the Public Song Project. If there is a song in the public domain that reminds you of a loved one, record a version of it and tell us about why the song and the person matters to you. You have until May 12th. To contribute to the Public Song Project, go to wnyc.org publicsongproject for more info. Coming up next after the break, there'll be more. All of it on the way. A live performance by jazz musician Chewbacca Hutchings. Stay with us. See you soon.

[McDonald's Advertiser]

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[Kusha Navadar]

All right, unk.

[Rachelle Kwan]

Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[McDonald's Advertiser]

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