Chinatown, Manhattan Explained
s Chinatown is a
in , , bordering the
to its east,
to its north,
to its south, and
to its west. Chinatown is home to the largest enclave of
in the . With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, Manhattan's
is also one of the oldest
. The Manhattan Chinatown is one of , as well as one of twelve in the , which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, enumerating an estimated 819,527 uniracial individuals as of 2014. Historically it was primarily populated by
speakers. However, in the 1980s-90s, large numbers of -speaking immigrants also arrived. As many Eastern Min / Fuzhounese and Cantonese speakers now speak —the official dialect of Chinese—in addition to their native dialects, this made it more important for Chinatown residents to learn and speak Mandarin.
Although a Business Improvement District has been identified for support, Chinatown has no officially defined borders, but they have been commonly considered to be approximated by the following streets:
to the north,
overlapping
to the southwest, bordering
to the southeast, bordering
to the east, bordering the
to the west, bordering
Citywide demographics
and . The Manhattan Chinatown is one of , as well as one of twelve in the , which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, enumerating an estimated 779,269 individuals as of 2013; the remaining Chinatowns are located in the boroughs of
(up to four, depending upon definition) and
(three) and in , as well as in
in . In addition, Manhattan's , an enclave populated primarily by more recent
of China, is technically considered a part of Manhattan's Chinatown, albeit now developing a separate identity of its own.
A new and rapidly growing Chinese community is now forming in , , nearly tripling in population between the years 2000 and 2010, according to
This neighborhood has been described as the precursor to a new
Chinatown within Manhattan itself, which upon acknowledged formation would represent the second Chinese neighborhood in Manhattan, the tenth large Chinese settlement in New York City, and the twelfth within the overall New York City metropolitan region.
As the city proper with the nation's largest
population by a wide margin, with an estimated 573,388 individuals in 2014, and as the primary destination for , New York City is subdivided into official municipal , which themselves are home to significant Chinese populations, with
and Queens, adjacently located on , leading the fastest growth.
After the City of New York itself, the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn encompass the largest Chinese populations, respectively, of all municipalities in the United States.
Ah Ken and early Chinese immigration
See main article: .
Ah Ken is claimed to have arrived in the area during the 1840s; he is the first Chinese person credited as having permanently immigrated to Chinatown. As a Cantonese businessman, Ah Ken eventually founded a successful
store on .
He first arrived around 1858 in New York City, where he was "probably one of those Chinese mentioned in gossip of the sixties [1860s] as peddling 'awful' cigars at three cents apiece from little stands along the City Hall park fence&– offering a paper spill and a tiny oil lamp as a lighter", according to author Alvin Harlow in Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street (1931).
Later immigrants would similarly find work as "cigar men" or carrying s, and Ah Ken's particular success encouraged cigar makers William Longford, John Occoo, and John Ava to also ply their trade in Chinatown, eventually forming a monopoly on the cigar trade. It has been speculated that it may have been Ah Ken who kept a small
and rented out
to the first Chinese immigrants to arrive in Chinatown. It was with the profits he earned as a landlord, earning an average of $100 a month, that he was able to open his Park Row smoke shop around which modern-day Chinatown would grow.
Chinese exclusion period
Faced with increasing racial discrimination and new laws that prevented participation in many occupations on the U.S. , some Chinese immigrants moved to the
cities in search of employment. Early businesses in these cities included hand laundries and . Chinatown started on Mott, Park (now Mosco), Pell, and
Streets, east of the notorious
district. By 1870, there was a Chinese population of 200. By the time the
of 1882 was passed, the population was up to 2,000 residents. In 1900, the US Census reported 7,028 Chinese males in residence, but only 142 Chinese women. This significant gender inequality remained present until the repeal of the
in 1943. Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and C. Cindy Fan, authors of "Growth and Decline of Muslim Hui Enclaves in Beijing", wrote that because of immigration restrictions, Chinatown continued to be "virtually a bachelor society" until 1965.
The early days of Chinatown were dominated by Chinese "" (now sometimes rendered neutrally as ""), which were a mixture of
associations, landsman's associations, political alliances ( (Nationalists) vs ), and more secretly, . The associations started to give protection from harassment due to anti-Chinese sentiment. Each of these associations was aligned with a . The associations were a source of assistance to new , giving out s, aiding in starting businesses, and so forth. The associations formed a governing body named the
(中華公所). Though this body was meant to foster relations between the Tongs, open warfare periodically flared between the
(安良) and
(協勝) tongs. Much of the Chinese
warfare took place on Doyers street. Gangs like the
(鬼影) and
(飛龍) were prevalent until the 1990s. The Chinese gangs controlled certain territories of Manhattan's Chinatown. The
(安良) and its affiliate
(鬼影) were of Cantonese and
descent, and controlled Mott, Bayard, , and
Streets. The
(飛龍) and its affiliate
(協勝) also of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Doyers, Pell, , , and Hester Streets. Other Chinese gangs also existed, like the Hung Ching and Chih Kung gangs of Cantonese and Toishan descent, which were affiliated with each other and also gained control of Mott Street. Born-to-Kill also known as Canal Boys, of Vietnamese and Chinese descent had control over Broadway, Canal, Baxter, , and Lafeyette Streets. Fujianese gangs also existed, such as the Tung On gang, which affiliated with Tsung Tsin, and had control over East Broadway, Catherine and Division Streets and the Fuk Ching gang affiliated with Fukien American controlled East Broadway, Chrystie, , Eldridge, and Allen Streets. At one point, a gang named the
gang, which were of Cantonese descent, had attempted to claim East Broadway as their territory.
, the only park in Chinatown, was built on what was once the center of the infamous
neighborhood. During the 19th century, this was the most dangerous
area of immigrant New York, as portrayed in the book and film .
After immigration reform
In the years after the United States enacted the , allowing many more immigrants from Asia into the country, the population of Chinatown increased dramatically. Geographically, much of the growth was to neighborhoods to the north. The Chinatown grew and became more oriented on families due to the lifting of restrictions. In the earliest years of the existence of Manhattan's Chinatown, it had been primarily populated by -speaking Chinese immigrants and the borderlines of the enclave was originally
to the north,
to the east,
to the south, and
to the west. However, after 1965, there came a wave of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong and Guangdong province in Mainland China, and
became the dominant tongue. With the influx of Hong Kong immigrants, it was developing and growing into a Hong Kongese neighborhood, however the growth slowed down later on during the 1980s-90s.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, the influx of Guangdong and Hong Kong immigrants began to develop newer portions of Manhattan's Chinatown going north of Canal Street and then later the east of the Bowery. However until the 1980s, the western section was the most primarily fully Chinese developed and populated part of Chinatown and the most quickly flourishing busy central Chinese business district with still a little bit of remaining Italians in the very north west portion around Grand Street and Broome Street, which eventually all moved away and became all Chinese by the 1990s.
However, until the 1980s, the portion of Chinatown that is east of the Bowery—which is considered part of the Lower East Side—was developing more slowly as being part of Chinatown, the proportion and concentration of Chinese residents was lower and more scattered than the western section, and there was still a higher proportion of Non-Chinese residents than Chinatown's western section consisting of Jewish, Puerto Ricans, and a few Italians and African Americans.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the eastern portion of Chinatown east of the Bowery was a very quiet section, and like in all of the rest of the Lower East Side, many people and especially many Chinese people were afraid to walk through or even reside on the streets east of the Bowery due to deteriorating building conditions and high crime rates such as gang activities, robberies, building burglaries, and rape as well as fear of racial tensions with other ethnic people that were still residing there. In addition, there were fewer businesses and there were significant amount of vacant properties not occupied. Chinese female garment workers were especially targets of robbery and rape a lot on their way home from work and often left work together as a group to protect each other as they were heading home.
In May 1985, a gang-related shooting injured seven people, including a 4-year-old boy, at 30 East Broadway in Chinatown. Two males, who were 15 and 16 years old and were members of a Chinese street gang, were arrested and convicted.
Starting in the 1970s and especially throughout the 1980s-90s, Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants and then later on many other Non-Cantonese Chinese immigrants also were arriving into New York City. However, due to the traditional dominance of Cantonese-speaking residents, which were largely working class in Manhattan's Chinatown and the neighborhood's poor housing conditions, they were unable to relate to Manhattan's Chinatown and mainly settled in Flushing and created a more middle class Mandarin-Speaking Chinatown or Mandarin Town (國語埠) and even smaller one in Elmhurst, since most of the newer upcoming generations of ethnic Chinese were already using Mandarin although still their regional dialects in everyday conversations, whereas Cantonese speaking populations largely don't speak Mandarin or only speak it with other Non-Cantonese Chinese speakers. As a result, Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's emerging Chinatown were able to continue retaining its traditional almost exclusive Cantonese society and were nearly successful at permanently keeping its Cantonese dominance. However, there was already a small and slow growing Fuzhou immigrant population in Manhattan's Chinatown since the 1970s-80s in the eastern section of Chinatown east of the Bowery, which was still underdeveloped as being part of Chinatown. In the 1990s, though, Chinese people began to move into some parts of the western , which 50 years earlier was populated by
and 20 years earlier was occupied by .
Migration to Brooklyn Chinatown
During the late 1980s and 1990s, most of the new Fuzhou immigrants arriving into New York City were settling in Manhattan's Chinatown and later formed the first Fuzhou community in the city amongst the waves of Cantonese who had settled in Chinatown over decades. However, by the 2000s, the increasing Fuzhou influx had shifted into the
section of the
of New York City. This shift replaces the Cantonese population throughout Brooklyn's Sunset Park Chinatown significantly more rapidly than in Manhattan's Chinatown. Brooklyn's Sunset Park Chinatown is becoming the new Little Fuzhou in NYC, or figuratively, Brooklyn's East Broadway (布魯克林區的東百老匯). In addition, Brooklyn's Little Fuzhou has now challenged and increasingly marginalizing Manhattan's Chinatown's Little Fuzhou's status as the primary center of Fuzhou population and culture of New York City.
in Manhattan's Chinatown has slowed the growth of Fuzhou immigration as well as the growth of Chinese immigrants to Manhattan in general, which is why New York City's rapidly growing Chinese population has now shifted primarily to the boroughs of
and Brooklyn.
Some Chinese s in Manhattan, especially the many real estate agencies that are mainly of Cantonese ownership, were accused of prejudice against the Fuzhou immigrants, supposedly making Fuzhou immigrants feel unwelcome because concerns that they would not be able to pay rent or debt to gangs that may have helped smuggled them in illegally into the United States, and because of fear that gangs will come up to the apartments to cause trouble.
There is also supposedly a concern that Fujianese are more likely to make the apartments too overcrowded by subdividing an apartment into multiple small spaces to rent to other Fuzhou immigrants. , Manhattan's center of Fuzhou culture, has perhaps the most blatant results of illegal apartment subdivisions including having many bunk beds in just one small room. As a result of fear of being evicted by Cantonese landlords, many Fuzhou immigrants resort to renting a tiny space from Fujianese landlords inside apartments already occupied by Fuzhou immigrants.
Although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers in Manhattan's Chinatown, it is used as a secondary
among the greatest number of them. Although , especially the , is spoken natively by a third of the Chinese population in the city, it is not used as a lingua franca because speakers of other dialect groups do not learn Min.
Gentrification
Currently, the rising prices of Manhattan real estate and high rents are also affecting Chinatown. Many new and poorer Chinese immigrants canno as a result, most of the growth in
has shifted to other Chinatowns in New York City, including the Flushing Chinatown and Elmhurst C the
and its satellite Chinatowns in B and to
in . Many apartments, particularly in the Lower East Side and Little Italy, which used to be affordable to new Chinese immigrants, are being renovated and then sold or rented at much higher prices. Building owners, many of them established Chinese-Americans, often find it in their best interest to terminate leases of lower-income residents with
as property values rise.
By 2007, luxury s began to spread from
into Chinatown. Previously Chinatown was noted for its crowded tenements and primarily Chinese residents. While some projects have targeted the Chinese community, the development of luxury housing has increased Chinatown's economic and cultural diversity.
Since the early 2000s, there has been a continuously increasing number of buildings in Chinatown, neighboring , and the , taken over by new landlords and real estate developers, who then charged higher rents and/or demolished the buildings to build newer structures. Often, whenever this happens, many
are more likely to be evicted, especially in the , where many of the apartment buildings hold the vast majority of Fuzhou tenant population due to the majority of Fuzhou people in legal risks such as illegal a often excessive occupancy overcrowding, lack of leases, and lack of these legal risks were often overlooked by the original, Chinese landlords. In addition, within recent years since the 2000s, there have been city officials inspecting apartment buildings and cracking down on illegally subdivided apartments and kicking out the occupants throughout Manhattan's Chinatown, however the Fuzhou occupied apartments have been the primary main targets of these crackdowns and mostly in the eastern section of Manhattan's Chinatown where the Fuzhou population is primarily concentrated.
With tenants that have rent-stabilized leases, legal residency documents, no apartment subdivisions, and a lesser probability of subletting over capacity—most of whom are long-time Cantonese residents—it is usually harder for the newer landlords to be able to force these tenants out, especially including the western portion of Chinatown, which is still mainly Cantonese populated. However, newer landlords still continuously try find other loopholes to force them out.
By 2009 many newer Chinese immigrants settled along East Broadway instead of the historic core west of . In addition
began to eclipse
as the predominant Chinese dialect in New York's Chinatown during the period.
says that the Flushing Chinatown now rivals Manhattan's Chinatown in terms of being a cultural center for Chinese-speaking New Yorkers' politics and trade.
Chinese s and s are clustered around Mott Street, Mulberry Street,
(by Baxter Street), and all along
(especially by Catherine Street). The Chinese
district is on Canal Street between Mott and Bowery. Due to the high savings rate among Chinese, there are many Asian and American banks in the neighborhood. Canal Street, west of
(especially on the North side), is filled with street vendors selling
of perfumes, watches, and handbags. This section of Canal Street was previously the home of
stores selling surplus/salvage electronics and hardware.
In addition, tourism and restaurants are major industries. The district boasts many historical and cultural attractions, and it is a destination for tour companies like Big Onion, NYC Chinatown Tours, and . Tour stops often include landmarks like the
statues. The enclave’s many restaurants also support the tourism industry. The New York Food Tours company runs programs taking visitors to the area’s eateries for dishes like Shanghai
soup. The Chinatown restaurant scene is large and vibrant, with more than 300 Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood providing employment. Notable and well reviewed Chinatown establishments include , Jing Fong, New Green Bo and Amazing 66.
Other contributors to the economy include factories. The proximity of the fashion industry has kept some
in the local area, which at its peak employed 30,000 workers, though much of the garment industry has since moved to China. The local garment industry now concentrates on quick production in small volumes and , which is generally done at the worker's home. Much of the population growth is due to immigration.
caused a decline in business for stores and restaurants in Chinatown. Chinatown was adversely aff being so physically close to , Chinatown saw a very slow return of tourism and business. Part of the reason was the
closure of , one of two major roads linking the Financial Center with Chinatown (the other being ). However, the area's economy as well as tourism have rebounded since then. A Chinatown
has been proposed, but is being resisted by some merchants.
The neighborhood is home to a number of large Chinese supermarkets. In August 2011, a new branch of New York Supermarket opened on Mott Street in the center district of grocery and food shopping of Manhattan's Chinatown. Just a block away from New York Supermarket, is a
located on the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets. These two supermarkets are amongst the largest Chinese supermarkets carrying all different food varieties within the long time established Cantonese community in the western section of Manhattan's Chinatown. A Hong Kong Supermarket at East Broadway and Pike Street burned down in 2009, and plans to construct a 91-room Marriott Hotel in its place resulted in community protests. The New York Supermarkets chain, which also operates markets in Elmhurst and Flushing, reached a settlement with the New York State Attorney General in 2008 in which it paid back wages and overtime to workers.
Population and culture
In 2000, most of Chinatown's residents came from Asia. That year, the number of residents was 84,840, and 66% of this people were Asian.
Unlike most other urban Chinatowns, Manhattan's Chinatown is both a residential area as well as commercial area. Many population estimates are in the range of 90,000 to 100,000 residents.
One analysis of census data in 2011 showed that Chinatown and heavily Chinese tracts on the Lower East Side had 47,844 residents in the 2010 census, a decrease of nearly 9% since 2000.
Little Fuzhou
See main article: . From the late 1980s through the 1990s, when a large influx of Fuzhou immigrants, who also largely speak Mandarin along with their Fuzhou dialect started to arrive into New York City, they were the only exceptional Non-Cantonese Chinese group to largely settle in Manhattan's Chinatown and eventually Brooklyn's Chinatown, which was also originally Cantonese dominated. This is due to many of them having no legal status and being forced into the lowest paying jobs, Manhattan's Chinatown was the only place they can receive affordable housing and be around other Chinese people despite the heavy Cantonese dominance until the 1990s since the more Mandarin-speaking enclaves in Flushing and Elmhurst would be too expensive to rent a vacancy.
Since the Fuzhou immigrants have a strong cultural and linguistic background difference from the Cantonese people, the Fuzhou immigrants were unable to integrate well into Manhattan's Chinatown, which was still very Cantonese dominated and as a result they settled in the eastern portion of Chinatown, which was still an overlap of Chinese, Hispanics and Jewish in addition the higher availability of housing vacancies is another reason why they settled in that section. The eastern section became more fully developed as being part of Chinatown, and these new immigrants began to establish their own Fuzhou community along East Broadway and Eldridge Street. This has resulted in referring to East Broadway as Fuzhou Street No. 1, emerged during the late 1980s-early 1990s and Eldridge Street as Fuzhou Street No. 2, which developed more towards after the mid 1990s-early 2000s.
started becoming known as the new Chinatown of Manhattan, separate from the long time heavily dominated Cantonese community, which is the western section of Chinatown or the Old Chinatown of M although significant minor to moderate numbers of long time Cantonese people and businesses still continue to exist in the eastern portion of Chinatown.
Very soon, in the early 2000s, gentrification immediately came into Manhattan's Chinatown and in addition to the shortage of housing vacancies, it caused the Fuzhou influx to shift to Brooklyn's Chinatown, which was now the most affordable New York City Chinese enclave to live in and unlike in Manhattan's Chinatown where the Fuzhou population continues to be mainly concentrated, although now slowly declining due to gentrification in the East Broadway and Eldridge Street portion, the Fuzhou immigrant population has now managed to dominate the whole Brooklyn's Chinatown diluting the Cantonese population as well as beginning to sideline Manhattan's Chinatown's Little Fuzhou as the Fuzhou cultural center in New York City. Brooklyn's Chinatown then became more fully developed and as well as causing its ethnic enclave size to expand tremendously as a result of the shift of the Fuzhou influx.
Not only did the Fuzhou immigration influx establish a new portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, they contributed significantly in maintaining the Chinese population in the neighborhood, they also played a role in
increasing quickly during the 1990s, in contrast to during the 1980s, when the housing prices were dropping. As a result, landlords were able to generate twice as much income in Manhattan's Chinatown, Flushing's Chinatown and eventually Brooklyn's Chinatown.
Little Hong Kong
As the epicenter of the massive Fuzhou influx has shifted to
in the 2000s, Manhattan's Chinatown's Cantonese population still remains viable and large and successfully continues to retain its stable Cantonese community identity, maintaining the communal gathering venue established decades ago in the western portion of Chinatown, to shop, work, and socialize—in contrast to the Cantonese population and community identity which are shifting from Brooklyn's original Sunset Park Chinatown to the satellite Chinatowns in Brooklyn.
Although the term Little Hong Kong (小香港) was used a long time ago to describe Manhattan's Chinatown relating to when an influx of Hong Kong immigrants were pouring in at that time and even though not all Cantonese immigrants come from Hong Kong, this portion of Chinatown has heavy Cantonese characteristics, especially with the , which is spoken in Hong Kong and
being widely used, so it is in many ways a Little Hong Kong.
A more appropriate term would be Little Guangdong (小廣東) or
since the Cantonese immigrants do come from different regions of the
province of China. The long time established Cantonese Community, which can be considered
or known as the Old Chinatown of Manhattan lies along Mott, Pell, Doyer, Bayard, Elizabeth, Mulberry, Canal, and Bowery Streets, within Manhattan's Chinatown.
Newer satellite Little GuangDong/Little Hong Kong have started to emerge in sections of Bensonhurst and in Sheepshead Bay/Homecrest in Brooklyn. However, there are more scattered and mixed in with other ethnic enclaves. This is a result of many Cantonese residents migrating to these neighborhoods. Originally Brooklyn's Chinatown in Sunset Park was a satellite of Manhattan's Western Cantonese Chinatown, but because of the massive Fuzhou influx to Brooklyn in the 2000s, and with the Cantonese residents now shifting to Brooklyn's own satellite Chinatowns, the original Sunset Park, Brooklyn Chinatown has since become a satellite of Manhattan's Little Fuzhou itself.
Fuzhouese-Cantonese relations
The Fuzhou immigration pattern started out in the 1970s very similarly like the Cantonese immigration during the late 1800s to early 1900s that had established Manhattan's Chinatown on Mott Street, Pell Street, and Doyers Street. Starting out as mostly men arriving first and then later on bringing their families over. The beginning influx of Fuzhou immigrants arriving during the 1980s and 1990s were entering into a Chinese community that was extremely Cantonese dominated. Due to the Fuzhou immigrants having no legal status and inability to speak Cantonese, many were denied jobs in Chinatown as a result causing many of them to resort to crimes to make a living that began to dominate the crimes going on in Chinatown. There was a lot of Cantonese resentment against Fuzhou immigrants arriving into Chinatown.
Chinese cultural standards
Despite the large Fuzhou population, many of the Chinese businesses in Chinatown are still Cantonese owned and because of still the large Cantonese population on the Lower East Side, Cantonese still carries a strong presence in Chinatown including to the additional large influx of Cantonese speaking customers coming from other places to neighborhood on the weekends to do shopping and eat in restaurants even though
is rapidly sweeping Cantonese aside as the
of Chinatown,
allowing Cantonese to continue to exert a significant level of influence upon the cultural standards and economic resources of Manhattan's Chinatown. The Cantonese dominated western section of Chinatown also continues to be the main busy Chinese business district.
As a result, it has influenced many Fuzhou people to learn the Cantonese language as well to maintain a job and to be able to bring more Cantonese customers as additional contributions to their businesses, especially large businesses like the Dim Sum restaurants on what is known as
(小福州), the center of Fuzhou culture.
Due to many Fuzhou immigrants having the most interaction with Cantonese people out all of the other Non-Cantonese Chinese people, the Fuzhou immigrants that mastered the Cantonese language constitute the vast majority of Chinese people who are not native Cantonese speakers, but learned to speak Cantonese in NYC. Linguistically, however, in the past few years, the Cantonese dialect that has dominated Chinatown for decades is being swiftly uprooted by Mandarin Chinese, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
A significant difference between the two separate
communities in Manhattan's Chinatown is that the Cantonese part of Chinatown not only serves Chinese customers but is also a tourist attraction, whereas the Fuzhou part of Chinatown caters less to tourists, but it is now slowly receiving tourists as well.
, , Catherine Street, and
encompass the approximate border zone between the Fuzhou and Cantonese communities in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Satellite Chinatowns
See main article: ,
and . For a long time, Manhattan's Chinatown has always been the most largely concentrated Chinese population in NYC, which is 6% Chinese American overall. However, in recent years growing Chinese populations in the outer boroughs of NYC have tremendously outnumbered Manhattan's Chinese population.
Other New York City Chinese communities have been settled over the years, including that of
in , particularly along from Roosevelt Avenue to
through Kissena Blvd.
Another Chinese community is located in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, particularly along 8th Avenue from 40th to 65th Streets. New York City's newer Chinatowns have recently sprung up in Elmhurst and
(which border each other and are part of the same Chinatown), on Avenue U in the
section of Brooklyn, as well as in Bensonhurst, also in Brooklyn. Outside of New York City proper, rapidly growing suburban Chinatowns are developing within the
While the composition of these satellite Chinatowns are as varied as the original, the political factions in the original Manhattan Chinatown (,
loyalists, People's Republic of China loyalists, and those apathetic) have led to some factionalization in the satellite Chinatowns.
The Flushing Chinatown was spearheaded by many Chinese fleeing the
retaking of Hong Kong in 1997 as well as
who used their considerable capital to buy out land from the former residents. The
was originally settled by Cantonese immigrants, but today it is mostly populated by
immigrants with still some Cantonese immigrants, who are longtime Chinese residents.
The housing stock of Chinatown is still mostly composed of cramped
buildings, some of which are over 100 years old. It is still common in such buildings to have bathrooms in the hallways, to be shared among multiple apartments. A federally
project, named , was completed on the corner of
and Division Street in 1976. This 44-story residential
gave much needed new housing stock to thousands of residents. The building also housed a new public grade school,
(or Yung Wing Elementary). Besides being the first and largest affordable housing complex specifically available to the Chinatown population Confucius Plaza is also a cultural and institutional landmark, springing forth community organization, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), one of Chinatown's oldest political/community organizations, founded in 1974.
For much of Chinatown's history, there were few unique architectural features to announce to visitors that they had arrived in the neighborhood (other than the language of the shop signs). In 1962, the
Memorial archway at
was erected in memorial of the Chinese-Americans who died in . This memorial bears calligraphy by the great
于右任 (). A statue of
(林則徐), also known as Commissioner Lin, a
Chinese official who opposed the opium trade, is also l it faces uptown along East Broadway, now home to the bustling Fuzhou neighborhood and known locally as Fuzhou Street (Fúzhóu jiē 福州街). In the 1970s, , then the local phone company, started capping the street phone booths with -like decorations. In 1976, the statue of
in front of Confucius Plaza became a common meeting place. In the 1980s, banks which opened new branches and others which were renovating started to use Chinese traditional styles for their building facades. The , a national historic site built in 1815, stands off Mott Street. The
experience has been documented at the
in Manhattan's Chinatown since 1980.
In 2010, Chinatown and
were listed in a single
Chinese theaters
In the past, Chinatown had Chinese movie theaters that provided entertainment to the Chinese population. The first Chinese-language theater in the city was located at 5–7
from 1893 to 1911. The theater was later converted into a rescue mission for homeless from . In 1903, the theater was the site of a fundraiser by the Chinese community for Jewish victims of a massacre in Kishinev.
Among the theaters that existed in Chinatown in later years were the Sun Sing Theater under the Manhattan Bridge and the Pagoda Theater, both on the street of East Broadway, the Governor Theater on Chatham Square, the Rosemary Theater on Canal Street across the Manhattan Bridge, as well as the Music Palace on the Bowery, which was the last Chinese theater to close. Others have existed in different sections of Chinatown. The Chinese theaters also played movies with Chinese and English subtitles for the non-Chinese viewers, which were very often black Muslims that enjoyed movies with non-white heroes, Caucasian martial arts students and people who were film cognoscenti. During the 1970s, the Chinese theaters became less attractive due to increasing gang-violence. These theaters now have all closed because of more accessibility to videotapes, which were more affordable and provided more genres of movies and much later on s and s became available. Other factors such as, availability of Chinese cable channels, karaoke bars, and gambling in casinos began to provide other options for the Chinese to have entertainment also influenced the Chinese theaters to go out of business.
Residents are zoned to schools in the . PS 124, The Yung Wing School is located in Chinatown. It was named after , the first Chinese person to study at . Public School 130 Hernando De Soto is located in Chinatown. , a bilingual Chinese-English School which opened in 1998, is a non-zoned school in proximity to Chinatown.
Transportation
There are two
stations that are directly in the neighborhood— and
—although other stations are also nearby.
routes include .
connects Chinatown to . The
runs along the , where the , a pedestrian walkway and bikeway, is also present.
The major cultur on the other hand, , , , , East Broadway, and
are the main traffic arteries.
There are multiple
in the area as well.
Street names in Chinese
All streets in Chinatown have Chinese names as well, which are noted on bilingual street signs in Chinatown.
StreetChinese name亞倫街巴士特街Bayard Street擺也街包厘百老匯布隆街堅尼街Catherine Street加薩林街中央街錢伯斯街且林士果企李士提街地蘭西街地威臣街宰也街 (Little Fuzhou)東百老匯 (小福州)Eldridge Street愛烈治街伊利莎白街科西街格蘭街顯利街喜士打街麥地遜街Market Street市場街Mosco Street莫斯科街 (Little Hong Kong/Little Guangdong)勿街 (小香港)/(小广东)摩比利街柯察街柏路Pell Street披露街派街窩夫街
Shuang Wen Academy Network, a non-profit organization that supports dual-language learning in New York City, a dual-language elementary school in Chinatown
Other Chinatowns in NYC:
:Chinatown, Flushing (法拉盛華埠)
Chinatown, Elmhurst (唐人街, 艾姆赫斯特)
Chinatown, Avenue U (唐人街, U大道)
s in the area:
Portals to related topics:
References
Further reading
"New York's First Chinaman". Atlanta Constitution. September 22, 1896
Crouse, Russel. Murder Won't Out. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1932.
Dunshee, Kenneth Holcomb. As You Pass By. New York: Hastings House, 1952.
Ramati, Raquel. How to Save Your Own Street. Garden City, Doubleday and Co., 1981. ISBN 0-385-14814-3
Tsui, Bonnie. American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009 ISBN 978-1-
External links
Notes and References
Web site: . . April 11, 2016.
Web site: . Sarah Waxman. Mediabridge Infosystems, Inc. April 11, 2016.
Book: . . David M. Reimers. April 11, 2016.
Web site: . Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. Middle States Geographer, 0–119, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. April 11, 2016.
Book: . . David M. Reimers. April 11, 2016.
Web site: . Marina Nazario. Business Insider. February 10, 2016. February 15, 2016.
Web site: . U.S. Census Bureau. April 11, 2016.
News: . Kirk Semple. The New York Times. . April 11, 2016.
Web site: . City Council. citylandnyc.org. September 7, 2012.
Web site: . Hay. Mark. . Capital. .
Web site: . RK Chin. .
Web site: . U.S. Census Bureau. .
Web site: . Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. Middle States Geographer, 5, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. .
Web site: . Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. Middle States Geographer, 0–119, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. December 2, 2012.
Web site: Mays. Jeff. . . . .
News: Barron. Laignee. . NY Daily News. . . New York.
Web site: . Calvin Prashad. apaforprogress.org. . .
News: . Marc Santora. The New York Times. . .
News: . J. DAVID GOODMAN. The New York Times. . .
Web site: . U.S. Department of Homeland Security. .
Web site: . U.S. Census Bureau. .
Web site: . U.S. Census Bureau. .
Moss, Frank. The American Metropolis from Knickerbocker Days to the Present Time. London: The Authors' Syndicate, 1897. (pg. 403)
[Herbert Asbury|Asbury, Herbert]
Harlow, Alvin F. Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street. New York and London: D. Appleton & Company, 1931. (pg. 392)
Worden, Helen. The Real New York: A Guide for the Adventurous Shopper, the Exploratory Eater and the Know-it-all Sightseer who Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1932. (pg. 140)
Hemp, William H. New York Enclaves. New York: Clarkson M. Potter, 1975. (pg. 6) ISBN 0-517-51999-2
Wong, Bernard. Patronage, Brokerage, Entrepreneurship, and the Chinese Community of New York. New York: AMS Press, 1988. (pg. 31) ISBN 0-404-19416-8
Lin, Jan. Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998. (pg. 30–31) ISBN 0-
Taylor, B. Kim. The Great New York City Trivia & Fact Book. Nashville: Cumberland House Publishing, 1998. (pg. 20) ISBN 1--6
Ostrow, Daniel. Manhattan's Chinatown. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2008. (pg. 9) ISBN 0-
Tchen, John Kuo Wei. New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. (pg. 82–83) ISBN 0-
Federal Writers' Project. New York City: Vol 1, New York City Guide. Vol. I. American Guide Series. New York: Random House,1939. (pg. 104)
Marcuse, Maxwell F. This Was New York!: A Nostalgic Picture of Gotham in the Gaslight Era. New York: LIM Press, 1969. (pg. 41)
Chen, Jack. The Chinese of America. New York: Harper & Row, 1980. (pg. 258) ISBN 0-06-
Hall, Bruce Edward. Tea That Burns: A Family Memoir of Chinatown. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002. (pg. 37) ISBN 0-
Book: Xinyang Wang. . October 30, 2014. July 1, 1999. New York State Historical Association. X. 286–.
Wang, Wenfei, Shangyi Zhou, and C. Cindy Fan. "" (). , 2002, 43, No. 2, pp. 104-122. Cited page: 106.
Book: Ko-Lin Chin. . July 25, 2012. February 10, 2000. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-. 8–.
Book: Patrick Radden Keefe. . July 25, 2012. July 21, 2009. Random House Digital, Inc.. 978-0-385-52130-7.
Book: Jan Lin. . July 25, 2012. July 1, 1998. University of Minnesota Press. 978-0-. 52–.
Book: New York Media, LLC. . July 25, 2012. February 14, 1983. New York Media, LLC. 38–. .
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Book: Ronald Skeldon. . July 25, . Hong Kong University Press. 978-962-209-334-8. 256–.
Book: Ming K. Chan. Gerard A. Postiglione. . July 25, . M.E. Sharpe. 978-1-. 174–.
Book: Michael S. Durham. . July 25, 2012. March 21, 2006. National Geographic Books. 978-0-. 71–.
Book: Reid Bramblett. . July 25, 2012. August 20, 2003. John Wiley & Sons. 978-0-. 29–.
Book: Isaac Bashevis Singer. . July 25, 2012. April 1, 1981. Macmillan. 978-0-374-5–.
Book: Time Inc. . July 25, 2012. September 7, 1959. Time Inc. 36–. .
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Book: John S. Dempsey. Linda S. Forst. . July 25, 2012. January 1, 2011. Cengage Learning. 978-1-111-6–.
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Book: Joyce Mendelsohn. . July 25, 2012. September 1, 2009. Columbia University Press. 978-0-231-–.
Greer, William R. , , May 25, 1985.
2 in a Chinatown Gang Convicted in Shootings
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News: . Peter. Kwong. . City Room (blog). September 16, 2009. June 6, 2014.
Book: Zhao, Xiaojian. 2010. . New Brunswick, N.J.. Rutgers University Press. 5. . June 6, 2014.
Book: Bao, Xiaolan. Sweatshops in Sunset Park: A Variation of the Late Twentieth Century Chinese Garment Shops in New York City. /books?id=Xm2rhPCjPrAC&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false. 2003. . Daniel E. Bender and Richard A. Greenwald (eds.). New York. Routledge. 133. 6. . June 6, 2014.
Web site: . Jian-Cuo, World Journal, May 9, 2007, then translated from Chinese by Connie Kong. May 17, 2007. New York Community Media Alliance. October 1, 2012.
Book: García, Ofelia. Fishman, Joshua A.. The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City. Walter de Gruyter. -017281-X.
Toy, Vivian S. "." . September 17, 2006. Retrieved on April 2, 2010.
Web site: . BBC News.
Web site: .
Web site: . Anna Merlan. Village Voice.
Web site: . New York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV.
Web site: . VOA.
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Web site: . ERIN DURKIN. 3 January 2011. NY Daily News.
Semple, Kirk. "." . October 21, 2009. Retrieved on December 6, 2012.
Big Onion, /description/index.html.
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News: . Berger. Joseph. September 21, 2011. The New York Times. September 21, 2011.
Web site: . OurChinatown. .
Book: . July 25, . MobileReference. 978-1-. 204–.
Web site: Meng. Helen. . Voices of NY. . .
News: . The New York Times. Steven. Greenhouse. December 9, 2008.
Major Chinatown Census Statistics at a Glance
Web site: .
Web site: .
News: . The New York Times. D. Keith. Mano. April 24, 1988.
News: . The New York Times. N. R.. Kleinfield. June 1, 1986.
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Book: Bonnie Tsui. . July 25, 2012. August 11, 2009. Simon and Schuster. 978-1-. 69–.
Book: Ko-Lin Chin. . July 25, 2012. December 9, 1999. Temple University Press. 978-1-.
News: . The New York Times. Jane H.. Lii. June 12, 1994.
Book: Andrew Rosenberg. Martin Dunford. . July 25, 2012. January 1, 2011. Penguin. 978-1-. 81–.
Book: David Kyle. Rey Koslowski. . July 25, 2012. May 11, 2001. JHU Press. 978-0-. 236–.
Book: Kenneth J. Guest. . July 25, 2012. August 1, 2003. NYU Press. 978-0-. 11–.
Book: Peter Kwong. . July 25, 2012. July 30, 1996. Macmillan. 978-0-. 3–.
Book: David W. Haines. Karen Elaine Rosenblum. . July 25, . Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-5–.
News: . October 21, 2009. February 9, 2013. The New York Times. Kirk. Semple.
Book: Let's Go Inc.. . July 25, 2012. November 27, 2007. Macmillan. 978-0-312-–.
Web site: . Nychinatown.org. November 15, 2009.
Book: Jan Lin. . July 25, . Taylor & Francis. 978-0-415-6–.
Book: Xinyang Wang. . July 25, . Rowman & Littlefield. 978-0-. 79–.
Web site: Ramirez, Jeanine. . NY1. June 13, 2011. September 7, 2012.
Web site: Khan, Shazia. . NY1. July 20, 2011. September 7, 2012.
Web site: . Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. Middle States Geographer, 0–119, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. September 19, 2012.
Web site: . . February 19, 2010. February 19, 2010.
News: Seligman. Scott D.. . February 23, 2011. The Jewish Daily Forward. February 4, 2011.
Web site: . . .
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Book: . . July 25, 2012. April 21, 1997. 16–. .
Hays, C.L. "BLACKBOARD NOTES; Clamoring for English." . January 4, 1987. . Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
"." Yung Wing School. Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
"." . March 19, 2001. Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
"." Shuang Wen School. Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
NYC Subway Map
Manhattan Bus Map
Web site: .
Web site: . Ccbanyc.org. November 15, 2009.
Web site: . Nychinatown.org. November 15, 2009.
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