BOSTON — Sam Yoon, a gangly City Council candidate with an adolescent face, crisscrosses Broadway Street, shaking hundreds of hands and exchanging small talk with observers lining the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

A group of his supporters, brandishing Sam Yoon campaign signs, cluster on the sidewalk and chant: “Yoon! Yoon! Yoon!”

Then Yoon hears a voice: “Get out of here! I still remember Pearl Harbor.”

Yoon stops in his tracks. As he prepares to explain to the elderly man how Koreans have a long history of opposing the Japanese, especially during World War II, the crowd silences the heckler.

In Boston, an intensely political city where racial scars are entrenched and slow to heal, Yoon wants to become the first Asian American city councilor. In New England, Asian American elected officials are a rare breed.

“In Massachusetts, Korean Americans aren’t in politics. We have a lot of work to do,” says Grace Lee, the state’s deputy treasurer, who also occupies the highest public seat for a Korean American in the New England region.

As cultural and ethnic dynamics fluctuate in the city, Yoon pledges to be a progressive voice representing the various multiethnic communities in Boston, where minorities occupy three of 13 seats on the city council.

Yoon addresses potential voters in Boston.

Yoon’s style is not flashy. He hasn’t charmed the socks off voters, nor has he cultivated a cult of personality. The Princeton- and Harvard-educated 35-year-old has a pensive demeanor. He speaks softly and deliberately, and with jet-black hair parted on the side and giant, metal-framed glasses, some say he looks like Harry Potter.

Many political enthusiasts hope he’ll stir some political magic this fall. Chi Chi Wu, the board president of the Massachusetts branch of the Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition, says Yoon’s candidacy has propelled the Asian American community to become more politically involved.

“If Sam were elected, he’d be the highest-ranking Asian American politician in the state,” Wu says. “Boston has a split personality in terms of politics. There’s the good-old white-boy bastion dominated by Irish Americans, and where there’s hope is in people like Sam, who signal a change in the political ocean.”

Since announcing his candidacy last fall, Yoon has sparked interest among Asian Americans living throughout New England. Wherever he goes to campaign, he piques the interest of Asian American Bostonians who view him as a novelty. They pepper him with questions.

“Are you Chinese?”

“Are you the first Asian to run?”

“Can I have one of your campaign signs to put on my lawn?” asks one man after talking to Yoon for less than two minutes. But Yoon seeks to broaden his appeal, which is what he needs to do to win an election in a city where Asian Americans comprise about 8 percent of the population.

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Reaching out to the wider segments of the Boston populace won’t be a problem, says Yoon. “I can relate to white middle- and working-class folks.”