Chinatown
- Alternative meanings: Chinatown (disambiguation).
Chinatowns were formed in the 19th century in many areas of the United States and Canada as a result of discriminatory land laws which forbade the sale of land to Chinese outside of a restricted geographical area and which promoted the segregation of people of different ethnicities. However, the location of a Chinatown in a particular city may change over time.
Chinatown in San Francisco
In Chinese, Chinatown is usually called in Mandarin Chinese TÃÂáng rÃÂén jiē (唐人街), meaning "the street of the Tang people" (an uncommon term for "the Chinese"). Indeed, some Chinatowns are just a street, such as Fisgard Street in Victoria, British Columbia. In Cantonese, it is Tong yun fau, which literally means "Tang people town".
A more modern Chinese name is HuÃÂábÃÂù (華埠), or "Chinese City" , which is used in the semi-official Chinese translations of some cities' documents and signs. BÃÂù, pronounced sometimes as fÃÂù, usually means "seaport"; but in this sense, it means "city" or "town." The literal word-to-word translation of "Chinatown" is ZhōngguÃÂó ChÃÂéng 中國城), which is occasionally used in Chinese writing.
In francophone countries such as France and Quebec, Canada, Chinatown is often referred to as quartier chinois and the Spanish-language term is usually barrio chino. Other countries also have names for Chinatown in local languages.
Between the periods when the gold rushes on Gum shan ("Gold Mountain") went bust and the transcontinental railroads were completed, the Toisan-speaking Chinese farm laborers, many of whom already had expertise in farming techniques, worked in the agricultural industry of California's Central Valley, and there they formed small rural Chinatown enclaves in white farming communities.
In frontier ("Wild West") and rural Chinatowns, a Chinese general store also provided a post office, bank, townhall, translation services and local stomping ground for the Chinese population. Examples of rural and small town Chinatowns include the communities of Locke and Weaverville, located north and northwest of San Francisco, California. Others include a "China Alley" in the Central Valley town of Hanford, California and a site in Butte, Montana. Extinct Chinatowns include the ones in San Luis Obispo, California, Walnut Grove, California, Rio Vista, California, Lillooet, British Columbia, Nevada City, California, Barkerville, British Columbia, Strathcona, Alberta, Deadwood, South Dakota, and Reno, Nevada. Nowadays, these small, early Chinatowns tend to serve as museums rather than areas of bustling commerce as is the case in their urban and suburban counterparts. While most of these frontier-era Chinatowns have largely disappeared, their remnants and other small Chinatowns still standing can be found, especially in the western region of the U.S. The majority of restaurants in these particular Chinatowns tend to prominently display Budweiser beer signs and serve American Chinese cuisine, such as chop suey. The old rural/frontier and urban Chinatowns were often stereotyped for having ethnic Chinese-owned launderers (although they have now widely disappeared in most of the old urban Chinatowns) and the stereotype no longer persists.
In recent years, several excavations have been made and some remnants of the rural Chinatowns were unearthed such as in San Luis Obispo, California. Many early Chinatown artifacts and pieces can be found in some local museums.
In the early years of Locke, California, the Chinese American population was booming and thus led to a creation of the local chapter of the Kuomintang.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the Chinese Americans (i.e., to say descendants of the earliest Chinese immigrants) were generally better-educated and often spoke more fluent English than their parents and grandparents—and also lost much fluency in the Chinese language during acculturation in American society—moved out of the rural regions and resettled in the major cities. There have been no new Chinese immigration to these towns. Nowadays, there are few remaining pockets of ethnic Chinese that live in these small rural Chinatowns. The extant Chinese American population in these particular rural Chinatowns are aging and slowly dying out.
On the other hand, many large American and Canadian cities now have more than one Chinatown—an older mainly urban one, and others attached to newly created suburban communities. The early Chinese immigrants settled in major North American coastal cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, thus giving those cities historic and bustling old Chinatowns that still stand today and essentially serving as anchors for another wave of ethnic Chinese immigration. The suburban Chinatowns were generally established in the 1970s, and were the result of two factors: The relaxation of Chinese immigration restrictions (the Chinese Exclusion Acts previously enacted in 1882 in the United States and in 1923 in Canada), and the passage of laws that forbade racial discrimination in real estate.
The new Chinatowns and old Chinatowns have a number of differences. Traditionally, the older Chinatowns tended to be separate communities apart from the rest of American society and contained strong internal institutions such as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in New York City and the Six Companies in San Francisco. These institutions served as quasi-governments and mediated relationships between Chinese and non-Chinese.
The older Chinatowns are more traditional and tend to be tourist attractions with restaurants serving both American Chinese cuisine and authentic cuisine. In addition, many old Chinatowns are situated near large downtown areas (i.e., metropolitan areas). The new Chinatowns tend to cater to ethnic Chinese, with authentic Chinese restaurants and shopping centers with Chinese merchants. Also, the suburban Chinatowns tend to have a wider range of Chinese cuisine (for example, Taiwanese and Islamic Chinese cuisine) and more modern style cafÃÂés, boba shops, coffeeshops, teahouses, chic boutiques, specialty stores (e.g., stores specializing in wireless phones, Asian popular culture, computer repair services), nightclubs, and karaoke bars (or KTV parlors) that tend to cater and appeal to younger Asian Americans and Canadians. The current Taiwanese fad of boba milk tea has especially spread in the satellite Chinatowns. The older Chinatowns have been slower to catch on to these newer trends and thus, the penetration of such fads is fewer. This is largely explained by the considerably larger population of older-generation Chinese (many of whom understand little or no English), lower income levels, and lack of available real estate in many of the urban Chinatowns.
As a side note, Taiwanese noodle and dumpling restaurants are typically small eateries with 10 or fewer tables and are rarely found in the old urban Chinatowns. Instead, many of these restaurants have cropped up in the newer Chinatowns and generally have menus written entirely in Chinese.
Conversely, a larger concentration of small mom-and-pop grocers (often with outdoor produce stands protruding onto sidewalks), dim sum bakeries, take-out delicatessens (most are seen displaying roast Peking duckss and roast pigs on the windows), and bazaars can be found in the older and traditional Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns whereas there are relatively fewer of them in the suburban Taiwanese-dominated (and also the Cantonese-dominated Richmond, BC) "Chinatowns." Dim sum in suburban Chinatowns, however, is available in expensive, full-service and not to mention, overcrowded, Cantonese seafood restaurants during the morning and midday. In urban Chinatowns, the dim sum bakeries—usually with limited amount of seating—are often frequented by middle-aged and elderly North American Chinese. In some cases, the bakeries may also serve as a local social gathering for these seniors; e.g., to play chess or the Chinese game of mahjong.
In all major cities with older, albeit formally recognized, Chinatowns, many nearby freeways and expressways have off-ramp signs indicating and pointing to the older urban Chinatowns. Some cities provide directional signs to them along the way as well, such as in San Francisco. With no such signs, the suburban Chinatowns can be indistinguishable and more difficult to find without general coordinates. An example of this is Monterey Park, California.
Metropolitan Chinatowns can often be easily distinguished by large red gateways with bronze lion statues on the opposite sides of the street that greet visitors. Historically, these gateways were donated to a particular city as a gift from the Republic of China government. Many of the businesses are more clustered and centralized in the older and cramped Chinatowns, making it easier to walk between merchants. Street parking in many urban Chinatowns is scarce (often causing several Chinatown businesses to lose customers and relocate to the suburban Chinatowns) and is metered, especially on weekends. In contrast, the newer suburban Chinatowns, typically huge shopping centers with dedicated parking areas, tend to be more dispersed, decentralized, and spread out over a wider area making it quite difficult to go around without viable transportation.
Early Chinese immigrants to urban Chinatowns were mostly from the Taishan area, close to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China. They were mainly impoverished male laborers who often left their family behind in China and some of the meager wages they earned in North America would be channeled back to their families. They immigrated to the U.S. and Canada in the 19th century to lay railroad tracks, work in the gold mines of California and Yukon, work on farms, and do laundry for the miners. Taishanese was the de facto official dialect of many Chinatowns. Today, the old Chinatowns are still heavily populated by Taishanese and Cantonese people (the former is slowly being overshadowed by other Chinese dialects), although as part of the American "melting pot" ideology, most of the "assimilated" second-generation and other descendants of the early immigrants have merged into the general non-Chinese population. In addition, many Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians, especially those who speak Chinese, have also settled and established businesses in or nearby Chinatowns thus creating a unique mix of Asian culture and heritage. There have been very little Taiwanese immigration to the old Chinatowns.
These new Chinatown developments often displaced long-time residents, especially in areas that were once predominantly Caucasian. As white Americans either relocated to other communities (see: white flight) or passed away, many long-standing "white" businesses were absorbed and supplanted by ethnic Chinese ones. For instance, in Monterey Park, California, in the late 1980s, a Safeway market was converted into a Chinese supermarket (it has since changed hands several times and it is now part of the major 99 Ranch Market chain). In the same city, as the demographics changed, a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant became a Taiwanese cuisine fast-food deli, a pharmacy turned into a ginseng specialty shop, and other older buildings were purchased and razed to clear the way for new Chinese shopping center developments. However, this is not the case in Richmond, British Columbia. Many ethnic Chinese Canadian businesses currently co-exist with mainstream retail stores such as Canadian Tire and Chapters.
The precedence was set by Monterey Park as it became one of the first U.S. suburban cities to contain a Chinese American majority (41.2% of the population as of 2000). The trend of ethnic Chinese immigration would essentially transcend to other parts of the United States and also Canada and Australia (where new suburban Chinatowns would be formed as well). New Chinatown areas would also be formed in urban cities that traditionally have not had a Chinatown, such as in Atlanta, Georgia.
Although the popular image of Chinatown is urban and crowded, Monterey Park, Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel, and Bellaire Boulevard in Houston have quite interesting and unique architecture which is a mixture of freestanding storefronts, large shopping centers and shopping malls found in American suburbia and traditional Chinese motifs.
Interestingly, tourist guides (e.g., bus and walking tours) and travel publications (including those published by official city, state, and provincial visitors bureaus) invariably refer to the more traditional old Chinatowns without mentioning the much larger, modern and vibrant new Chinatowns.
Many urban Chinatown-based development and visitors bureaus maintain official tourist-oriented Web sites containing extensive lists of Chinatown businesses, maps, and upcoming events. A large number of less-touristy satellite/suburban Chinatowns do not have such Web sites. Please see the section entitled External links on the bottom of this article for several examples of these Web sites.
The Chinese in the new Chinatowns, many of whom are wealthy professionals, tend not to be isolated from the rest of American society, and the institutions of the new Chinatowns, such as Asian Chambers of Commerce, are much less powerful. Also, in contrast to Chinese immigrants of the 19th century, there are large numbers of Chinese who live outside of Chinatown in suburbia. In contrast to the old urban Chinatowns, many, if not all, of the Chinese living in these communities—especially Chinese American bankers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate agents—are able to communicate more fluently in English as well as Chinese (whether Mandarin or Cantonese). Ethnic Chinese living in the suburban Chinatowns who understand very little to no English tend to start small family-run businesses such as Chinese bakeries, restaurants, video rental stores, and curios shops.
In the 1900s, the US-educated democratic revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen visited many old Chinatowns to gain moral and financial support of Chinese Americans for his cause against the ruling Qing government and later to gain support for his fledging Kuomintang, a pan-Chinese establishment, that prior to 1949 was based in Mainland China. There are also differences in the relationships between the Chinatowns and various Chinese political actors. Chinese politics in many old Chinatowns were dominated by the Kuomintang party tied to Taiwan. In newer Chinatowns, there are significant numbers of supporters of Taiwan independence who were estranged from the Republic of China government before the 1990s but who have been drawn much closer since the mid-1990s as the government on Taiwan has become more localized. Until the mid-1980s, the People's Republic of China generally ignored the Chinatowns in the United States, but more recently the PRC has made a stronger and somewhat successful attempt to gain sympathy and influence within American Chinatowns. Both the People's Republic of China and Republic of China governments tend to be established in cities with large Chinese populations and both attempt to maintain close relationships with leaders of Chinatowns.
The Los Angeles Chinatown is a hotbed of ardent Kuomintang support.
A commercial phenomenon that has arisen in the last several years on the East Coast of the United States is that of the Chinatown bus lines, which provide discounted fares and flexible schedules between many different Chinatowns. Such services started out catering to the local Chinatown community, with the first route linking New York and Boston, but have generally become a favorite of travelers of all ethnicities as well.
In the late 1990s, immigration from Taiwan began to decrease, and new Chinese immigrants consist of two groups: well-educated professionals from the People's Republic of China, who tend to work in high-tech areas, and undocumented aliens from Fujian province working mostly in service industries. There has been relatively little immigration into the United States from Hong Kong, with most emigrants from Hong Kong ending up in Canada, usually Vancouver, British Columbia or Toronto, Ontario. In addition, after the Vietnam War, ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese immigration had steadily increased during the 1980s.
With figures based on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, New York City and Flushing, New York remained the top choice of immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, China. Throughout the 1980s, the Los Angeles cities of Monterey Park and the San Gabriel Valley region attracted more Taiwanese. Both cities now attract mainly new Chinese-Vietnamese and a smaller number of Hong Kong immigrants.
In the U.S., this change is a result of stricter requirements and the limited U.S. immigration quota (approximately 5,000 per year; formerly 600 per year in the pre-Reagan era) allotted for the SAR, compared to 20,000 per year for a country.
Canada offers easy entry for any family rich enough to invest in the Canadian economy. One can practically buy a citizenship by opening a small business in Canada. Vancouver attracts most of the Hong Kong emigrants because of its milder climate compared to the rest of Canada.
Some of the older Chinatowns continue to attract naturalized working class mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian Chinese immigrant families. In some cases, many families often use them as a stepping stone for later integration and social mobility into North American society. For example, once they have completed vocational training or accumulated enough capital to start their own businesses, the immigrant groups often move to suburban Chinatown communities.
The largest and most prominent is North America is the San Francisco Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking with some Hakka, though has seen a rise in Mandarin-speaking immigrants. While the downtown Chinatown is the Chinese cultural center, smaller neighborhoods in the Richmond (Geary Avenue, Clement Street) and Sunset (Noriega Street, Irving Street west of 19th Avenue) districts have developed in recent years, coexisting with ethnic Russian and Korean businesses. San Francisco Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows. After President Richard M. Nixon's historic visit to the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s, the arrival of new Chinese immigrants to the San Francisco area helped "diversify" and introduce new Chinese cuisine from many regions throughout mainland China in its Chinatown—the restaurants previously served mainly Cantonese and unauthentic Chinese-American fare.
In the Greater Los Angeles area, there are several suburban Chinatowns throughout the San Gabriel Valley (see the Asian American communities section of that article for specific streets). In the city of Los Angeles proper, the old inner-city Chinatown was built during the late 1930s (indeed, the second Chinatown to be constructed in Los Angeles). Formerly a "Little Italy", it is presently located on Broadway Avenue and Spring Street near Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles. A statue honoring the Kuomintang founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen adorns the more touristy area in the northeast section.
The suburban city of Monterey Park (蒙特利公園), nicknamed "Little Taipei," was among the first satellite Chinatowns to be developed and once contained a large Taiwanese population, but due to the in-migration of affluent Taiwanese Americans to other suburbs in the early 1990s, their numbers have dwindled and the Cantonese-speakers have gradually become predominant in the city. For example, there are many more competing large Hong Kong seafood restaurants found within the city than tiny Taiwanese noodle and dumpling restaurants. Since the mid-1980s and on, Monterey Park has experienced continual immigration of working-class mainland Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese. In this city and adjacent areas, the number of Taiwanese-owned supermarkets actually began to decline and many Chinese Vietnamese entrepreneurs have since started ethnic Chinese supermarkets large and small (some of these markets are called sieu thi in Vietnamese). Some notable examples of Chinese Vietnamese-owned supermarket chains include Hong Kong Supermarket and Shun Fat Supermarket and these cater mainly to Pan-Chinese customers.
To the north of Monterey Park, the satellite Chinatown in the city of Alhambra has rapidly grown during the 1980s and it is home to the largest Hong Kong immigrant population within Los Angeles. The neighboring city of San Gabriel (聖蓋博) still has the largest Taiwanese-dominated community in the area (along with the more upscale San Marino and Arcadia, California), while the "Chinatown" in the city of Los Angeles remains tiny, touristy, and Cantonese-speaking . However, the larger population of Taiwanese and smaller pockets of Cantonese are not actually segregated and they do intermingle and interact in suburbia. In this case, Mandarin Chinese remains the lingua franca between these groups. San Gabriel has a population of 13,376 Chinese-descent residents as of the 2000 Census and the city contains a somewhat more vibrant, trendier, and "diverse" satellite Chinatown than Monterey Park with a long row of Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and Hong Kong Chinese businesses. The main thoroughfare of Alhambra and San Gabriel is Valley Boulevard. Another so-called suburban "Chinatown," so to speak, includes the Taiwanese-driven Rowland Heights (羅蘭崗 - approximately 20 miles east of the Los Angeles Chinatown) with its fragmented smattering of shopping centers.
The upscale southern Orange County city of Irvine (爾灣二店), located several miles south of Disneyland, contains yet another Taiwanese-dominant satellite Chinatown.
Other examples in California are suburban Milpitas and Cupertino in the south San Francisco Bay Area. Milpitas and Cupertino are located in the Silicon Valley, where large numbers of Taiwanese Americans are employed in the high-tech industry.
Across from San Francisco, the urban Chinatown of Oakland had existed since the days of the California gold rush but remained economically stagnant for many years. However, this Chinatown saw much development during the 1990s after an exodus of Chinese American merchants—who were already experiencing stiff and ever-growing competition and rising costs of rent in the San Francisco area—across the Bay Bridge and increased immigration from mainland China, Vietnam, and Thailand. It still retains the traditional aspects and characteristics of an older Chinatown.
Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown, although it is now comprised mostly of Vietnamese American businesses.
New York being an exception to many things, Flushing is hardly suburban, and the Manhattan Chinatown still has many Chinese markets and other businesses, as well as a large Chinese-American population, including first-generation immigrants who speak little or no English and work in garment factories in the neighborhood.
New York City, in particular, contains a strong mainland Chinese presence. The Chinese that settle in New York City are often undocumented immigrants from the Fujian province of China. Although the Min-nan that they speak is similar to Taiwanese (Hokkien and Hoklo), there is relatively little social interaction between Fujianese and Taiwanese and indeed between the Fujianese and professionals and students from Mainland China. Although they would ordinarily have very little chance of gaining legal status, a large number of Fujianese benefited from the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1993 which granted permanent residence to PRC nationals in the United States as of 1990 regardless of whether they were students or not.
There are some notable Chinatowns in Canada.
Richmond near Vancouver, British Columbia is also an exception to North American Chinatown trends described above. Unlike the Mandarin-dominated new Chinatowns in the U.S., Richmond is practically a "HongKongTown." It is quite possibly the largest Chinatown in North America, complete with several malls, a large grocery store and an endless number of restaurants and small businesses. As of 2002, one-third of Richmond's population of 166,219 is people of Chinese descent—which is approximately 55,000 people. "HongKongTown" is 10 kilometres south of Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway; its main street is No. 3 Road. The main centre of the older Vancouver Chinatown is Pender Street in downtown Vancouver, which is also, along with Victoria's one street Chinatown on Fisgard, one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America, and is the setting for several novels and well-known biographies. Vancouver's Chinatown contains the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park; the garden is one of the largest Ming era-style Chinese gardens outside China.
A very small Chinatown can be found in the provinical capital of Victoria, although it is mostly touted as a tourist attraction.
Toronto's largest Chinatown is centred on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. There are multiple other Chinatowns throughout Toronto's suburbs. The Markham area is noted for its large concentration of Chinese strip malls. Toronto's Chinatowns include businesses from several regions of China, but they also are dominated by businesses set up by Hong Kong companies as well as immigrants from Hong Kong and their families.
Montreal's Chinatown is around St-Urbain and St-Laurent streets between René-Lévesque and Viger. The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois (literally 'Chinese District') in French. Over the years, Vietnamese Canadians have set up shops in the area as well.
Entrance to the London Chinatown decorated for Chinese New Year 2004
Some European Chinatowns have extraordinary histories. As a legacy of European colonialism in Asia, many Asian subjects of Continental empires immigrated "back" to the so-called "mother country" after various independence movements took hold. For example, Chinese Indonesians have settled in the Netherlands. In 1998, many more Chinese Indonesian immigrants arrived to escape the violent pogroms in Indonesia towards ethnic Chinese (mainly as a result of the Asian financial crisis of 1997). Singaporeans and Malaysians of Chinese heritage have migrated to the United Kingdom. These aforementioned groups make up the overseas Chinese population. Some Chinese from the former Portuguese colony of Macau have resettled in Portugal. After the defeat of the French in the Indochina War in 1954, in which France lost its last vestiges of its colonial empire, many Vietnamese exiles and refugees came to Paris. And again, after the fall of Saigon, at the close of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese "boat people" came to France in the late 1970s and 1980s and began settling in Chinatown. Apart from the Western sphere of influence in China, the country as a whole was not a colony of a foreign maritime power. Many mainland Chinese have also contributed to the development of Chinese communities in Europe.
On the Chinese New Year, there is a great parade through the streets, with lion and dragon dances.
Unlike its neighbour Australia, there have been little ethnic Chinese immigration to New Zealand.
However, unlike the Chinatowns of North America and Europe, the numbers of pure-blood Chinese is relatively few due to minute Chinese immigration to Latin America. Residents of Latin American Chinatowns tend to speak a mishmash of Chinese and Spanish. Some Latin American Chinatowns (Spanish plural: Barrios chinos) include those in Mexico City, Mexico (Distrito federal), Havana, Cuba, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. These Chinatowns mainly serve as tourist attractions, rather than servicing any extant local Chinese-speaking population.
Turf wars have been common in the older Chinatowns. Gang rivalry among Chinatown gangs has sometimes been high profile. As Chinatowns tend to be tourist attractions, tourists in Chinatowns have sometimes been victims of these gang warfare crimes. In 1977, a shoot-out in a San Francisco Chinatown restaurant (where the rival gang were normally based) occurred, in which two tourists and several waiters were murdered by stray gunfire in a botched assassination attempt on a Wah Ching gang member. This incident is notoriously known as the Golden Dragon Massacre and it mobilized the San Francisco Police Department to create a Asian crime unit.
However, the suburban Chinatowns are not entirely immune from the acts of extortion. In the so-called "HongKongTown" of Richmond, British Columbia, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) arrested six male suspects in connection with extortion that involved assaulting a Chinese Canadian waiter and then vandalizing the restaurant in 1999.
Many Chinese victims in Chinatown are often reluctant to report any incidents of gang harassment to authorities because they fear possible retaliation. First-generation immigrants, who often speak limited English, may be in the country illegally, or have a general distrust of the police. Indeed, many immigrants came from countries where the police intimidated the population, such as with Communist China and Taiwan's martial law under President Chiang Kai-shek. In Hong Kong, until recently, the police were often corrupt and ineffective.
Some of these social problems have been the subject for several Hollywood police films such as The Corruptor (set in New York Chinatown but filmed in Toronto's Chinatown), starring Hong Kong star Chow Yun-Fat, and Year of the Dragon with Mickey Rourke.
There have been programs between Chinatown community members and the local police working together to improve the safety of Chinatowns. A notable improvement has been the urban Chinatown in Los Angeles. Police departments in other cities are developing Chinatown outreach programs.
Interestingly enough, there were rumours circulating around Chinese communities and the Internet (especially with e-mail chain letters) to avoid certain Chinese restaurants and supermarkets in many urban and suburban Chinatowns because there they could have allegedly contracted the virus. Some authorities have theorized these warnings were initiated by rival competing Chinese businesses. There was no factual basis found for these claims.
Some Chinatowns hold an annual "Miss Chinatown" beauty pageant, such "Miss Chinatown San Francisco", "Miss Chinatown Hawaii", or Miss Chinatown Houston" (just to name a few examples).
Names
Chinatowns in North America
In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America: frontier and rural Chinatowns, urban Chinatowns and suburban Chinatowns.Frontier and rural Chinatowns
Several small towns in the western United States and Canada have or once had a Chinatown that sprang up as a result of early Chinese settlement during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of the Chinese that formed these Chinatowns were from the primarily rural Sze Yap ("Four Districts") region of Guangdong province of China, including speakers of Toisan (Pinyin: Taishan)and Chong-san (Pinyin: Zhonghshan) Chinese (these are various subdialects of Cantonese Chinese). Experiencing hardships, especially discrimination and prejudice in the big cities, the Chinese banded together and established their own distinct communities in the frontier areas. In many cases, Chinese were forbidden either through explicit laws or implicit agreements from purchasing land or residing outside of their enclaves.Origins
Locations and layout
Decline
Urban and suburban Chinatowns: old vs. new
Atmosphere and offerings
Locations and landmarks
Ethnic origin of population
Rise of satellite Chinatowns
The new Chinatowns were formed starting in the 1970s when a new wave of Chinese immigrants began coming mainly from Taiwan and Fujian.
These new immigrants, who spoke Mandarin Chinese and Hokkien, generally did not find the old Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns attractive as they were deemed overcrowded, congested with traffic, and located in the worst parts of major cities. Also, due to the high-tech boom in Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s, many new millionaires invested in developing new Chinese communities in the U.S. The trend usually started with a huge Chinese supermarket or strip mall, leading the new immigrants to settle nearby for convenience. These new communities were also attractive to new immigrants from mainland China after the PRC government opened up the border for emigration in the 1980s and 1990s, and gradually the neighborhood turns into a new Chinatown. Neighborhood evolution
Architecture and attractions
Professionalism and occupations
Politics and activism
Inter-Chinatown transportation
Immigration trends in North America
The major cities of Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver continue to be magnets for Chinese-speaking immigrants. Generally speaking, there has been very little Asian immigration to the Midwest and Southern states of the United States and certainly the Maritime provinces of Canada. Specific U.S. Chinatowns
California
Georgia
In the Atlanta area, fledging new Chinatowns are in the suburbs of Doraville and Chamblee.New York
The old Chinatown of New York City is centered around Canal Street in Manhattan, but at least two other satellite Chinatowns have cropped up in Flushing, Queens and in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Some portions of Manhattan's Little Italy are being engulfed by Chinatown. Nevada
The only Chinatown in Las Vegas was initially just a large shopping center called "Chinatown Plaza." It is the so-called "first master planned Chinatown in America" with the Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market (大華超級市場) serving as its anchor. The plaza location is west of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15 at 4255 Spring Mountain Road. However, as the Chinese American community continues to grow in Las Vegas (itself the fastest-growing city in the U.S.), many adjacent shopping centers have been developed while others are still in the planning and development stages. Given its more recent development, it closely resembles many of the satellite Chinatowns found in California; however, it also has had the distinction of being officially designated a "Chinatown" by the city of Las Vegas. Chinatown, Las Vegas.Oregon
The Chinatown in Portland comprises the streets between Burnside Avenue and Union Station along the Willamette River. The entrance is marked by a pair of lions at the corner of 4th and Burnside. When compared to the more well-known Chinatowns in California and Seattle, Washington, Portland's Chinatown is generally inactive with only a handful of restaurants (including a 1940s-era chop suey restaurant) and no Chinese markets. Texas
Yet another example is Houston, Texas where there is an old and largely disappearing Chinatown near the Convention Center, and a new Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard in the Western part of the city. See: Chinatown, Houston.Specific Canadian Chinatowns
British Columbia
Ontario
Quebec
Alberta
The cities of Edmonton and Calgary also have lesser-known Chinatowns.Chinatowns in Asia
Southeast Asia contains a large concentration of overseas Chinese, ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China and settled in countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, and Vietnam centuries ago. During the years of European colonialism in Southeast Asia, many Chinese arrived in these countries to find work, often causing ethnic tension between them and the "native" population; in particular, between ethnic Chinese Malaysian Buddhists and Malaysian Muslims. These ethnic Chinese arrived from southern mainland China and were mainly Chinese people of Cantonese (Vietnam, Malaysia), Hokkien (Singapore, Malaysia), Hakka (Indonesia), Teochew (Cambodia, Thailand), and Chiu Chow (Cambodia) stock. The ethnic Chinese represent a large minority in most of these countries—with Singapore being the exception where Chinese-origin Singaporeans form the majority. More recent Chinese immigrants have settled in the East Asian countries of South Korea and Japan, thus forming new Chinese enclaves in those countries.Japan
The city of Kobe has a growing Chinatown (Japanese: Nankinmachi). In Nagasaki, its Chinatown (Shinchimachi) was founded in 1698 AD. Malaysia
Petaling Street serves as the centre of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking. Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown (Vietnamese: Cholon) district has been a stronghold for the Chinese-Vietnamese community. Chinatowns in Europe
France
Paris boasts of le plus grand quartier chinois (the largest Chinatown) in Europe. Located in the 13th arrondissement, the area consists of Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian merchants. Roughly speaking, the area extends between and around the avenue d'Ivry and avenue de Choisy streets, east of the rue de Tolbiac. One major point of attraction is the Tang FrÃÂères and Paristore supermarkets, selling Asian products, located close to each other.Italy
Italy has a rapidly-growing Chinese population. The country has had a very small Chinese population since World War II, but most of the current population has arrived since the 1980s. Between 60,000 to 100,000 Chinese are thought to be living in Italy. Rome has several small Chinatown districts, called Las Chinatowns. The fastest-growing Roman Chinatown is in Esquilino.Netherlands
Holland's Chinatown is located in the red light district of Amsterdam. About 80 kilometres to the southwest, the city of Rotterdam also has a Chinatown, on West Kruiskade. The "Dunglish" term "Chinatown" is used in the Dutch language.United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has several Chinatowns, including the older one in London, located in the Soho area. Other UK Chinatowns are found in the English cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, and in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Chinatowns in Australasia
Given its proximity to the Asian continent, Australia has and continues to witness a massive immigration of Chinese and other Asians. Chinatowns are found in the Australian cities of Sydney, New South Wales, Melbourne, Victoria and Fortitude Valley (a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland). Like their Chinese North American counterparts, Chinese Australians tend to live in many different suburbs. Chinatowns in Latin America
In the 19th century, many Chinese migrated to several Latin American countries as contract laborers (i.e., indentured servants) in the agricultural and fishing industries. They often times did not return to China. Hence, Latin American Chinatowns may include the descendants of original migrants—often of mixed Chinese and Hispanic parentage—and some recent immigrants. Cuba
The Chinese-speaking population was once large in Cuba, especially clustered around the Barrio chino of Havana. After the successful revolution of Fidel Castro in 1959, many Chinese Cuban entrepreneurs fled the country and entered the United States.[1] Nowadays, Cuba has only one Chinese-language newspaper named Kwong Wah Po, which is based in Havana's Barrio chino. Prominent Chinatowns worldwide
See also: List of ChinatownsLesser-known Chinatowns
Remaining frontier and rural Chinatowns
Social problems in Chinatown
Like many other communities, the older Chinatowns have their share of social problems. In the past and present, before Chinatowns were viewed and valued as tourist attractions, many Chinatowns have had reputations of being dilapidated ghettoes and slums. They were once the sites of brothels, opium dens, and gambling halls.
Gangs
In modern times, competing Asian street gangs and organized crime (such as the Tongs and the Hong Kong-based Triads) continue to plague the metropolitan Chinatowns including San Francisco, New York City, and Vancouver. Tongs are Chinese secret societies. There have been 'Tong wars' or 'civil wars', so to speak, between the Tong groups in the older Chinatowns. Initially, many Chinatown gangs were formed to supposedly defend the community from the lo fahn (Cantonese word and transliteration for "Caucasians"). Chinese American street gangs often have connections with the tongs and triads. Examples of such street gangs include the Joe Boys and Jackson Street Gang (after the major street of San Francisco Chinatown). Extortion
Racketeering against Chinese merchants (e.g., restaurants and shops) by the gangs is common in the older Chinatowns, especially during the Chinese New Year. Many Chinese American teenage gangs - some are the younger to jee (approximate transliteration for the "American-born Chinese") and others are slightly older yee mun (Cantonese: foreign-born) - often perpetuate the crimes. During this time, many racketeering activities are often disguised as benign dragon and lion dance performances in front of the business establishments and money is "donated" in return. (However, not all performances are done for illegal purposes. Many dances are also performed by legitimate organizations from the local community; for example, Chinatown youth groups.) Failing to pay the "protection money" to the gangs often resulted in either vandalism (such as broken windows), kidnapping, murder, or arson to the Chinese establishment or bodily harm to its owner. For example, on January 24, 2001 around Chinese New Year, in the Richmond Chinatown district of San Francisco, two Chinese restaurants were firebombed almost simultaneously. Three teenage suspects were arrested, indicted, and then sentenced to 6 years each in prison.Smuggling of immigrants
The Triads are also primarily responsible for smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States and Canada, often from China and Vietnam. In a parallel to Mexican "coyotes", these Asian smugglers are called "snakeheads". Many of these immigrants are indentured who will end up in "under the table" low-wage service (e.g., waiter, massage parlors, etc.), prostitution, and garment sweatshop jobs. Decaying Chinatowns
Many older Chinatowns such as the ones in Houston and Vancouver have been declining over the years. Social ills such as homelessness and drug-related problems occur with some Chinatowns in urban areas. For example, Vancouver's Chinatown is in close proximity to the notorious drug-infested Downtown Eastside. Hence, many vagrants are seen aggressively panhandling and sometimes causing a nuisance on the streets of older Chinatowns making it unattractive for future investment. Some visitors and local Chinese business owners are often turned away from urban Chinatowns.SARS Concerns
As previously stated, Toronto attracts the largest number of Hong Kong immigrants. Hence, many Chinese Canadians tend to travel to and from Hong Kong on a regular basis. In 2003, several deaths attributed to the outbreak of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus in Toronto prompted a major scare as it was spread by a Chinese Canadian woman who had visited Hong Kong, managed to contract the virus during her visit, and died upon her return to Canada. The panic spread across cities with Chinatowns in Canada and in the United States as many Chinese businesses urged people who had recently been traveling in China (where SARS was first reported) or Hong Kong to stay away. In addition, many Chinese restaurants and shopping centres, especially in the Chinatowns of Toronto and Markham, saw a reduction in business because of the perceived SARS threat. Thus, many Chinese Canadians and even Chinese Americans faced an economic impact on their businesses. During the peak of the hype, several businesses in Chinatowns old and new even began capitalizing on the fear by selling face masks and SARS "survival kits". To allay some of the public fears in Canada and worldwide, Canadian Prime Minister Jean ChrÃÂétien and Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman had lunch in a Toronto Chinatown restaurant to show that the restaurants and Chinatown in general were safe for tourism. Annual events in Chinatown
Most Chinatowns the world over present Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year festivities with ubiquitous dragon and lion dances and loud firecrackers, especially on Chinese storefronts. In addition, some streets of Chinatowns are usually closed off for parades, street festivals, and carnival rides. Others may also be held in a local park or school grounds within Chinatown. Chinatown in film, television and the arts
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