Congressional candidate Chakrabarti visits Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and hosts free movie event to honor Superstar Bruce Lee

SAN FRANCISCO — District 11 Congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti visited the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) and praised its historic accomplishment in fighting for equal rights for over a century. This included the 128-year-old landmark Wong Kim Ark case, which established birthright citizenship that benefited all communities, including himself, an American-born child of immigrant parents from India.

Chakrabarti told the leaders at CCBA that it was a privilege to visit the historic CCBA, which has rewritten the American laws by filing a long list of landmark lawsuits fighting for equal rights and equal opportunities for over a century.

Chakrabarti said he has always valued Chinese culture and has sent his young daughter to a Chinese immersion school in San Francisco to study Chinese language.

With a profound history of 177 years, the CCBA, established in 1849, has been the most influential family association in San Francisco's Chinatown community. CCBA's 7-member leadership and 55-member board meet once a month to discuss issues related to their members and the Chinatown community.

Chakrabarti participated in CCBA's April monthly board meeting and made remarks highlighting his agenda in Congress if elected to succeed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring after 39 years of representing San Francisco.

Chakrabarti was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to San Francisco after graduating from Harvard University, where he majored in Computer Science. He said he was like so many others who dreamed of coming to San Francisco to make a difference, and he fell in love with the City.

After settling down in San Francisco, Chakrabarti first started his own tech company. He joined Stripe as its second engineer to build online payment technology that could stop scams and fraud for companies.

"I am here to pay homage to a pioneering institution that pooled resources and hired the finest lawyers of their time to fight in the courts for the Chinese community’s equal rights," Chakrabarti said at the CCBA meeting.

"That struggle produced landmark victories such as Yick Wo v. Hopkins and United States v. Wong Kim Ark, turning points that shaped American history and affected the lives of generations of Americans," Chakrabarti said, recognizing the significant contributions of CCBA to all communities.

"Because of your fight, families like mine could come here, build a life, and know that their children would be fully Americans. Years later, when my family helped start a Bengali community organization in Dallas-Fort Worth, Chinatown and institutions like this one were part of our inspiration," Chakrabarti continued.

"My path took me to Harvard, to tech wealth, and to public service. Today, I am raising a daughter in San Francisco, sending her to a Chinese immersion school, and running for Congress to fight corruption."

Chakrabarti spoke about his candidacy and said, "There are moments in history when the path forward is clear and possible. What matters is the willingness to step forward. I hope to be part of a generation that does. The country my parents came to built industries, prosperity, and bridges."

In regard to the relationship between the U.S. and China, Chakrabarti said, "Tariffs that strain our own families and businesses. A confrontational posture toward China risks unnecessary escalation. That is not the path to American strength."

"Just last weekend, Mayor Lurie was in Shanghai, San Francisco’s sister city of nearly 50 years, strengthening ties in culture, art, and science. This is how peace is built, even when Washington forgets how," Chakrabarti emphasized. "The work ahead is not to decouple, but to build. Not to isolate, but to engage. Not to inflame, but to make peace through mutual prosperity."

"If I have the honor of serving, my office will always be open to this community: accessible, accountable, and present," Chakrabarti added.

Additionally, Chakrabarti announced the "Bruce Lee Double Feature with Saikat Chakrabarti" event to be hosted by him and his campaign at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco's Chinatown on the evening of May 18.

Chakrabarti, who grew up in the United States as a member of the Asian community, admires the superstar and martial artist Bruce Lee.

In support of Assemblymember Matt Haney's legislation, AB 2455, to establish May 17 as Bruce Lee Day in California, an annual statewide observance honoring the San Francisco-born martial arts icon’s lasting impact on film, culture and the Chinese American community, Chakrabarti will host an event in Chinatown on May 18 to honor Lee.

Admission to the "Bruce Lee Double Feature with Saikat Chakrabarti" event is free. Registering online in advance is encouraged. Two films starring Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Big Boss (1971), will be screened. A conversation between Chakrabarti and guests will take place between two film screenings.

"Bruce Lee was more than a martial artist or movie star. He changed how Asians were seen on screen and refused to accept the limits society placed on him. He did not simply succeed within an existing system. Instead, he challenged expectations, broke through constraints, and expanded what seemed possible. His story also speaks to a broader Asian American experience shaped by migration, exclusion, adaptation, and reinvention," Chakrabarti wrote in his public online invitation for the event.

"Across generations, Asian Americans have had to find their place in a society that often saw them narrowly or not at all. Bruce Lee’s legacy endures not only because of his talent but because of the presence he established: self-defined, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore. That spirit still resonates today," the invitation stated.