Rally

A divisive character who dedicated her life to improving conditions in her community, Rose Pak was San Francisco’s atypical kingmaker. An immigrant from China, she started as a journalist and activist but found her greatest success as a controversial power broker who collaborated with Mayors Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, and Ed Lee. She fought unsuccessfully against the closure of the Embarcadero Freeway, a vital link to Chinatown, but claimed victory in the building of the city’s Central Subway. Rooth Tang chronicles the work of a woman who fought to bring Chinese American issues to the forefront of discourse in this patient and probing profile of a Bay Area mover and shaker.