Chinatowns in the Americas
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 (台山, Pinyin: Taishan) and Chung San (中山, Pinyin: Zhongshan) 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
Between the periods when the gold rushes on Gum shan ("Gold Mountain", 金山, Pinyin: Jin Shan) 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 and mining communities.
Locations and layout
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. Also included in several Chinatowns of this type were Chinese religious shrines, such as Buddhist and Taoist temples.
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 California (San Luis Obispo, Nevada City, Walnut Grove, Rio Vista, Marysville), British Columbia (Lillooet, Barkerville), Alberta (Strathcona), Nevada (Reno, Viginia City), South Dakota (Deadwood), and Wyoming (Rock Springs).
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 "Chinese" 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 laundries. In most cases, they have now widely disappeared over time 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.
Decline
In the 1880s, several rural Chinatowns were burned and destroyed by white residents. Some towns may have had two or more Chinatowns.
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. After immigration restrictions were placed on Mainland Chinese, there has 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.
Urban and suburban Chinatowns: old vs. new
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. In the early years of settlement, many of the old urban Chinatowns were involuntarily settled by Chinese immigrants due to de jure (i.e., codified by law) segregationist policies by several municipalities, states, and provinces.
The suburban Chinatowns were generally established in the 1970s, and were the result of three factors: The relaxation of Chinese immigration restrictions (the Chinese Exclusion Acts previously enacted in 1882 in the United States and in 1923 in Canada), the passage of laws that forbade racial discrimination in real estate, and improved relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China in "ping-pong diplomacy."
With the normalizing of relations, it caused elation for potential Mainland Chinese emigrants and investors and at the same time, it also caused unease among the Taiwanese and Hong Kong residents (a major "push" factor for emigration).
In the 1970s, the Mainland Chinese-born and U.S.-educated realtor Frederic Hsieh was instrumental in bringing about the development of the first suburban Chinese communities.
In sharp contrast to the old Chinatowns, these new Chinatowns were settled voluntarily but there is now some self-imposed de facto segregation.
Today, a large majority of ethnic Chinese do not necessarily reside within the old Chinatowns. While there are some Chinatown residents, many may live in surrounding neighborhoods that provide easy access to the goods and services provided in Chinatowns. Many Chinese immigrants, especially the first-generation, without cars tend to take rapid transit (such as Manhattan's subway or San Francisco's electric buses) to go shopping in Chinatowns.
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.
Atmosphere and offerings
The older Chinatowns are more traditional and tend to be tourist attractions with restaurants serving both American Chinese cuisine geared towards non-Chinese customers and authentic cuisine. In addition, many old Chinatowns are situated near large downtown areas. They are often viewed as crowded and likely so.
The visitor can literally sense the old Chinatowns that have numerous markets selling live fish and poultry, incense coming from shops, and elderly ethnic Chinese merchants sitting in front of their storefronts selling imported wares. Also, a larger concentration of small mom-and-pop grocers with outdoor produce stands protruding onto sidewalks, dim sum bakeries, take-out delicatessens with roast Peking ducks and roast pigs hanging on their windows, and bazaars can be found in the older and traditional Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns whereas there are relatively fewer of them in the newer suburban "Chinatowns."
Dim sum in suburban Chinatowns, however, is available in generally large and 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 Chinese or Western chess or the Chinese game of mahjong.
Chinatowns have many large business signs written entirely in the Chinese language and protruding out. During the day time, many old Chinatowns are usually crowded, the quintessential image, and have heavier pedestrian traffic.
Conversely, the new Chinatowns tend to truly cater to ethnic Chinese, with authentic Chinese restaurants and suburbia shopping centers with Chinese merchants. Hence, there tends to be much fewer gwei lo or white people in the new Chinatowns. Take-out delicatessens serving Peking duck and a variety of chicken are mainly attached to sit-down Chinese restaurants. Also, the suburban Chinatowns usually have a wider range of Chinese cuisine - for example, Chinese Buddhist vegetarian, Taiwanese, and Chinese Islamic cuisine - and more modern style cafés, 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 mainly cater and appeal to younger Asian Americans and Canadians. The current Taiwanese fad of boba milk tea (boba nai cha in Chinese), also known as pearl 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 visibly 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 the high cost or lack of available real estate in many of the urban Chinatowns.
Many Taiwanese-owned noodle and dumpling restaurants are typically very small eateries serving northern Chinese cuisine. They usually contain 10 or fewer tables and are rarely found in the old urban Cantonese Chinatowns. Instead, many of these restaurants have cropped up in the newer Taiwanese-founded Chinatowns and generally have menus written entirely in Chinese and serve almost an entire Mandarin-speaking immigrant customers.
Several examples of well-known suburban Chinese retail chains include 99 Ranch Market, Lollicup, Hong Kong Supermarket, Tapioca Express, Sam Woo Restaurant, Q-Cup, and Aji Ichiban in the United States and T & T Supermarket in Canada.
In many urban and some older suburban Chinatowns, many Chinese seniors can be seen performing daily Tai Chi exercises in recreation parks in the early morning hours.
Locations and landmarks
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. One would generally bypass them in an instant. An example of this are Monterey Park and Cupertino, California.
Many of the businesses are more clustered and centralized in the older and cramped Chinatowns, making it easier and suitable to walk between merchants, hence they tend to have more pedestrian traffic. With a site and situation in downtown areas, street parking in many urban Chinatowns is often scarce (sometimes causing several Chinatown businesses to lose customers and relocate to newer Chinatowns) and contain parking meters, especially in the inner-city on weekends—for example, in the old American Chinatowns of Los Angeles, Manhattan, San Francisco and Vancouver. Cars can be seen parked on the narrow streets of Chinatowns. By contrast, the newer suburban Chinatowns, typically huge shopping centers with dedicated large parking areas and structures, tend to be more dispersed, decentralized and spread out over a wider area, making it quite difficult to get around without viable transportation.
McCarthyism
Several U.S. Chinatowns were affected by McCarthyism.
Ethnic origin of population
Early Chinese immigrants to urban Chinatowns were mostly from the Taishan area, close to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China, and Zhongshan, near Macau. 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 and coal mines of California and Yukon, work on farms, man the factories, operate dry goods stores, and do laundry for the miners. On the other hand, these Chinese immigrants often lacked many employment opportunities; thus they were relegated to these jobs and some started their own businesses. Taishanese was the de facto official dialect of many Chinatowns, although there were also many Zhongshanese who dominated many businesses as well. Standard Cantonese later became the lingua franca among the groups.
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 rightist "melting pot" ideology, most of the "assimilated" second-generation and other descendants of the early immigrants have merged into the general non-Chinese population. Beginning in the 1970s, new ethnic Chinese immigrants from various areas of Asia - many of whom had practically very little common ground with the already established old-time immigrants and Chinese Americans descended from earlier Taishanese migrants - have generally taken their place, so to speak.
In addition, many Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians, especially those who speak Chinese and are ethnic Chinese and also those of non-Chinese descent, have also settled and established businesses in or nearby Chinatowns thus creating a unique mix of pan-Asian culture and heritage. Many, but not all, Chinese Vietnamese came primarily from the Cholon area - itself a Chinatown - of Ho Chi Minh City and other areas of southern Vietnam. The Chinese Vietnamese, in particular, have transformed the character of many old urban, and even the new suburban, Chinatowns by establishing small businesses in the Chinatowns in Los Angeles, Oakland, Montreal, and Toronto, although they are not always readily apparent as some Chinese Vietnamese storekeepers and restauranteurs do not use the Vietnamese language - but primarily Chinese - on their signage. With an increase in both ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese businesses in Chinatowns, they have been derisively called "Vietnamtowns" or "Little Saigons".
Due to several perceived cultural differences between the Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese and Cantonese-speaking Chinatown inhabitants (the latter being old-generation immigrants from southern Mainland China), there has been very little Taiwanese immigration to the old predominantly Cantonese Chinatowns as explained below.
Decline of urban Chinatowns
While some old Chinatowns continue to thrive, several Chinatowns in many North American medium-sized towns and urban cities have declined or disappeared. Some examples include San Jose, California; Detroit, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; and Monterey, California. The Chinatown of Stockton, California is now only a one block residential area. In the 1880s, some urban Chinatowns were destroyed by arson during several race riots instigated by white mobs. Other Chinatowns were demolished during the era of bungled urban renewal in the U.S.
Rise of satellite Chinatowns
The new Chinatowns were formed starting in the 1970s to the 1990s when a new wave of Chinese immigrants began coming mainly from Taiwan and Fujian. These new immigrants, who spoke Mandarin and Hokkien, generally did not find the old Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns attractive as they were deemed overcrowded, congested with traffic, and located in the poorer inner-city 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. In Canada, the new Chinatowns were generally developed by Hong Kong immigrant developers and investors. The trend usually started with a huge Chinese or pan-Asian supermarket or strip mall, leading the new immigrants to settle nearby for convenience. Soon, adjacent businesses (Chinese-owned eateries, boutiques, and professional services) and other shopping centers would later follow.
These new communities were also attractive to younger second-generation residents with more social mobility of the old inner-city Chinatowns described above and to new immigrants from mainland China after the PRC government under Deng Xiaoping opened up the border for emigration in the 1980s and 1990s, and gradually the neighborhood turns into a new Chinatown.
These new satellite "Chinatowns" have been called 'suburban Chinatowns' and 'mini-Chinatowns', especially by the U.S. press. However, there are many people in these communities who do not embrace those terms due to the negative connatations and perceptions attached to the Chinatown.
Neighborhood evolution
These new Chinatown developments often displaced long-time residents, especially in areas that were once predominantly Caucasian. As white Americans either relocated to other "whiter" communities in white flight or passed away, many long-standing "white" businesses were absorbed and supplanted by ethnic Chinese ones. It should be noted that several suburban business districts have already undergone some decline prior to the arrival of new Chinese immigrants. 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 (Chinese-owned and operated pharmacies do exist), a former trailer park lot was a site for construction of a major Chinese bank, and other older buildings were purchased individually and either renovated or razed collectively 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. Other businesses have adapted to changing times. For example, some retail chain locations use the Chinese language on their signage, such as Office Depot in Richmond.
These changes did not happen overnight nor all at the same time, but rather gradually and over a course of a decade. Similar transformations and conflicts between white residents and new immigrants were also felt in the Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel, California, the Silicon Valley suburb of Cupertino, California, and the Toronto suburbs of Markham and Scarborough, Ontario.
In addition to commercial business districts, residential areas also underwent major change. In Monterey Park and neighboring cities, in particular, new luxury mansions and townhouses for affluent Chinese and large apartment complexes and condominiums to house working class Chinese immigrants were built alongside older 1940s era single-family homes (once inhabited by white residents, but now also occupied by ethnic Chinese homeowners as older whites died off and white flight continued to take its course). Chinese gentrification in Monterey Park has caused property values to rise in the city. Elsewhere, other suburban Chinese American and Canadian communities have seen an increase in the development of hillside homes and gated communities geared towards prospective Chinese American homebuyers and their families. Housing developers have also attempted to meet feng shui requirements to court these homebuyers.
Also, local area public schools in suburban Chinese communities now have Asian American student majorities. The first Chinese American mayor was elected in Monterey Park. In the late 1980s, several newsmagazine programs such as ABC's 20/20 with Barbara Walters have documented Monterey Park as the microcosm of the changing face of America.
The precedence was set by Monterey Park as it became one of the first U.S. suburban cities to become the "first suburban Chinatown" and to also contain an Asian American majority beginning in the 1980s. The trend of ethnic Chinese immigration and the creation of suburban Chinatowns 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 Oklahoma City and Atlanta, Georgia.
Architecture and attractions
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), Internet sites, and travel publications (including those published by official city, state, and provincial visitor's 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 sites. Please see external links at the end of this article for several examples of them.
Professionalism and occupations
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 computer programmers, bankers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate agents, college professors—are able to communicate more fluently in English as well as Chinese (whether Mandarin or Cantonese). Ethnic Chinese living in the urban and suburban Chinatowns with limited English proficiency tend to start small family-run businesses such as small Chinese bakeries, restaurants, discount stores, video rental stores (specializing in Chinese-language films), bookstores (dealing in Chinese-language media), and curios shops.
Politics and activism
In the 1900s, the U.S.-educated democratic revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (called Dr. Sun Zhongshan in China) visited many old Chinatowns to gain moral and financial support of Chinese Americans for his cause in overthrowing the ruling, although weakening and crumbling, Qing Dynasty government and to gain support for his fledging Kuomintang, a pan-Chinese establishment, that prior to 1949 was based in Mainland China. The Chinese Americans greatly lent support to Sun.
The Kuomintang also maintained local branches in several Chinatowns. During the World War II, Chinatown leaders also supported the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek in its campaign against the invading Japan.
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 as they were bastions of Kuomintang support, 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.
In addition, there is a wave of new Mainland Chinese diaspora to the upper-class suburban Chinese communities in the United States that view Taiwan as a part of the People's Republic of China.
Since the 1970s, the old guard Taishanese in several old Chinatowns have seen some of their political power and influence somewhat wane with the arrival of Fujianese immigrants in Manhattan's Chinatown and to the ethnic Chinese Vietnamese in Los Angeles's Chinatown. For example, New York City's politicians have courted the Fujianese mainland Chinese community. On the other hands, the Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodian population - while owning about 90% of Los Angeles Chinatown's businesses - has not yet transformed into full political power.
With many recent Mainland Chinese immigrants and political dissidents arriving to the United States, there is the Falun Dafa movement and Mainland Chinese democracy activism in several North American Chinatowns.
One factor in political influence involves the legal status of the residents. In general, upper-class Chinese professionals are legal immigrants who eventually qualify for citizenship and voting rights. Many Chinese residents of Chinatowns, however, do not have legal immigrant status, and hence do not have voting rights, although the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1993 had the very unintended side-effect of legalizing the status of large numbers of immigrants from Fujian province of mainland China.
Another factor which limits political activism is the widely and conflicting political views and agendas of Chinatown residents. There are in North American Chinatowns people who both strongly support and oppose the Communist Party of China, the Kuomintang, and Taiwan independence as well as those that are indifferent to politics altogether. Furthermore, the political views and priorities of Chinatown business leaders and residents are widely mixed, with widely differing amounts of interest toward the politics of the United States (political empowerment of Asian Americans), Mainland China (Chinese nationalism, democracy, and human rights), Taiwan (questions over independence or unification), Hong Kong (democracy and the impending communist Chinese control), and Southeast Asia (rights of the ethnic Chinese minority).
The San Gabriel Valley region in Southern California is home to several contigious cities with heavy concentrations of Chinese Americans, with a wealthy, working- and middle-class population alike, and with major suburban Chinatowns, including Monterey Park. Several Hong Kong and Taiwanese-born Asian Americans, many of whom wealthy, have gained political power and have been elected to several city councils. Chinese Americans nearly form a majority on several councils - something almost unheard of elsewhere in the United States. In the past, this has been speculated by several local Chinese-language press.
The The San Gabriel Valley is also home to a local branch of the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party, the party that officially advocates and asserts the independence of Taiwan.
Media
There are several large and influential Chinese-language newspapers in North America, which serve the Chinese-American and Chinese Canadian readership. There are the Taiwanese-owned conservative right-wing and pro-Kuomintang World Journal and the liberal left International Daily News, the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao, and The Epoch Times (a progressive paper run by Mainland Chinese immigrants). These newspapers have a large circulation and are sold in many still-thriving Chinatowns and in suburban Chinese communities. There are also many smaller Chinese-language newspaper companies.
The World Journal is widely read among the pro-unification Taiwanese - both forebears and descendants who fled to Taiwan from Mainland China during the post-1949 period - and the Mainland Chinese.
The Epoch Times newspaper is mainly focused on news of human rights and democracy issues in Mainland China and Hong Kong.
Inter-Chinatown transportation
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 and competitive fares and flexible schedules between many major different Chinatowns. A major example of such bus line is the Fung Wah Bus. 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.
Following the successes of the East Coast bus lines, similar services are occurring on the West Coast, albeit on a smaller scale. There are bus services connecting the Chinatowns and suburban ethnic Chinese communities of the San Francisco Bay area, the Greater Los Angeles area, and Las Vegas. The bus stops are typically at a parking lot of a Chinese supermarket. One major West Coast bus line offering such service is Bravo Travel.
Immigration trends in North America
The major cities of Vancouver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto 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.
From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, substantial waves of Taiwanese immigrants arrived primarily to the United States, mostly to the Los Angeles area and Silicon Valley of California. While there has been Taiwanese immigration to Canada, it has been in relatively smaller amounts compared with the large numbers of immigration from Hong Kong.
Taiwan's economy vastly improved and the democratic reforms took hold. Therefore, by the late 1990s, immigration from Taiwan began to decrease, and new Chinese immigrants now generally consist of two groups: well-educated professionals from the People's Republic of China, who tend to work in high-tech areas, and legal citizens and undocumented aliens from Fujian province working mostly in unskilled service industries. Most mainland Chinese are heavily concentrated in the New York City area, especially the working-class Fujianese population, and the Los Angeles area. According to The New York Times, many illegal immigrants from Fujian to the United States are said to be smuggled through Canada and Mexico.
An influx of working-class Hong Kong immigrants—many of whom were Mainland Chinese immigrants from the Taishan and other areas of Guangdong province who settled in Hong Kong for several years before moving on—arrived to the United States during much of the late 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, however, 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.
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. However, this negates the fact that some Hong Kong Chinese immigrate to Canada, reside and become citizens there for several years, and then resettle in the United States in indirect immigration, so to speak. These Chinese Canadian immigrants have blended in with the Chinese American population.
In addition, after the Vietnam War, the immigration of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese refugees, many of whom poor, had steadily increased during the 1980s. The Chinese Vietnamese speak Cantonese and/or Teochew (Pinyin: Chaozhou) as well as fluent Vietnamese and this group provides a stark contrast to the generally well-educated and affluent Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrants.
Ethnic Chinese immigration from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to the United States has been somewhat more limited.
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. They now attract mainly new Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese and a smaller number of Hong Kong immigrants.
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 starting point for later integration and social mobility into North American society.
Chinatowns in the United States
Arizona
A shopping center built to traditional Chinese architecture was opened in 1997 near the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market operates a branch there. The shopping complex has attracted few tenants due to high rents. However, throughout Phoenix, there are many pockets of Chinese communities and areas nearby contain many Chinese supermarkets and restaurants.
California
Given its relative proximity to East Asia and Southeast Asia, California has the largest number of historic and contemporary Chinatowns in North America. The state boasts of the largest number of Chinatowns of all types, including the most famous Chinatown in San Francisco, the first all-Chinese rural town of Locke to be built by Chinese immigrants, and the first "suburban Chinatown" of Monterey Park.
Many early Chinese immigrants were processed at Angel Island (now a California state park) in the San Francisco Bay area, which is equivalent to New York's Ellis Island for European immigrants.
San Francisco
Main article: Chinatown, San Francisco
The largest and most prominent in North America is the San Francisco Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking with some Hakka, though there has been a rise in Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Mainland China. 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 has one of the largest and predominant Chinese American population centers, with 152,620 of 743,478 (19.6%) as of the 2000 Census. San Francisco's Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows. See the section below titled Chinatowns in film, television, and the arts.
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. It also received many Chinese from Latin America, especially Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, when Fidel Castro overtook their businesses.
Silicon Valley
Other examples in California are suburban Fremont, Milpitas, and Cupertino in the south San Francisco Bay Area. These three cities are located in the Silicon Valley, where large numbers of Taiwanese Americans (i.e., U.S. citizens) and Mainland Chinese nationals (many of whom are on U.S. work visas) are employed in the high-tech industry and where large number of Taiwanese high-tech firms are headquartered. Foster City also has a large Taiwanese American population.
Serving as a major anchor for local area Chinese Americans, the Chinese supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market has played an integral and vital role in the development of some of the suburban Chinatowns in the San Gabriel Valley and Silicon Valley mentioned above.
Oakland
Across from San Francisco, the urban Chinatown of Oakland on Broadway Avenue 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 1980s and 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, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Many ethnic Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodians began opening new small businesses, essentially replacing many of the older Taishanese-dominated businesses. Also, with investment coming from Hong Kong in the 1980s, new modern shopping centers were built. It still retains the traditional aspects and characteristics of an older Chinatown.
Other Asian cultures are represented in Oakland's Chinatown as it has also been settled by non-Chinese Asians such as ethnic Vietnamese (many of whom operate many of Chinatown's jewelry businesses), Koreans, and Thais making it more of a pan-Asian area as opposed to a "Chinatown".
Sacramento
Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown, although it is now comprised mostly of Vietnamese American businesses.
Los Angeles
Main article: Chinatown, Los Angeles
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. A relatively minor satellite Chinatown in Los Angeles is the Lincoln Heights district which is predominantly Latino but also contains a working-class aging Chinese population and recent Vietnamese immigrants.
Orange County
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" with several strip malls. It is centered on Culver Drive and Alton Parkway.
The top-rated University High School and University of California, Irvine (UCI) are major draws for several upper-class Taiwanese immigrant parents. Incidentally, Asian Americans form the majority of UCI's undergraduate student population. Indeed, Irvine's Chinese American population has grown significantly over the years. Pao Fa Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Western Hemisphere, has been opened.
San Diego
San Diego had a historic Chinatown, formerly around Market Street and Third Avenue, that has disappeared over time. A de facto new "Chinatown" is found about 10 miles away to the north on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Convoy Street. Chinatown has also been settled by Chinese from nearby Mexico, especially nearby Mexicali, where Chinese-Mexicans are concentrated.
San Gabriel Valley
In the Greater Los Angeles area, there are several suburban Chinatowns throughout the San Gabriel Valley (see the Chinatown, Los Angeles article for specific streets).
In a sense, the old Chinatown of Los Angeles has ceased to be the economic and cultural node for the local Chinese American community within the Los Angeles area. Within the region, the Mainland Chinese population outnumbers the Taiwanese population at 212,861 to 30,651 as of the 2000 Census. There are also smaller numbers of immigrants from Hong Kong. Indeed, several cities are fast-approaching Asian American majority populations, although several updated - albeit unofficial - statistics place the numbers past 50%. In addition, the region has also been considered by food critics - for example, of the Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic Monthly - as having some of the best Chinese cuisines in the nation due to the large variety of competing Chinese restaurants (whereas there are very few authentic Chinese restaurants in the more well-known Los Angeles Westside).[1] The region also features the large Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, among the largest Buddhist temples.
The suburban city of Monterey Park (蒙特利公園), nicknamed "Little Taipei," was among the first satellite Chinatowns to be developed. It 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. As of the 2000 Census, Asian Americans form 61.8% of the total population in Monterey Park (Chinese Americans make up 41.2%).
Since the mid-1980s and on, Monterey Park has experienced continual immigration of working-class and upper-income mainland Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese. In this city and adjacent areas, the number of Taiwanese-owned businesses actually began to decline and there are several Chinese Vietnamese-owned businesses, such as restaurants and supermarkets. Countless Chinese-owned businesses occupy nearly the main thoroughfares of the city, except for the Mexican-dominated areas to the south. There are many more competing large Hong Kong seafood restaurants found within the city.
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. With an Asian descent population of 47.2% (33.1% Chinese American), the area contains numerous Chinese-owned banks, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. Alhambra also hosts the annual Chinese New Year festival that draws local Chinese Americans (this event and the one held in the Los Angeles Chinatown are held at different dates to avoid direct competition). The Los Angeles edition of the Cantonese Sing Tao is also based in this city.
The adjoining neighboring city of San Gabriel (聖蓋博), with 48.9% population of Asian Americans with 33.6% of Chinese origin, still has the largest Taiwanese-dominated community in the area (along with the more upscale San Marino and Arcadia), while the "Chinatown" in the city of Los Angeles remains tiny, touristy, and Cantonese-speaking. 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. It is among the largest suburban "Chinatown" business districts in California. The suburban Chinese areas of Alhambra and San Gabriel both share the same thoroughfare of 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. Although there are several large Chinese American populations in nearby residential suburbs, Rowland Heights serves as the main business district. The Chinese strip malls are mixed with separate strip malls containing Korean American businesses.
Florida
There is a rapidly growing, but still informal, Chinatown on 163th and 167th Streets in Miami. It has been a product of the immigration of Chinese-Cuban refugees who fled from the cruel Fidel Castro rule. Chinese Americans from other parts of the United States have migrated to Miami and started businesses in "Chinatown" as well. It is also becoming multiethnic with Koreans and Vietnamese businesses in the mix. [2]
An artificial Chinatown is in touristy Kissimmee as part of a theme park called Splendid China. It is marketed as a "Chinatown" for white people. [3]
Georgia
In the Atlanta area, fledging new Chinatowns/pan-Asian shopping centers are in the suburbs of Doraville and Chamblee. However, with a mix of ethnic Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations, the official name is the International Village. For several years, several shopping centers were abandoned and neglected by previous owners. New capital by Asian American investors have helped contribute to the revitalization of the area. Interestingly, the area has the highest concentrations of Asian businesses and it is one of a kind in Dixie.
Hawaii
The Chinatown of Honolulu, on North Hotel Street and Mounakea Street, contains traditional ethnic Chinese businesses. It is also diverse with Pan-Asian and Pacific Islander businesses. The Vietnamese are largely demographically represented in Honolulu's Chinatown. [4]
Illinois
The Chinatown in Chicago has a traditional urban Chinatown occupying the area along Wentworth Avenue at Cermak Road south of downtown. There are also newer Pan-Asian ethnic areas on the north side near Argyle Avenue.
Massachusetts
There is a Chinatown in Boston.
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 around 50th to 65th Streets along 8th Avenue. Some portions of Manhattan's Little Italy are being engulfed by Chinatown. Manhattan's Chinatown is further subdivided and segregated into several smaller communities such as "Little Fuzhou" or "Fuzhou Street" (on East Broadway Avenue) because of the high prevalence of Fujianese Mainland Chinese immigrants—who speak Hokkien Chinese—in the area.
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.
On the other hand, Flushing has more Taiwanese immigrants and businesses and the area is generally a hotbed for support of independence and self-determination for Taiwan.
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. Furthermore, the Cantonese-speaking population has also perceived the Fujianese as bringing crime and other social problems to Chinatown.
Chinese from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam also settled New York as Vietnam War refugees. Many Chinese New Yorkers also include people whose parents or grandparents were from or born in Latin America. The most important Chinese Latin American populations are Chinese-Puerto Ricans who are natural-born Americans of Chinese descent, Chinese-Cubans who fled from the cruel Fidel Castro rule, and Chinese-Peruvians who immigrated when earthquake shakes Peru and Velasco ruled.
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, just outside the casino areas in what is a typical American neigborhood. 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. The area has become more competitive as the large Shun Fat Supermarket mega-store opened its doors in Las Vegas in the early 2000s.
First built in early 1995, the Chinatown closely resembles many of the suburban Chinese business districts - i.e., massive shopping centers and mini-malls with huge parking lots - found in California. However, it also has had the distinction of being officially designated a "Chinatown" by the city of Las Vegas. Indeed, it has its own exit off-ramp sign on Interstate 15. The Chinese American population tends to be somewhat more dispersed throughout Las Vegas than in Southern California.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City's Chinatown represents a new trend in urban cities that traditionally did not have a concentrated asian population. Today, Oklahoma City's Asia District has transformed a once blighted urban area near Oklahoma City University due north of downtown into a myriad of restaurants, supermarkets, shoppes, and galleries representing the growing mosaic of Asian residents of the city.
The area began as a "Little Saigon" back in the late 1980's due to the more than 17,000 Vietnamese refugees that inhabited the area but was recently renamed to "Asia District" to better reflect the true colours of the neighbourhood.
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 of Oakland and San Francisco in California and Vancouver, British Columbia, Portland's Chinatown is generally inactive with very little pedestrian traffic, numerous vacant storefronts, only a handful of restaurants (including a nostalgic 1940s-era chop suey restaurant) and practically no ethnic Chinese grocery stores. These deficiencies may be due in part that Portland has experienced very little ethnic Chinese and Asian immigration.
Pennsylvania
There is a Chinatown in Philadelphia.
Texas
Yet another example of the new-Chinatown/old-Chinatown contrast 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.
An emerging Asian/Chinese population in the north Texas area has established a number of Chinese supermarkets in the high-tech centered area.
Washington
The large Chinatown of Seattle has been consolidated as the International District, which is a concentrated pan-Asian business district enclave along with Vietnamese and other Asian-origin people within the city. Chinese Vietnamese refugees and immigrants formed the nearby Little Saigon next to Chinatown. A similar pan-Asian area, but not necessarily considered a "satellite Chinatown" per se, has proliferated in a form of a shopping center in the Seattle suburb of Kent. The name of the shopping center is Great Wall Mall.[5]
The historic Chinatown in the capital of Olympia disappeared by the 1940s. Three Chinatowns existed in Olympia after several relocations and the third Chinatown was at Water Street and 5th Avenue.
Washington, D.C.
The old and shrinking Chinatown of Washington, DC is on H Street, several blocks east of the White House. The new suburban Chinatown is located about 20 miles to the north in Rockville, Maryland, where there is a large ethnic Chinese—mainly Taiwanese—population.
Chinatowns in Canada
Alberta
Edmonton's Chinatown is on 102nd Street.
There is also a Chinatown on 4th Avenue in Calgary.
British Columbia
Vancouver
Vancouver's Chinatown is the largest in Canada and the second largest in North America, only San Francisco's Chinatown is somewhat larger. The main centre of the older Chinatown is Pender and Main Streets 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 numerous galleries, shops, restaurants, and markets, in addition to the Chinese Cultural Centre and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park; the garden is the first and one of the largest Ming era-style Chinese gardens outside China.
Richmond near Vancouver, British Columbia is the exception to North American Chinatown trends described above. Unlike the Mandarin-dominated new Chinatowns in the U.S., Richmond is practically a "HongKongTown." However, the semi-official name is Asia West, under a consortium of Asian shopping centres to promote the area as a tourist attraction. 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 was people of Chinese descent—which is approximately 55,000 people. The area is 10 kilometers south of downtown Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway; its main street is No. 3 Road.
During the 1990s, Chinese Canadian population moved away from the old Chinatown in downtown Vancouver and southward into the suburbs of the Lower Mainland. Currently there is new momentum near Chinatown consistent with the venerable condo boom seen in most of downtown.
A new Taiwanese enclave, and international village mall, and several new developments promise to rejuvinate downtown's Chinatown[6] and keep it anchored as the centre of Chinese Canadian culture, as promised on the new Millennium Gate at Pender Street entrance.[7]
Victoria
A very small Chinatown can be found in the provinicial capital of Victoria, although it is mostly touted as a tourist attraction.
Manitoba
The Chinatown of Winnipeg was formed in the 1910s. It is on Rupert Street.
Ontario
Toronto's largest Chinatown is centered on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. There are multiple other Chinatowns throughout Toronto's suburbs; there is Mississaugua, Richmond Hill, and Scarborough. To the north of the city of Toronto, the Markham area is noted for its large concentration of Chinese strip malls; in 2001, 30 percent of Markham's population, or 62,355 people, was of Chinese descent.
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. Also, the old Chinatown of Toronto of Spadina Avenue has certainly experienced a Vietnamese influence, with several Vietnamese restaurants in the landscape.
Ottawa's Chinatown is located in the Centretown area, on Somerset Street West near Bronson Avenue.
Quebec
Montreal's Chinatown is on rue De La Gauchetière and around rue Saint-Urbain and boulevard Saint-Laurent, between boulevard René-Lévesque and rue Viger (Place-d'Armes metro station).
The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois in French. Over the years, Vietnamese Canadians have set up shops in the area as well.