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In Chinese, Chinatown is usually called Táng rén 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.
A more modern Chinese name is Huábù (華埠), or "Chinese City" , which is used in the semi-official Chinese translations of some cities' documents and signs. Bù, pronounced sometimes as fù, usually means "seaport"; but in this sense, it means "city" or "town." The literal word-to-word translation of "Chinatown" is Zhōngguó Chéng 中國城), which is occasionally used in Chinese writing.
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 and Chong-san 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.
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 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, Nevada City, California, 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 US. The majority of restaurants in these particular Chinatowns tend to prominently display Budweiser beer signs and serve American Chinese cuisine, such as chop suey.
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 English than their parents and grandparents - but also lost much fluency in the Chinese language - moved out of the rural regions and resettled in the major cities. Nowadays, there are few remaining pockets of Chinese that live in these small rural Chinatowns. The Chinese American population in these particular rurul 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 suburban Chinatowns were generally started in the 1960's, and were the result of two factors. The first was the relaxation of Chinese immigration restrictions, and the second was the passage of laws that forbade racial discrimination in real estate.
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 more modern style cafés, boba shops, coffeeshops, teahouses, chic boutiques, specialty stores (e.g., wireless phone and Asian cinema DVD and video CD stores), nightclubs, and karaoke bars (or KTV parlors) that tend to cater and appeal to younger Asian Americans and Canadians. The older Chinatowns have been slower to catch on to these newer trends and the penetration of such fads is fewer. This is largely explained by the considerably larger population of older-generation Chinese, lower income levels, and lack of real estate space in many of the urban Chinatowns.
Conversely, a larger concentration of small mom-and-pop grocers (often with outdoor produce stands), dim sum bakeries, and take-out delicatessens (most are seen displaying roast Peking duckss and roast pigs on the windows) 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 Chinese American and Canadians.
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. These gateways in the past have been 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 were mostly from the Taishan area, close to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China. They immigrated to the US and Canada in the 19th century to lay railroad tracks, work in gold mines, farm the agricultural fields, 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, 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 that are Chinese-speaking, have also settled and established businesses in or nearby Chinatowns thus creating a unique mix of Asian culture and heritage.
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 Rx 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, BC. Many ethnic Chinese Canadian businesses currently co-exist with mainstream stores such as Canadian Tire and Chapters.
Although the popular image of Chinatown is urban and crowded, Monterey Park and Bellaire Avenue in Houston have quite interesting and unique architecture which is a mixture of the large shopping centers and shopping malls found in American suburbia with Chinese motifs.
Interestingly, tourist guides and travel publications (including those published by official state and provincial visitors bureaus) invariably refer to the more traditional old Chinatowns without mentioning the much larger, modern and vibrant new Chinatowns.
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.
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.
Other examples in California are suburban Milpitas and Cupertino in the South San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the urban Richmond and Sunset districts in San Francisco, compared to the original in downtown San Francisco. Milpitas and Cupertino are located in the Silicon Valley, where large numbers of Taiwanese Americans are employed in the computer industry.
Across from San Francisco, the urban Chinatown of Oakland had already existed for several years but it remained economically stagnant. However, the Chinatown saw much development during the 1990s after an exodus of Chinese American merchants - who already faced stiff and ever-growing competition 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 the older Chinatowns.
Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown, although it now comprises 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.
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, 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.
Toronto, Ontario'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 familes.
Montreal, Quebec's Chinatown is around St-Urbain and St-Laurent streets between René-Lévesque and Viger. The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois in French. Over the years, Vietnamese Canadians have set up shops in the area as well.
The cities of Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta also have Chinatowns.
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, BC, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) arrested six male suspects in connection with an 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, are first-generation immigrants and 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 in Communist China and the former police state under President Chiang Kai-shek of Taiwan.
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.
Hence, these are some reasons why many old Chinatowns were not considered desirable places for the affluent new Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants to settle and opting to develop new Chinatown-like communities in the suburbs as an alternative.
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. There was no factual basis found for these claims.
Names
Chinatowns in North America
In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America: frontier/rural, urban, and suburban. The largest and most prominent 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 Ave., Clement St.) and Sunset (Noriega St., Irving St.) districts have developed in recent years, co-existing with ethnic Russian and Korean businesses. San Francisco Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows.New 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.
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 US. The trend usually started with a huge Chinese supermarket and 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. Immigration Trends in North America
In the late 1990's, 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. This is a result of stricter requirements and limited US immigration quota (approx. 5000/year; used to be 600/year in pre-Reagan era) allotted for the SAR, compared to 20000/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. The city of Richmond has a more modern and larger Chinatown than the one in Vancouver.Changing relationships
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 in Chinatown and non-Chinese.California
In the Greater Los Angeles area, there are several suburban Chinatowns throughout the San Gabriel Valley (see the article for specific streets). The suburban city of Monterey Park, nicknamed Little Taipei, once contained a large Taiwanese population, but due to the in-migration of affluent Taiwanese Americans to other suburbs in the early 1990s, the numbers have dwindled and the Cantonese-speakers have gradually become predominant in the city. However, the neighboring city of San Gabriel still has the largest Taiwanese-dominated community, while the "Chinatown" in the city of Los Angeles remains tiny and Cantonese-speaking (it is located near Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles). 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. Another so-called suburban "Chinatown," so to speak, includes Rowland Heights (25 miles east of Los Angeles) with its smattering of shopping centers. 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 Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Some portions of Manhattan's Little Italy are being engulfed by Chinatown. Nevada
The only Chinatown in Las Vegas is actually 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 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, many adjacent shopping centers have been developed while others are still in the planning and development stages.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.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 Avenue in the Western part of the city. See: Chinatowns of Houston.Canada
Richmond near Vancouver, British Columbia is also an exception to these trends. Unlike the Mandarin-dominated new Chinatowns in the US, 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. One third of Richmond's population of 166,219 (2002) are people of Chinese descent, which is approximately 55,000 people. "HongKongTown" is 10 kilometres south of Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway and its main street is No. 3 Road. The main centre of the older Vancouver Chinatown is Pender Street in Downtown Vancouver.Chinatowns in Europe
Several urban Chinatowns exist in major European capital cities such as London, England, Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany. Many Vietnamese have settled in the Quartier chinois of Paris.Prominent examples
Well-known Chinatowns over the world with significant histories include:Other examples
Metropolitan areas with relatively obscure or lesser-known Chinatowns include: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 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
In 2003, several deaths attributed to the outbreak of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus in Toronto prompted a major scare. The panic spread across cities with Chinatowns in Canada and in the United States. 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 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 Chrétien and Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman had lunch in a Toronto Chinatown restaurant to show that the restaurants and Chinatown in general were safe. Portrayals of Chinatowns in film, television, and the arts
External links
Alternate meanings
zh-tw:唐人街/繁
zh-cn:唐人街