Chinatown, Manhattan
Encyclopedia
Manhattan's Chinatown home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people
in the Western hemisphere
, is located in the borough
of Manhattan
in New York City
. Manhattan's Chinatown
is one of the oldest ethnic Chinese
enclaves
outside of Asia
.
The borders of Chinatown are currently approximated as:
. 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 billboards 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 he may have been Ah Ken who kept a small boarding house
on lower Mott Street and rented out bunks 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.
, Park, Pell and Doyers streets, east of the notorious Five Points
district. By 1870, there was a Chinese population of 200. By the time the Chinese Exclusion Act
of 1882 was passed, the population was up to 2,000 residents. By 1900, there were 7,000 Chinese residents, but fewer than 200 Chinese women.
The early days of Chinatown were dominated by Chinese "tongs" (now sometimes rendered neutrally as "associations"), which were a mixture of clan associations, landsman's associations, political alliances (Kuomintang
(Nationalists) vs Communist Party of China
) and (more secretly) crime syndicates. The associations started to give protection from harassment due to anti-Chinese sentiment. Each of these associations was aligned with a street gang. The associations were a source of assistance to new immigrants – giving out loans, aiding in starting business, and so forth.
The associations formed a governing body named the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association（中華公所). Though this body was meant to foster relations between the Tongs, open warfare periodically flared between the On Leong (安良) and Hip Sing (協勝) tongs. Much of the Chinese gang warfare took place on Doyers street. Gang
s like the Ghost Shadows
(鬼影) and Flying Dragons
(飛龍) were prevalent until the 1990s. The Chinese gangs controlled certain territories of Manhattan's Chinatown. The On Leong (安良) and it's affiliate Ghost Shadows
(鬼影) were of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Mott, Bayard, Canal, and Mulberry Streets. The Flying Dragons
(飛龍) and it's affiliation Hip Sing (協勝) also of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Doyers, Pell, Bowery, Grand, and Hester Streets. Other Chinese gangs also existed like the Hung Ching and Chih Kung gangs being of Cantonese and Toishan descent, which were affiliated with each other also had control of Mott Street. Born-to-Kill or known as Canal Boys being of Vietnamese and Chinese descent had control over Broadway, Canal, Baxter, Center, and Lafeyette Streets. Fujianese gangs also existed such as the Tung On gang, which affiliated with Tsung Tsin had control over East Broadway, Catherine and Division Streets and the Fuk Ching gang affiliated with Fukien American controlled East Broadway, Chrystie, Forsyth, Eldridge and Allen Streets. At one point, a gang named the Freemasons gang, which were Cantonese descent had attempted to claim East Broadway as their territory.
The only park in Chinatown, Columbus Park, was built on what was once the center of the infamous Five Points neighborhood of New York. During the 19th century, this was the most dangerous slum area of immigrant New York (as portrayed in the book and film Gangs of New York
).
In the 1990s, Chinese people began to move into some parts of the western Lower East Side
, which 50 years earlier was populated by Eastern European Jews and 20 years earlier was occupied by Hispanics.
Chinatown was adversely affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks
. Being so physically close to Ground Zero
, tourism and business has been very slow to return to the area. Part of the reason was the New York City Police Department
closure of Park Row
– one of two major roads linking the Financial Center with Chinatown.
By 2007 luxury condominiums began to spread from Soho 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.
Currently, the rising prices of Manhattan real estate and high rents are also affecting Chinatown. Many new and poorer Chinese immigrants cannot afford their rents; as a result, growth has slowed, and a process of relocation to the Flushing Chinatown and Brooklyn Chinatown has started. 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 stabilized rents as property values rise.
By 2009 many newer Chinese immigrants settled along East Broadway instead of the historic core west of the Bowery
. In addition Mandarin began to eclipse Cantonese as the predominant Chinese dialect in New York's Chinatown during the period. The New York Times
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 green-grocers and fishmongers are clustered around Mott Street, Mulberry Street, Canal Street
(by Baxter Street) and all along East Broadway
(especially by Catherine Street). The Chinese jewelry shop 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 Broadway (especially on the North side), is filled with street vendors selling imitation perfumes, watches, and hand-bags. This section of Canal Street was previously the home of warehouse stores selling surplus/salvage electronics and hardware.
In addition, tourism and restaurants are major industries. The district boasts many historical and cultural attractions so it is a destination for tour companies like Big Onion and NYC Chinatown Tours. Tour stops often include landmarks like the Church of the Transfiguration
and the Lin Zexu
and Confucius
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 Scallion Pancakes
and wonton
soup. The Chinatown restaurant scene is large and vibrant, with more than 200 Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood providing employment. Notable and well reviewed Chinatown establishments include Joe’s Shanghai, Jing Fong, New Green Bo and Amazing 66.
Other contributors to the economy include factories. The proximity of the fashion industry has kept some garment work in the local area though most of the garment industry has moved to China. The local garment industry now concentrates on quick production in small volumes and piece-work (paid by the piece) which is generally done at the worker's home. Much of the population growth is due to immigration. As previous generations of immigrants gain language and education skills, they tend to move to better housing and job prospects that are available in the suburbs and outer boroughs of New York.
The September 11 attacks caused a decline in business for stores and restaurants in Chinatown. Ten years later, the neighborhood had not recovered from the falloff in business, which continued after the lifting of travel restrictions immediately after the attack. The attacks resulted in a decline in the number of garment factories, which at its peak employed 30,000 workers. Tourism has risen since 2004, but is nowhere near its pre-attacks peak. A Chinatown Business Improvement District has been proposed, but is being resisted by some merchants.
located on the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets. These two supermarkets are the largest Chinese supermarkets carrying all different food varieties within the long time established Cantonese community in the western section of Manhattan's Chinatown.
Parallel to the long time Cantonese community, the newly emerged Fuzhou community on the other side of Manhattan's Chinatown on East Broadway also carries another branch of New York Supermarket and a Hong Kong Supermarket did exist there as well, which burned down in 2009 and now the East Broadway branch of New York Supermarket remains as the largest Chinese supermarket for the Fuzhou community.
http://www.nyhabitat.com/blog/category/new-york/new-york-travel-guide/new-york-neighborhoods/lower-east-side/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/magazine/there-s-more-to-chinatown.html?pagewanted=all?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/business/mining-chinatown-s-mountain-of-gold.html
http://www.corcoran.com/news/index.aspx?page=Article&pub_id=6704 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.
It is difficult to get an exact count, as neighborhood participation in the U.S. Census is thought to be low due to language barriers, as well as large-scale illegal immigration.
Until the 1960s, the majority of the Chinese population in Chinatown emigrated from Guangdong
province and Hong Kong
, thus they were native speakers of Cantonese, especially the Canton
and Taishan dialect
s. A minority of Hakka
was also represented. Mandarin was rarely spoken by residents even well into the 1980s.
Immigration reform in 1965 opened the door to a huge influx of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong, and Cantonese became the dominant tongue. With the influx of Hong Kong immigrants, it was developing and growing into a Little Hong Kong
, however the growth slowed down later on.But since the late 1980s and 1990s, the vast majority of new Chinese immigrants have come from mainland China, especially Fujian Province, and tend to speak Foochow
along with Mandarin.
Most Fuzhou immigrants are illegal immigrants while most of the Cantonese immigrants are legal immigrants in Manhattan's Chinatown. With the coming of illegal Fuzhou immigrants during the 1990s, there is now a Fuzhou Community within the eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown which started on the East Broadway portion during the early 1990s and later emerged north onto the Eldridge Street portion of Manhattan's Chinatown by the late 1990s and early 2000s. The eastern portion of Chinatown became more fully developed when the Fuzhou immigrants began to arrive whereas before it was moderately Chinese populated and it is referred to as the New Chinatown of Manhattan. The East Broadway and Eldridge Street portion is where the Chinatown Fuzhou immigrants are primarily concentrated, which has resulted in referring East Broadway as Fuzhou Street No. 1 and Eldridge Street as Fuzhou Street No. 2. Not only did the Fuzhou immigration influx establish a new portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, they also played a role in property values rising up 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. Before the the large Fuzhou influx, what is now the western section of Chinatown or known as the Old Chinatown of Manhattan was the original size of Chinatown with The Bowery at the time serving as the original eastern borderline of Chinatown and originally this was where the concentrations of Chinese people mostly populated on the Lower East Side, mostly the Cantonese. A significant difference between the two separate Chinese provincial 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.
The Fuzhou immigration pattern started out in the 70s very similarly like the Cantonese immigration during the late 1800s to early 1900s that had established New York'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 earliest Fuzhou immigrants arriving during the 80s and 90s 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 Cantonese resentment against Fuzhou immigrants arriving into Chinatown.
As the epicenter of the massive Fuzhou influx has shifted to Brooklyn
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 declining very rapidly in Brooklyn's Chinatown. Although the term Little Hong Kong 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 Standard Cantonese
, which is spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China being widely used, so it is in many ways a Little Hong Kong. A more appropriate term would be Little GuangDong since the Cantonese immigrants do come from different regions of the Guangdong
province of China. The long time established Cantonese Community/Little Hong Kong or known as the Old Chinatown of Manhattan lies in the Mott, Pell, Doyer, Bayard, Elizabeth, Mulberry, Canal Streets and The Bowery portion of Manhattan's Chinatown.
The Bowery and Chrystie Street is the borderline of the Cantonese and Fuzhou Communities in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Despite the large Fuzhou population, most of the Chinese businesses in Chinatown are still Cantonese owned and because of still the large Cantonese population on the Lower East Side, especially with the Cantonese Community still being the main Chinese commercial district for all of Chinatown and with the Cantonese people living in more affluent residencies that are also important customers to Chinatown's businesses, Cantonese is still a strong Lingua Franca in Chinatown even though Mandarin is beginning to sweep Cantonese aside as a Lingua Franca allowing Cantonese to still dominate the cultural standards and economic resources of Manhattan's Chinatown. 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 Little Fuzhou on East Broadway
, the center of Fuzhou culture. Linguistically, however, in the past few years, the Cantonese dialect that has dominated Chinatown for decades is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin Chinese, the national language of China and the lingua franca
of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
Now the increasing Fuzhou influx has shifted into the Brooklyn Chinatown in the Sunset Park
section of Brooklyn and is replacing the Cantonese population there more significantly than in Manhattan's Chinatown. Brooklyn's Chinatown is quickly becoming the new Little Fuzhou in NYC or Brooklyn's East Broadway (布鲁克林区的東百老匯). 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; but by the 2000s, the Fuzhou population growth had slowed within Manhattan's Chinatown and began to accelerate in Brooklyn's Chinatown instead.
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 dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replacing Cantonese as their lingua franca
. Although Min Chinese, especially the Fuzhou dialect
, 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.
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 subsidized housing project, named Confucius Plaza
, was completed on the corner of Bowery and Division streets in 1976. This 44-story residential tower block
gave much needed new housing stock to thousands of residents. The building also housed a new public grade school, P.S. 124 (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.
the Lieutenant
Benjamin Ralph Kimlau
Memorial archway was erected in memorial of the Chinese-Americans who died in World War II
. This memorial, which bears calligraphy by the great Yu Youren 于右任 (1879—1964), is mostly ignored by the residents due to its poor location on a busy car thoroughfare with little pedestrian traffic. A statue of Lin Zexu
(林則徐), also known as Commissioner Lin, a Foochowese Chinese official who opposed the opium trade, is also located at the square; 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, New York Telephone
, then the local phone company started capping the street phone
booths with pagoda
-like decorations. In 1976, the statue of Confucius
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 Church of the Transfiguration, a national historic site built in 1815, stands off Mott Street.
In 2010, Chinatown and Little Italy
were listed in a single historic district
on the National Register of Historic Places
.
. 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 Sun Sing Theater under the Manhattan Bridge and Pagoda Theater both on the street of East Broadway, Governor Theater on Chatham Square, Rosemary Theater on Canal Street across the Manhattan Bridge and 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 DVD
s and VCD
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.
were listed in a single historic district
on the National Register of Historic Places
.
.
PS 124, The Yung Wing School is located in Chinatown. It was named after Yung Wing
, the first Chinese person to study at Yale University
. Public School 130 Hernando De Soto is located in Chinatown. PS 184M Shuang Wen School
, a bilingual Chinese-English School which opened in 1998, is a non-zoned school in proximity to Chinatown.
in Queens
, particularly along from Roosevelt Avenue to Main Street 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 newest Chinatowns have recently sprung up in Elmhurst, Queens
north of Queens Blvd on Broadway and on Avenue U
in the Homecrest
section of Brooklyn. Outside of New York City proper, a growing suburban Chinatown is developing in Edison, New Jersey
, which lies 30 miles (48.3 km) to the southwest. In recent years, the Chinatowns established in Flushing, Queens
and Sunset Park, Brooklyn
have long surpassed Manhattan's Chinatown.
While the composition of these satellite Chinatowns is as varied as the original, the political turmoils in the Manhattan Chinatown (Tongs
vs. Republic of China
loyalists vs. People's Republic of China
loyalists vs. Americanized) has led to some factionalization in the other satellites. The Flushing Chinatown located in Flushing, Queens
was spearheaded by many Chinese fleeing the Communist retaking of Hong Kong
in 1997 as well as Taiwanese
who used their considerable capital to buy out land from the former residents. The Brooklyn Chinatown located in Sunset Park
was originally settled by Cantonese immigrants, but today it is mostly populated by Fukienese
immigrants with still some Cantonese immigrants, who are long time Chinese residents. More culturally
assimilated Chinese have moved outside these neighborhoods into more white or Hispanic neighborhoods in the city while others move to the suburbs outright.
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
in the Western hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
, is located in the borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Manhattan's Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
is one of the oldest ethnic Chinese
Ethnic Chinese
Ethnic Chinese may refer to:*Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macao, the Republic of China and Singapore....
enclaves
Ethnic enclave
An ethnic enclave is an ethnic community which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area, it may be a neighborhood, an area or an administrative division based on ethnic groups. Sometimes an entire city may have such a feel. Usually the enclave revolves around businesses...
outside of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
Location
- Grand StreetGrand Street (Manhattan)Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
to the North (bordering Little ItalyLittle Italy, ManhattanLittle Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
) - Allen StreetAllen Street (Manhattan)Allen Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan which runs north-south through the Lower Manhattan neighborhood of Chinatown, and the Lower East Side. It is continued north of Houston Street as First Avenue, and south of Canal Street by Division Street and Pike Street. ...
to the East (bordering the Lower East SideLower East Side, ManhattanThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
) - Worth StreetWorth Street (Manhattan)Worth Street is a two-way street in the Manhattan borough of New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, which runs one-way north- and westbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street,...
to the South - Lafayette StreetLafayette Street (Manhattan)Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan, which runs roughly parallel to Broadway to the west. Originally, the part of the street below Houston Street was called Elm Place....
to the West
Ah Ken and early Chinese immigration
Although Quimbo Appo is claimed to have arrived in the area during the 1840s, the first Chinese person credited as having permanently immigrated to Chinatown was Ah Ken, a Cantonese businessman, who eventually founded a successful cigar store on Park RowPark Row (Manhattan)
Park Row is a street located in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Street and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New...
. 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 billboards 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 he may have been Ah Ken who kept a small boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
on lower Mott Street and rented out bunks 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 discrimination and new laws which prevented participation in many occupations on the West Coast, some Chinese immigrants moved to the East Coast cities in search of employment. Early businesses in these cities included hand laundries and restaurants. Chinatown started on Mott StreetMott Street
Mott Street is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north-south direction in the borough of Manhattan in New York City in the United States. It is best known as Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Street runs from Chatham Square in the south to Bleecker Street in the north...
, Park, Pell and Doyers streets, east of the notorious Five Points
Five Points, Manhattan
Five Points was a neighborhood in central lower Manhattan in New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street in the west, The Bowery in the east, Canal Street in the north and Park Row in the south...
district. By 1870, there was a Chinese population of 200. By the time the Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by Chester A. Arthur on May 8, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Those revisions allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration, and Congress subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of...
of 1882 was passed, the population was up to 2,000 residents. By 1900, there were 7,000 Chinese residents, but fewer than 200 Chinese women.
The early days of Chinatown were dominated by Chinese "tongs" (now sometimes rendered neutrally as "associations"), which were a mixture of clan associations, landsman's associations, political alliances (Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(Nationalists) vs Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
) and (more secretly) crime syndicates. The associations started to give protection from harassment due to anti-Chinese sentiment. Each of these associations was aligned with a street gang. The associations were a source of assistance to new immigrants – giving out loans, aiding in starting business, and so forth.
The associations formed a governing body named the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association（中華公所). Though this body was meant to foster relations between the Tongs, open warfare periodically flared between the On Leong (安良) and Hip Sing (協勝) tongs. Much of the Chinese gang warfare took place on Doyers street. Gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
s like the Ghost Shadows
Ghost Shadows
The Ghost Shadows are a Chinese American gang that was prominent in New York City's Chinatown from the 1980s through the early 1990s.Formed in 1971 by immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the gang is believed to be under control of the On Leong Tong...
(鬼影) and Flying Dragons
Flying Dragons (gang)
The Flying Dragons are a well known Chinese street gang affiliated with the Hip Sing Tong are active in New York City's Chinatown, and have a presence in Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. The gang moved heavily into heroin trafficking after the Italian-American Mafia lost the trade as a result of...
(飛龍) were prevalent until the 1990s. The Chinese gangs controlled certain territories of Manhattan's Chinatown. The On Leong (安良) and it's affiliate Ghost Shadows
Ghost Shadows
The Ghost Shadows are a Chinese American gang that was prominent in New York City's Chinatown from the 1980s through the early 1990s.Formed in 1971 by immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the gang is believed to be under control of the On Leong Tong...
(鬼影) were of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Mott, Bayard, Canal, and Mulberry Streets. The Flying Dragons
Flying Dragons (gang)
The Flying Dragons are a well known Chinese street gang affiliated with the Hip Sing Tong are active in New York City's Chinatown, and have a presence in Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. The gang moved heavily into heroin trafficking after the Italian-American Mafia lost the trade as a result of...
(飛龍) and it's affiliation Hip Sing (協勝) also of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Doyers, Pell, Bowery, Grand, and Hester Streets. Other Chinese gangs also existed like the Hung Ching and Chih Kung gangs being of Cantonese and Toishan descent, which were affiliated with each other also had control of Mott Street. Born-to-Kill or known as Canal Boys being of Vietnamese and Chinese descent had control over Broadway, Canal, Baxter, Center, and Lafeyette Streets. Fujianese gangs also existed such as the Tung On gang, which affiliated with Tsung Tsin had control over East Broadway, Catherine and Division Streets and the Fuk Ching gang affiliated with Fukien American controlled East Broadway, Chrystie, Forsyth, Eldridge and Allen Streets. At one point, a gang named the Freemasons gang, which were Cantonese descent had attempted to claim East Broadway as their territory.
The only park in Chinatown, Columbus Park, was built on what was once the center of the infamous Five Points neighborhood of New York. During the 19th century, this was the most dangerous slum area of immigrant New York (as portrayed in the book and film Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New...
).
Post-immigration reform
In the years after the United States enacted the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, allowing many more immigrants from Asia into the country, the population of Chinatown exploded. Geographically, much of the growth was to neighborhoods to the north.In the 1990s, Chinese people began to move into some parts of the western Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, which 50 years earlier was populated by Eastern European Jews and 20 years earlier was occupied by Hispanics.
Chinatown was adversely affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. Being so physically close to Ground Zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...
, tourism and business has been very slow to return to the area. Part of the reason was the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
closure of Park Row
Park Row (Manhattan)
Park Row is a street located in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Street and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New...
– one of two major roads linking the Financial Center with Chinatown.
By 2007 luxury condominiums began to spread from Soho 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.
Currently, the rising prices of Manhattan real estate and high rents are also affecting Chinatown. Many new and poorer Chinese immigrants cannot afford their rents; as a result, growth has slowed, and a process of relocation to the Flushing Chinatown and Brooklyn Chinatown has started. 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 stabilized rents as property values rise.
By 2009 many newer Chinese immigrants settled along East Broadway instead of the historic core west of the Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
. In addition Mandarin began to eclipse Cantonese as the predominant Chinese dialect in New York's Chinatown during the period. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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.
Economy
Canal Street (Manhattan)
Canal Street is a major street in New York City, crossing lower Manhattan to join New Jersey in the west to Brooklyn in the east . It forms the main spine of Chinatown, and separates it from Little Italy...
(by Baxter Street) and all along East Broadway
East Broadway (Manhattan)
East Broadway is a two-way east-west street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Broadway begins at Chatham Square and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends...
(especially by Catherine Street). The Chinese jewelry shop 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 Broadway (especially on the North side), is filled with street vendors selling imitation perfumes, watches, and hand-bags. This section of Canal Street was previously the home of warehouse stores selling surplus/salvage electronics and hardware.
In addition, tourism and restaurants are major industries. The district boasts many historical and cultural attractions so it is a destination for tour companies like Big Onion and NYC Chinatown Tours. Tour stops often include landmarks like the Church of the Transfiguration
Church of the Transfiguration (New York City)
The Church of the Tranfiguration is a Roman Catholic parish located at 25 Mott Street on the northwest corner of Mosco Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
and the Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu
Lín Zéxú ; 30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing Dynasty.He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium trade in Guangzhou...
and Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
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 Scallion Pancakes
Cong you bing
A cong you bing or green onion pancake is a savoury, non-leavened flatbread folded with oil and minced scallions . It originates in Chinese culture. Unlike a true pancake, it is made from dough instead of batter...
and wonton
Wonton
Not to be confused with WantonA wonton is a type of dumpling commonly found in a number of Chinese cuisines.-Filling:...
soup. The Chinatown restaurant scene is large and vibrant, with more than 200 Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood providing employment. Notable and well reviewed Chinatown establishments include Joe’s Shanghai, Jing Fong, New Green Bo and Amazing 66.
Other contributors to the economy include factories. The proximity of the fashion industry has kept some garment work in the local area though most of the garment industry has moved to China. The local garment industry now concentrates on quick production in small volumes and piece-work (paid by the piece) which is generally done at the worker's home. Much of the population growth is due to immigration. As previous generations of immigrants gain language and education skills, they tend to move to better housing and job prospects that are available in the suburbs and outer boroughs of New York.
The September 11 attacks caused a decline in business for stores and restaurants in Chinatown. Ten years later, the neighborhood had not recovered from the falloff in business, which continued after the lifting of travel restrictions immediately after the attack. The attacks resulted in a decline in the number of garment factories, which at its peak employed 30,000 workers. Tourism has risen since 2004, but is nowhere near its pre-attacks peak. A Chinatown Business Improvement District has been proposed, but is being resisted by some merchants.
Supermarkets
Here in Manhattan's Chinatown are home to a significant few largest Chinese supermarkets. On August 2011, a new branch of New York Supermarket opened on Mott Street just in the center district of grocery and food shopping of Manhattan's Chinatown. Just a block away from New York Supermarket, is a Hong Kong SupermarketHong Kong Supermarket
Hong Kong Supermarket is a growing supermarket chain in the Los Angeles region of Southern California. It operates mainly in the newer suburban overseas Chinese communities, particularly in the Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City areas....
located on the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets. These two supermarkets are the largest Chinese supermarkets carrying all different food varieties within the long time established Cantonese community in the western section of Manhattan's Chinatown.
Parallel to the long time Cantonese community, the newly emerged Fuzhou community on the other side of Manhattan's Chinatown on East Broadway also carries another branch of New York Supermarket and a Hong Kong Supermarket did exist there as well, which burned down in 2009 and now the East Broadway branch of New York Supermarket remains as the largest Chinese supermarket for the Fuzhou community.
Demographics
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.http://www.alaskadispatch.com/http://www.nyhabitat.com/blog/category/new-york/new-york-travel-guide/new-york-neighborhoods/lower-east-side/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/magazine/there-s-more-to-chinatown.html?pagewanted=all?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/business/mining-chinatown-s-mountain-of-gold.html
http://www.corcoran.com/news/index.aspx?page=Article&pub_id=6704 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.
It is difficult to get an exact count, as neighborhood participation in the U.S. Census is thought to be low due to language barriers, as well as large-scale illegal immigration.
Until the 1960s, the majority of the Chinese population in Chinatown emigrated from Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
province and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, thus they were native speakers of Cantonese, especially the Canton
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
and Taishan dialect
Taishan dialect
Taishanese is a dialect of Yue Chinese. The dialect is closely related to Cantonese.Taishanese is spoken in the southern part of Guangdong Province in China, particularly in and around the city-level county of Taishan...
s. A minority of Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
was also represented. Mandarin was rarely spoken by residents even well into the 1980s.
Immigration reform in 1965 opened the door to a huge influx of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong, and Cantonese became the dominant tongue. With the influx of Hong Kong immigrants, it was developing and growing into a Little Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, however the growth slowed down later on.But since the late 1980s and 1990s, the vast majority of new Chinese immigrants have come from mainland China, especially Fujian Province, and tend to speak Foochow
Fuzhou dialect
Fuzhou dialect , also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it ' , meaning the language spoken in...
along with Mandarin.
Most Fuzhou immigrants are illegal immigrants while most of the Cantonese immigrants are legal immigrants in Manhattan's Chinatown. With the coming of illegal Fuzhou immigrants during the 1990s, there is now a Fuzhou Community within the eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown which started on the East Broadway portion during the early 1990s and later emerged north onto the Eldridge Street portion of Manhattan's Chinatown by the late 1990s and early 2000s. The eastern portion of Chinatown became more fully developed when the Fuzhou immigrants began to arrive whereas before it was moderately Chinese populated and it is referred to as the New Chinatown of Manhattan. The East Broadway and Eldridge Street portion is where the Chinatown Fuzhou immigrants are primarily concentrated, which has resulted in referring East Broadway as Fuzhou Street No. 1 and Eldridge Street as Fuzhou Street No. 2. Not only did the Fuzhou immigration influx establish a new portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, they also played a role in property values rising up 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. Before the the large Fuzhou influx, what is now the western section of Chinatown or known as the Old Chinatown of Manhattan was the original size of Chinatown with The Bowery at the time serving as the original eastern borderline of Chinatown and originally this was where the concentrations of Chinese people mostly populated on the Lower East Side, mostly the Cantonese. A significant difference between the two separate Chinese provincial 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.
The Fuzhou immigration pattern started out in the 70s very similarly like the Cantonese immigration during the late 1800s to early 1900s that had established New York'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 earliest Fuzhou immigrants arriving during the 80s and 90s 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 Cantonese resentment against Fuzhou immigrants arriving into Chinatown.
As the epicenter of the massive Fuzhou influx has shifted to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
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 declining very rapidly in Brooklyn's Chinatown. Although the term Little Hong Kong 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 Standard Cantonese
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
, which is spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China being widely used, so it is in many ways a Little Hong Kong. A more appropriate term would be Little GuangDong since the Cantonese immigrants do come from different regions of the Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
province of China. The long time established Cantonese Community/Little Hong Kong or known as the Old Chinatown of Manhattan lies in the Mott, Pell, Doyer, Bayard, Elizabeth, Mulberry, Canal Streets and The Bowery portion of Manhattan's Chinatown.
The Bowery and Chrystie Street is the borderline of the Cantonese and Fuzhou Communities in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Despite the large Fuzhou population, most of the Chinese businesses in Chinatown are still Cantonese owned and because of still the large Cantonese population on the Lower East Side, especially with the Cantonese Community still being the main Chinese commercial district for all of Chinatown and with the Cantonese people living in more affluent residencies that are also important customers to Chinatown's businesses, Cantonese is still a strong Lingua Franca in Chinatown even though Mandarin is beginning to sweep Cantonese aside as a Lingua Franca allowing Cantonese to still dominate the cultural standards and economic resources of Manhattan's Chinatown. 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 Little Fuzhou on East Broadway
East Broadway (Manhattan)
East Broadway is a two-way east-west street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Broadway begins at Chatham Square and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends...
, the center of Fuzhou culture. Linguistically, however, in the past few years, the Cantonese dialect that has dominated Chinatown for decades is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin Chinese, the national language of China and the lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
Now the increasing Fuzhou influx has shifted into the Brooklyn Chinatown in the Sunset Park
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Greenwood Heights to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west...
section of Brooklyn and is replacing the Cantonese population there more significantly than in Manhattan's Chinatown. Brooklyn's Chinatown is quickly becoming the new Little Fuzhou in NYC or Brooklyn's East Broadway (布鲁克林区的東百老匯). 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; but by the 2000s, the Fuzhou population growth had slowed within Manhattan's Chinatown and began to accelerate in Brooklyn's Chinatown instead.
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 dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replacing Cantonese as their lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
. Although Min Chinese, especially the Fuzhou dialect
Fuzhou dialect
Fuzhou dialect , also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it ' , meaning the language spoken in...
, 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.
Buildings
Housing
The housing stock of Chinatown is still mostly composed of cramped tenementTenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
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 subsidized housing project, named Confucius Plaza
Confucius Plaza
Confucius Plaza Apartments is a limited-equity housing cooperative in Chinatown, Manhattan. The 44-story coop brown brick tower complex in chinatown tower block with 762 apartments was constructed in 1975 at a cost of $38,387,000. The building was the first major public-funded housing project...
, was completed on the corner of Bowery and Division streets in 1976. This 44-story residential tower block
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
gave much needed new housing stock to thousands of residents. The building also housed a new public grade school, P.S. 124 (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.
Landmarks
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, at Chatham SquareChatham Square, Manhattan
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Manhattan's Chinatown. The square lies at the confluence of seven streets: Bowery, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park Row. The postal ZIP Code is 10038.-History:...
the Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Benjamin Ralph Kimlau
Benjamin Ralph Kimlau
Benjamin Ralph Kimlau was a Chinese American aviator and United States Air Force bomber pilot.Kimlau was born on April 10, 1918 in Concord, MA and moved to New York City with his parents in 1932. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School. After his visit to China, he studied at Pennsylvania Military...
Memorial archway was erected in memorial of the Chinese-Americans who died in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. This memorial, which bears calligraphy by the great Yu Youren 于右任 (1879—1964), is mostly ignored by the residents due to its poor location on a busy car thoroughfare with little pedestrian traffic. A statue of Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu
Lín Zéxú ; 30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing Dynasty.He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium trade in Guangzhou...
(林則徐), also known as Commissioner Lin, a Foochowese Chinese official who opposed the opium trade, is also located at the square; 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, New York Telephone
New York Telephone
The New York Telephone Company was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.-Predecessor companies:...
, then the local phone company started capping the street phone
booths with pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
-like decorations. In 1976, the statue of Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
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 Church of the Transfiguration, a national historic site built in 1815, stands off Mott Street.
In 2010, Chinatown and Little Italy
Little Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
were listed in a single historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Chinese theaters
In the past, Chinatown had Chinese theaters that provided entertainment to the Chinese population. The first Chinese-language theater in the city was located at 5–7 Doyers Street from 1893 to 1911. The theater was later converted into a rescue mission for homeless from the BoweryBowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
. 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 Sun Sing Theater under the Manhattan Bridge and Pagoda Theater both on the street of East Broadway, Governor Theater on Chatham Square, Rosemary Theater on Canal Street across the Manhattan Bridge and 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 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s and VCD
VCD
VCD is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:* VCD Athletic, semi-professional football team* Video CD* Voice command device* Value change dump * Vocal cord dysfunction* Visual Communication and Design...
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.
Historic District
In 2010, Little Italy and ChinatownChinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
were listed in a single historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Education
Residents are zoned to schools in the New York City Department of EducationNew York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
.
PS 124, The Yung Wing School is located in Chinatown. It was named after Yung Wing
Yung Wing
Yung Wing . Born in Zhuhai in Guangdong province, he studied in Robert Morrison's missionary schools as a boy where Tong King-sing was a classmate.-Biography:...
, the first Chinese person to study at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Public School 130 Hernando De Soto is located in Chinatown. PS 184M Shuang Wen School
Shuang Wen School
P.S. 184M Shuang Wen School , a public school in New York City also known as P.S. 184M, is a bilingual elementary school located on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, a step away from Chinatown, Manhattan.The school teaches pre-kindergarten to 8th grade...
, a bilingual Chinese-English School which opened in 1998, is a non-zoned school in proximity to Chinatown.
Street names in Chinese
|
Forsyth Street (Manhattan) Forsyth Street runs from Houston Street south to East Broadway in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street was named in 1817 for Lt. Colonel Benjamin Forsyth.... – 科西街 Grand Street (Manhattan) Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River.... – 格蘭街 Henry Street (Manhattan) Henry Street is a street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City that runs in a northeasterly direction one-way eastbound from Oliver Street in the south and west, passing underneath the Manhattan Bridge and on to Grand Street in the north and east. The street is named for Henry... – 顯利街 Madison Street (Manhattan) Madison Street is a two-way thoroughfare in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan that begins under the Brooklyn Bridge entrance ramp and ends at Grand Street. It is roughly sixteen large city blocks long. Due to security measures implemented after the September 11, 2001... – 麥地遜街 Mulberry Street (Manhattan) Mulberry Street is a principal thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York. The street was listed on maps of the area since at least 1755. The "Bend" in Mulberry in which the street changes direction from southwest to northeast to a northerly direction was to avoid the wetlands surrounding the Collect Pond... – 摩比利街 Orchard Street (Manhattan) Orchard Street is a street in Manhattan which covers the eight city blocks between Division Street in Chinatown and East Houston Street on the Lower East Side... – 柯察街 Park Row (Manhattan) Park Row is a street located in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Street and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New... – 柏路 Worth Street (Manhattan) Worth Street is a two-way street in the Manhattan borough of New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, which runs one-way north- and westbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street,... – 窩夫街 |
Satellite Chinatowns
For a long time, Manhattan's Chinatown has always been the most largely concentrated Chinese population in NYC. However, in recent years growing Chinese populations in 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 FlushingFlushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, particularly along from Roosevelt Avenue to Main Street through Kissena Blvd. Another Chinese community is located in Sunset Park
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Greenwood Heights to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, particularly along 8th Avenue from 40th to 65th Streets. New York City's newest Chinatowns have recently sprung up in Elmhurst, Queens
Elmhurst, Queens
Elmhurst is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Roosevelt Avenue on the north; Corona to the northeast; Junction Boulevard on the east; Rego Park to the southeast; the Long Island Expressway on the south; Middle Village to the south and southwest; and Maspeth...
north of Queens Blvd on Broadway and on Avenue U
Avenue U
Avenue U is a street located in Brooklyn, New York City. This avenue is a main thoroughfare throughout its length. Avenue U begins at Stillwell Avenue and ends at Bergen Avenue...
in the Homecrest
Homecrest, Brooklyn
Homecrest is a neighborhood situated in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It borders Kings Highway to the north, Avenue X to the south, Coney Island Avenue to the west, and Ocean Avenue to the east. Homecrest uses the ZIP Code, 11229. The area is served by Brooklyn Community Board 15...
section of Brooklyn. Outside of New York City proper, a growing suburban Chinatown is developing in Edison, New Jersey
Edison, New Jersey
Edison Township is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey. What is now Edison Township was originally incorporated as Raritan Township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1870, from portions of both Piscataway Township and Woodbridge Township...
, which lies 30 miles (48.3 km) to the southwest. In recent years, the Chinatowns established in Flushing, Queens
Chinatown, Flushing
Chinatown, Flushing, or Flushing Chinatown , in the Flushing area of the borough of Queens in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, as well as within New York City itself...
and Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Chinatown, Brooklyn
Chinatown, Brooklyn, or Brooklyn Chinatown , in the Sunset Park area of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, as well as within New York City itself...
have long surpassed Manhattan's Chinatown.
While the composition of these satellite Chinatowns is as varied as the original, the political turmoils in the Manhattan Chinatown (Tongs
Tong (organization)
The word tong means "hall" or "gathering place". In North America a tong is a type of organization found among Chinese living in the United States and Canada. These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and are often tied to criminal activity...
vs. Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
loyalists vs. People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
loyalists vs. Americanized) has led to some factionalization in the other satellites. The Flushing Chinatown located in Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
was spearheaded by many Chinese fleeing the Communist retaking of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
in 1997 as well as Taiwanese
Taiwanese people
Taiwanese people may refer to individuals who either claim or are imputed cultural identity focused on the island of Taiwan and/or Taiwan Area which have been governed by the Republic of China since 1945...
who used their considerable capital to buy out land from the former residents. The Brooklyn Chinatown located in Sunset Park
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Greenwood Heights to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west...
was originally settled by Cantonese immigrants, but today it is mostly populated by Fukienese
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
immigrants with still some Cantonese immigrants, who are long time Chinese residents. More culturally
assimilated Chinese have moved outside these neighborhoods into more white or Hispanic neighborhoods in the city while others move to the suburbs outright.
See also
- Shuang Wen SchoolShuang Wen SchoolP.S. 184M Shuang Wen School , a public school in New York City also known as P.S. 184M, is a bilingual elementary school located on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, a step away from Chinatown, Manhattan.The school teaches pre-kindergarten to 8th grade...
– a dual-language elementary school on the Lower East Side. - Shuang wen academy networkShuang wen academy networkThe Shuang Wen Academy Network is a 501-C3 non-profit organization based in New York City. The proposed mission of SWAN during its inception was the "development of dual language and dual cultural identities for...its students."...
- a non-profit organization that supports dual-language learning in New York City. - Chinese Hand Laundry AllianceChinese Hand Laundry AllianceThe Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance was a labor organization formed in 1933 to protect the civil rights of overseas Chinese living in North America and "to help Chinese laundry workers break their isolation in American society." An openly left-wing organization, the CHLA used various means —...
- ChinatownChinatownA Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
- Chinatown bus linesChinatown bus linesChinatown bus lines are discount intercity bus services that have been established in the Chinatown communities of the East Coast of the United States since 1998. Similar Chinese American-run bus services are cropping up on the West Coast...
- Chinatowns in Canada and the United States
- Chinatown, Flushing (法拉盛華埠)Chinatown, FlushingChinatown, Flushing, or Flushing Chinatown , in the Flushing area of the borough of Queens in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, as well as within New York City itself...
- Chinatown, Brooklyn (布鲁克林華埠)
- List of Chinatowns in the United States
Further reading
- "New York's First Chinaman". Atlanta Constitution. 22 September 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 978-1416557234 Official website
External links
- Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York
- Explore Chinatown-official tourism site
- A Photo Journey through Chinatown
- A short film about New York City's Chinatown, 5 lessons and 9 questions about Chinatown
- The Museum of Chinese in America
- Chinatown TripAdvisor
- Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District