Asians and Asian-Americans make up a small proportion of the city’s population.

Asians and Asian-Americans make up a small proportion of the city’s population. That proportion changes radically, though, when you look at small businesses. And thanks, in part, to small, Asian-owned businesses, posters for Republican City Council At-Large candidate David Oh are popping up citywide.

Oh explained that posters on Baltimore Avenue in West Philly were distributed by African-American volunteers, but Asian small businesses are indeed playing “a pretty significant role” in the campaign, says Oh — for reasons both economic and ethnic.

With Oh as the first potential Asian-American councilperson, Asian small-business owners “are more energized. In the past they felt they made an important contribution to the city economy but … didn’t have a meaningful voice.”

Some in the community, however, aren’t sure Oh will be that voice.

A man named Yung who answered the phone at the West Philadelphia Korean Business Association said they had yet to hear from the Oh campaign. And Ying Zhang Lin, vice president of the Chinese Restaurant Association, says that Oh can’t necessarily count on Asian small business support.

“It seems like nobody cares” about business owners, says Lin. “So I don’t know if David Oh cares because I have been trying to meet him and haven’t had a meeting.”

Lin even tried reaching out through a mutual acquaintance.

“The guy said, ‘Oh, David Oh is very busy.’ And I said, ‘Busy for what? You’re running for office!'”