Chinese American

 Astella Kung, 64, is known as the unofficial mayor of Grant Avenue, the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. A short woman who speaks in a nasally Cantonese dialect, she is the owner of Ming Kee Game Birds, a dingy shop crammed with chickens, ducks and pigeons in wire-mesh cages. Ms. Kung moved to Grant in 1971, a 24-year-old newlywed with $50 in her pocket.