In a meeting room, bottles of wine and blackened sticks of incense sit in front of an altar with gilded carvings of birds, fruit and bees as large as a woman's hand. On the wall hangs an embroidery of a lion roaring by the bank of a lake, the stitches so delicate it appears, from a distance, to be a watercolor painting.
Membership in the association has dwindled, Tsang says, but a new young leader is trying to energize the group.
Asian-inspired door grates and shiny awnings meant to mimic bamboo decorate several buildings on the block, the result of a facade-improvement grant from the Downtown Partnership, says Kirby Fowler, the group's director.
Yet Fowler says that the plan to create a new Chinatown in the Station North area might be more successful than trying to reinvigorate the old neighborhood.
"Given what's going on in Station North these days, I think a new Chinatown up there would be a better bet," he says.
Many recent arrivals of Chinese descent say they don't feel a connection to the old Park Avenue neighborhood.
Xiao Zhu, the president of UMB's Chinese students association, says that new immigrants tend to meet at Chinese churches or through school groups. He calls the idea of a new Chinatown "brilliant."
"I think if there was a Chinatown in downtown Baltimore, it would feel much closer to home."
julie.scharper@baltsun.com
