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Immigration in US History Chinatowns Definition: Ethnic enclaves outside traditional Chinese homelands in which Chinese immigrants are concentrated Immigration Issues: Asian immigrants; Chinese immigrants; Demographics; Ethnic enclaves Significance: Chinatowns can be found in almost every major city with a high clustering of Chinese throughout Southeast Asia, South and North America, Europe, and Oceania. The first significant Chinatown to emerge in the United States arose in San Francisco. It began to take shape in 1850 as large numbers of Chinese immigrants were lured there by the California gold rush. Initially called Little Canton, it was christened Chinatown by the press in 1853. In the next several decades, more than two dozen Chinatowns were established in mining areas, railroad towns, farming communities, and cities of California, as well as Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. As the Chinese diaspora accelerated, especially after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinatowns gradually emerged in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, and other cities. The formation of Chinatowns in the United States was an outcome of both voluntary and involuntary forces. In a foreign land and with language barriers, the Chinese needed their own communities for information sharing, lifestyle preservation, business transactions, cultural maintenance, kinship networking, and psychological support. Externally, hostility and violence against the Chinese, housing and employment discrimination, and institutional exclusion forced them to establish their own enclaves for self-protection and survival. Over time, some Chinatowns have survived and continued to grow, whereas other Chinatowns, such as Pittsburgh's, have faded. Many important demographic, economic, social, and geographical factors have contributed to the growth or decline of a Chinatown, including the size of the city in which the Chinatown is located; the number of Chinese residents in the city; the sex and age distribution of the Chinese population in the Chinatown; the demand for Chinese labor in the area; the demand of the Chinese in the Chinatown for goods and services; the continuation of new Chinese immigration and settlement into the Chinatown; land-use patterns and land values in the Chinatown and its surrounding areas; changes in the socioeconomic status of Chinese residents; relationships between the Chinese and other groups; and adaptation strategies of the Chinatown. During the 1990's, there were more than two dozen Chinatowns in the United States, of which New York's Chinatown was the largest. Modern Chinatowns have been transformed into tourist centers and Chinese shopping bazaars. They also serve as living Chinese com-munities, Chinese cultural meccas, commercial cores, suppliers of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, historical education hubs, and symbolic power bases for political office holders and seekers. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that injustice and the exploitation of new Chinese immigrants also take place in some Chinatowns. Despite the existence of the three types of traditional social organizations in Chinatowns (huiguan or district associations, zu or clans, and tongs or secret societies), they have much less influence on the lives of Chinese residents than they did in the past. Historically, all Chinatowns were located in urban centers, and residents tended to have a lower socioeconomic status. However, during the late 1970's, the first suburban Chinatown emerged in Monterey Park, located east of Los Angeles. Also dubbed the Chinese Beverly Hills or Little Taipei, it is home to mainly middle-class people. Chinese Americans are the dominant economic, social, and cultural force in the city. In November of 1983, Monterey Park elected the first Chinese American woman mayor, Lily Lee Chen. There are signs that suburban Chinatowns are multiplying in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles and in Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, and they are likely to grow in the foreseeable future as a result of an influx of high-status Chinese immigrants. Philip Q. Yang Further ReadingChen, Shehong. Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Guest, Kenneth J. God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York's Evolving Immigrant Community. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Kwong, Peter. Chinatown, New York: Labor and Politics, 1930-1950. Rev. ed. New York: New Press, 2001 Ling, Huping. Chinese St. Louis: From Enclave to Cultural Community. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. Ma, L. Eve Armentrout. Hometown Chinatown: The History of Oakland's Chinese Community. New York: Garland, 2000. Shah, Nayan. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Wong, William. Oakland's Chinatown. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2004. Zinzius, Birgit. Chinese America: Stereotype and Reality: History, Present, and Future of the Chinese Americans. New York: P. Lang, 2005 See Also Asian American stereotypes; Chinese immigrants; Chinese immigrants and family customs; Ethnic enclaves; Little Havana; Little Italies; Little Tokyos. |
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