The morning before Independence Day, the Chinese-dominated neighborhood of Flushing in New York City was boiling over. Close to 200 people, all Chinese, waving American flags and holding signs, gathered in front of the library in the Queens district and chanted, “We love the NYPD,” and “All lives matter.” Their voices could be heard a few blocks away.
Beside the crowd, a few dozen people, mainly in their 20s and including many Asians, held their own signs: “Black Lives Matter,” “Defund Racism.” They were outnumbered, but they still made plenty of noise, chanting at the larger group in their own persistent rhythm: “We don’t love the NYPD. But we love you.” Sometimes they chanted in Mandarin, with detectably nonnative accents.
