How Chicago’s Chinatown Built a Home Away From Home: Inside the Chinese American Service League

Chicago’s Chinatown did not simply arrive. It assembled itself, meal by meal, meeting by meeting, through translation services, shared kitchens, and the kind of human infrastructure that rarely makes headlines but shapes generations. In When Friends Come From Afar, writer Susan Blumberg-Kason documents that story through the rise of the Chinese American Service League, an organization that became both anchor and compass for immigrant families navigating a new country.

Blumberg-Kason’s own journey from Hong Kong to Chicago mirrors the larger narrative she captures. Her personal connection to CASL gives the book an intimacy often missing from institutional histories. Founded under the leadership of Bernie Wong, CASL grew from a modest service provider into a multifaceted community engine offering language education, job training, senior services, mental health support, and culinary workforce programs that helped immigrants find both employment and dignity.

Unlike many North American Chinatowns that contracted under economic and demographic pressure, Chicago’s Chinatown expanded, evolving into a cultural and economic ecosystem that continues to shape the city’s identity. Blumberg-Kason places food at the center of that story, not as trend or spectacle, but as survival, education, and bridge-building. Kitchens became classrooms. Recipes became résumés.

The book also highlights how community-centered organizations like CASL combat isolation among seniors, preserve cultural memory, and foster belonging across generations. At its core, When Friends Come From Afar is not just a chronicle of an organization. It is a reminder that cities are built not only by skyscrapers, but by people who show up, translate, teach, cook, listen, and stay.

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