Chinatowns in the Americas

This article discusses Chinatowns in North America. For the purposes of this article North America is defined as Canada and the United States. For information on Chinatowns in Mexico and Central America, please refer to Chinatowns in Latin America. The common features of Chinatowns and social problems common to Chinatown are covered in the main Chinatown article. If you know of other North American Chinatowns not mentioned in this article, please add them.

In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America: frontier and rural Chinatowns, urban Chinatowns, and suburban Chinatowns.

Frontier and rural Chinatowns

Several small towns in the western United States and Canada have or once had a Chinatown that sprang up as a result of early Chinese settlement during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of the Chinese that formed these Chinatowns were from the primarily rural Sze Yap ("Four Districts") region of Guangdong province of China, including speakers of Toisan (台山, Pinyin: Taishan) and Chung San (中山, Pinyin: Zhongshan) Chinese (these are various subdialects of Cantonese Chinese). Experiencing hardships, especially discrimination and prejudice in the big cities, the Chinese banded together and established their own distinct communities in the frontier areas. In many cases, Chinese were forbidden either through explicit laws or implicit agreements from purchasing land or residing outside of their enclaves.

Origins

Between the periods when the gold rushes on Gum shan ("Gold Mountain", 金山, Pinyin: Jin Shan) went bust and the transcontinental railroads were completed, the Toisan-speaking Chinese farm laborers, many of whom already had expertise in farming techniques, worked in the agricultural industry of California's Central Valley, and there they formed small rural Chinatown enclaves in white farming and mining communities.

Locations and layout

In frontier ("Wild West") and rural Chinatowns, a Chinese general store also provided a post office, bank, townhall, translation services and local stomping ground for the Chinese population. Also included in several Chinatowns of this type were Chinese religious shrines, such as Buddhist and Taoist temples.

Examples of rural and small town Chinatowns include the communities of Locke and Weaverville, located north and northwest of San Francisco, California. Others include a "China Alley" in the Central Valley town of Hanford, California and a site in Butte, Montana.

In the late 19th century western United States, Chinese-American immigrants were not always welcome, and found it dangerous to be seen in public. In response, these immigrants built elaborate underground communities in many cites through the West. Many of these underground communities have been preserved, and are now the subject of historical tours, in cities such as Pendleton, Oregon, Havre, Montana, and Deadwood, South Dakota.

Extinct Chinatowns include the ones in California (San Luis Obispo, Nevada City, Walnut Grove, Rio Vista, Marysville), British Columbia (Lillooet, Barkerville), Alberta (Strathcona), Nevada (Reno, Virginia City), South Dakota (Deadwood), and Wyoming (Rock Springs).

Nowadays, these small, early Chinatowns tend to serve as museums rather than areas of bustling commerce as is the case in their urban and suburban counterparts. While most of these frontier-era Chinatowns have largely disappeared, their remnants and other small Chinatowns still standing can be found, especially in the western region of the U.S. The majority of "Chinese" restaurants in these particular Chinatowns tend to prominently display Budweiser beer signs and serve American Chinese cuisine, such as chop suey. The old rural/frontier and urban Chinatowns were often stereotyped for having ethnic Chinese-owned laundries. In most cases, they have now widely disappeared over time in most of the old urban Chinatowns and the stereotype no longer persists.

In recent years, several excavations have been made and some remnants of the rural Chinatowns were unearthed such as in San Luis Obispo, California. Many early Chinatown artifacts and pieces can be found in some local museums.

In the early years of Locke, California, the Chinese-American population was booming and thus led to a creation of the local chapter of the Kuomintang.

Decline

In the 1880s, several rural Chinatowns were burned and destroyed by white residents. Some towns may have had two or more Chinatowns.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Chinese Americans (i.e., to say descendants of the earliest Chinese immigrants) were generally better-educated and often spoke more fluent English than their parents and grandparents—and also lost much fluency in the Chinese language during acculturation in American society—moved out of the rural regions and resettled in the major cities. After immigration restrictions were placed on Mainland Chinese, there has been no new Chinese immigration to these towns. Nowadays, there are few remaining pockets of ethnic Chinese that live in these small rural Chinatowns. The extant Chinese American population in these particular rural Chinatowns are aging and slowly dying out.

Urban and suburban Chinatowns: old vs. new

	Urban Chinatowns of the past (up to ~1960s-1970s)	Urban Chinatowns now
Group	Predominantly Chinese of Taishanese descent and working Hong Kong immigrants	Pan-Asian multicultural (Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thais)
Principal businesses	Laundry businesses, markets	Restaurants, markets, garment factories (New York City)

On the other hand, many large American and Canadian cities now have more than one Chinatown—an older mainly urban one, and others attached to newly created suburban communities. The early Chinese immigrants settled in major North American coastal cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, thus giving those cities historic and bustling old Chinatowns that still stand today and essentially serving as anchors for another wave of ethnic Chinese immigration. In the early years of settlement, many of the old urban Chinatowns were involuntarily settled by Chinese immigrants due to de jure (i.e., codified by law) segregationist policies by several municipalities, states, and provinces.

The suburban Chinatowns were generally established in the 1970s, and were the result of three factors: The relaxation of Chinese immigration restrictions (the Chinese Exclusion Acts previously enacted in 1882 in the United States and in 1923 in Canada), the passage of laws that forbade racial discrimination in real estate, and improved relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China in "ping-pong diplomacy."

With the normalizing of relations, it caused elation for potential Mainland Chinese emigrants and investors and at the same time, it also caused unease among the Taiwanese and Hong Kong residents (a major "push" factor for emigration).

In the 1970s, the Mainland Chinese-born and U.S.-educated Realtor Frederic Hsieh was instrumental in bringing about the development of the first suburban Chinese communities.

In sharp contrast to the old Chinatowns, these new Chinatowns were settled voluntarily but there is now some self-imposed de facto segregation.

Today, a large majority of ethnic Chinese do not necessarily reside within the old Chinatowns. While there are some Chinatown residents, many may live in surrounding neighborhoods that provide easy access to the goods and services provided in Chinatowns. Many Chinese immigrants, especially the first-generation, without cars tend to take rapid transit (such as Manhattan's subway or San Francisco's electric buses) to go shopping in Chinatowns.

The new Chinatowns and old Chinatowns have a number of differences. Traditionally, the older Chinatowns tended to be separate communities apart from the rest of American society and contained strong internal institutions such as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in New York City and the Six Companies in San Francisco. These institutions served as quasi-governments and mediated relationships between Chinese and non-Chinese.

Old Chinatowns	Suburban Chinese communities
Working-class	Middle- to upper-class
Middle-aged and senior population	Younger (under 50) population
Cantonese, Taishanese (declining), Hokkien (in New York City)	Mandarin-dominated in U.S., Cantonese-dominated in Canada
"Exotic" tourist, dining, and shopping attractions for non-Chinese	Financial and service center for local Chinese immigrant community
Aging infrastructure	Modern shopping centers and mini-malls
San Francisco, Manhattan	Monterey Park, San Gabriel (California), Richmond (British Columbia)

Atmosphere and offerings

The older Chinatowns are more traditional with an aging infrastructure and tend to be tourist attractions with restaurants serving both Chinese American cuisine geared towards non-Chinese customers and authentic cuisine. (Basic unauthentic Chinese American cuisine consists of chop suey, mu shu pork, egg fu young, and fried wontons and topped with a fortune cookie dessert.) In addition, many old Chinatowns are situated near large downtown areas.

The visitor can literally sense the old Chinatowns that have numerous markets selling live fish and poultry, incense coming from shops, and elderly ethnic Chinese merchants sitting in front of their storefronts selling imported wares. Also, a larger concentration of small mom-and-pop grocers with outdoor produce stands protruding onto sidewalks, dim sum bakeries, take-out delicatessens with roast Peking ducks and roast pigs hanging on their windows, and bazaars can be found in the older and traditional Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns whereas there are relatively fewer of them in the newer suburban "Chinatowns."

Dim sum in suburban Chinatowns, however, is available in generally large and overcrowded Cantonese seafood restaurants during the morning and midday. In urban Chinatowns, the dim sum bakeries—usually with limited amount of seating—are often frequented by middle-aged and elderly North American Chinese. In some cases, the bakeries may also serve as a local social gathering for these seniors; e.g., to play Chinese or Western chess or the Chinese game of mahjong.

Chinatowns have many large business signs written entirely in the Chinese language and protruding out. During the day time, many old Chinatowns are usually crowded, the quintessential image, and have heavier pedestrian traffic.

Conversely, the new Chinatowns tend to truly cater to ethnic Chinese, with authentic Chinese restaurants and suburbia shopping centers with Chinese merchants. While the old Chinatowns remain touristic for whites, Hispanics, and other ethnic groups, several suburban Chinatowns are often serve as stopovers for visiting Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese nationals. Hence, there tends to be much fewer gwei lo or white people in the new Chinatowns. Take-out delicatessens serving Peking duck and a variety of chicken are mainly attached to sit-down Chinese restaurants.

Also, the suburban Chinatowns usually have a selection of Cantonese seafood restaurants and a wider range of other Chinese cuisine - for example, Chinese Buddhist vegetarian, Taiwanese, and Chinese Islamic cuisine (with lots of lamb) - that are rarely found in old Chinatowns. With a large Asian immigrant clientele, many Chinese restaurateurs do not feel there is any incentive nor the pressure to "Westernize" the cuisine or its portions to suit the taste of non-Chinese. Thus, a great number of truly authentic cuisine are to be found in the suburban Chinatowns.

There are also more modern style cafés, boba tea shops, coffeeshops, tea houses, chic boutiques, specialty stores (e.g., stores specializing in wireless phones, Asian popular culture, computer repair services), nightclubs, Internet gaming facilities, and karaoke bars (or KTV parlors) that mainly cater and appeal to younger Asian Americans and Canadians. The current Taiwanese fad of boba milk tea (boba nai cha in Chinese), also known as pearl milk tea, has especially spread in the satellite Chinatowns. The older Chinatowns have been much slower to catch on to these newer trends and thus, the penetration of such fads is visibly fewer. This is largely explained by the considerably larger population of older-generation Chinese (many of whom understand little or no English), lower income levels, and the premium cost or lack of available real estate in many of the urban Chinatowns. Inadequate parking areas in the old Chinatowns are also important considerations.

Many Taiwanese delis are typically small eateries serving Taiwanese cuisine - with steamed duck, unusually large meatballs, boba tea, and crushed ice dessert - are rarely found in the old urban Cantonese Chinatowns. Instead, many of these restaurants have cropped up in the newer Taiwanese-founded Chinatowns and generally have menus written entirely in Chinese - which may befuddle non-Chinese - and serve almost an entire Mandarin-speaking immigrant customers.

Several examples of well-known urban and suburban Chinese retail and restaurant chains include 99 Ranch Market (大華超級市場), Lollicup (¼Ö¥ßªM), China Trust Bank (¬ü°ê¤¤«H»È¦æ), Cathay Bank (°ê®õ»È¦æ), Hong Kong Supermarket (香港超級市場), Tapioca Express («~«È¦h), Sam Woo Restaurant (Cantonese barbecue cuisine), Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Q-Cup, Kee Wah Bakery (©_µØ»æ®a, branches of the Hong Kong-based chain), Ten Ren Tea Time (¤Ñ¤¯¯ú¯ù), and Ajiichiban (優之良品) in the United States and T & T Supermarket in Canada.

In many urban and some older suburban Chinatowns, many Chinese seniors can be seen performing daily Tai Chi exercises in recreation parks in the early morning hours.

Locations and landmarks

In all major cities with older, albeit formally recognized, Chinatowns, many nearby freeways and expressways have off-ramp signs indicating and pointing to the older urban Chinatowns. Some cities provide directional signs to them along the way as well, such as in San Francisco. With no such signs, the suburban Chinatowns can be indistinguishable and more difficult to find without general coordinates. One would generally bypass them in an instant. An example of this are Monterey Park and Cupertino, California.

Many of the businesses are more clustered and centralized in the older and cramped Chinatowns, making it easier and suitable to walk between merchants, hence they tend to have more pedestrian traffic. With a site and situation in downtown areas, street parking in many urban Chinatowns is often scarce (sometimes causing several Chinatown businesses to lose customers and relocate to newer Chinatowns) and contain parking meters and pay parking lots, especially in the inner-city on weekends—for example, in the old American Chinatowns of Los Angeles, Manhattan, San Francisco and Vancouver. Cars can be seen parked on the narrow streets of Chinatowns. By contrast, the newer suburban Chinatowns, typically huge shopping centers with dedicated large free parking areas and structures, tend to be more dispersed, decentralized and spread out over a wider area, making it quite difficult to get around without viable transportation.

McCarthyism

Several U.S. Chinatowns were affected by McCarthyism.

Ethnic origin of population

Early Chinese immigrants to urban Chinatowns were mostly from the Taishan area, close to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China, and Zhongshan, near Macau. They were mainly impoverished male laborers who often left their family behind in China and some of the meager wages they earned in North America would be channeled back to their families. They immigrated to the U.S. and Canada in the 19th century to lay railroad tracks, work in the gold and coal mines of California and Yukon, work on farms, man the factories, operate dry goods stores, and do laundry for the miners. On the other hand, these Chinese immigrants often lacked many employment opportunities; thus they were relegated to these jobs and some started their own businesses. Taishanese was the de facto official dialect of many Chinatowns, although there were also many Zhongshanese who dominated many businesses as well. Standard Cantonese later became the lingua franca among the groups.

Today, the old Chinatowns are still heavily populated by Taishanese and Cantonese people (the former is slowly being overshadowed by other Chinese dialects), although as part of the American rightist "melting pot" ideology, most of the "assimilated" or Americanized second-generation and other descendants of the early immigrants have merged into the general non-Chinese population. Beginning in the 1970s, new ethnic Chinese immigrants from various areas of Asia—many of whom had practically very little common ground with the already established old-time immigrants and Chinese Americans descended from earlier Taishanese migrants—have generally taken their place, so to speak.

In addition, many Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians, especially those who speak Chinese and are ethnic Chinese and also those of non-Chinese descent, have also settled and established businesses in or nearby Chinatowns thus creating a unique mix of pan-Asian culture and heritage. Many, but not all, Chinese Vietnamese came primarily from the Cholon area - itself a Chinatown - of Ho Chi Minh City and other areas of southern Vietnam. The Chinese Vietnamese, in particular, have transformed the character of many old urban, and even the new suburban, Chinatowns by establishing small businesses in the Chinatowns in Los Angeles, Oakland, Montreal, and Toronto, although they are not always readily apparent as some Chinese Vietnamese storekeepers and restaurateurs do not use the Vietnamese language - but primarily Chinese - on their signage. With an increase in both ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese businesses in Chinatowns, they have been derisively called "Vietnamtowns" or "Little Saigons".

Due to several perceived socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic differences between the Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese and Cantonese-speaking Chinatown inhabitants (the latter being old-generation immigrants from southern Mainland China), there has been very little Taiwanese immigration to the old predominantly Cantonese Chinatowns as explained below.

In another changing dynamic, several old Chinatowns - once strongholds of those of southern Chinese descent-are undergoing so-called "Mandarinization" as more Mainland Chinese immigrants move into the Chinatowns of San Francisco. (Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Decline of urban Chinatowns

As early Chinese immigrant laborer were laid off after the completion of the railroad system, most rural Chinatown or similar settlements were disbanded as the early Chinese join their Chinese immigrant urbanite counterparts by relocating to the urban Chinatowns, namley San Francisco's or establishing new ones further to the east. In the 1880s and beyond, Chinese resident alien began to spread out from the West and the Rocky Balboa Mountains to the Eastern seabored region of the US of A, and started the Chinatowns.

While some old Chinatowns continue to thrive, several Chinatowns in many North American medium-sized towns and urban cities have declined or disappeared. Some examples include San Jose, California; Detroit, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; and Monterey, California. The Chinatown of Stockton, California is now only a one block residential area. In the 1880s, some urban Chinatowns were destroyed by arson during several race riots instigated by white mobs. Other Chinatowns were demolished during the era of bungled urban renewal in the U.S.

The erban Chinatons typically provides the service for the larger comunity. As the poplation of Chinatowns decreased by 1940s or so, effectively barred by the US 1924 act to prohibit further immigration and unable to bring spouses to the country, there was not enough people to sustain the Chinatowns. Most original Chinese sojourner oldtimers (called in Cantonesa the Wah Que) began dying off rouhgly from the 1940s to 1960s.

Issue about Chinatown Genterifcation

The salient issue of working-clash Chinatowns common through out the North America is the matter of gentrification, some of which are in responses in general urban decay or to the developing of new satellite "Chinatowns" in urban quaters or out in the suburbs. Los Angels Chinatown has embraced gentrification with a development of a small none Chinese artist colony. Botson's Chinatown has strongly rejected it. Washinton, DC's Chinatown has felt its detrimental effects and the businesses are now replaces by national chain such as the Hooter's Restaurant. In the 1980s, San Francisco's Chinatown once fight back the development of expensive lofts.

According to sociologist Rose Hum Lee, writing in 1949, on the gentrification of Chinatowns: "A community loses its identity when business enterprises invade its environs causing changing land use and land values. Accompaying this may be a population invasion, when new residents change the composition as well as the institutions of the neighborhood. In time the identity of the original community is obliterated and its life-cycle ends. [...] This configuration of a community, once altered, seldom resumes its former characteteristics."

Rise of satellite Chinatowns

The new Chinatowns were formed starting in the 1970s to the 1990s when a new wave of Chinese immigrants began coming mainly from Taiwan and Fujian. These new immigrants, who spoke Mandarin and Hokkien, generally did not find the old Cantonese-dominated Chinatowns attractive as they were deemed overcrowded, congested with traffic, and located in the poorer inner-city of major cities. Also, due to the high-tech boom in Taiwan and some political uncertainty in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, many new millionaires invested in developing new Chinese communities in the U.S. and in Canada. The trend usually started with a huge Chinese or pan-Asian supermarket or strip mall (with Chinese-owned authentic eateries, boutiques, travel agents, video rental stores, and professional services), leading the new immigrants to settle nearby for convenience. Once shopping centers become full with tenants, other nearby shopping centers and strip malls by the same and/or competing investors would later follow.

These new communities were also attractive to younger second-generation residents with more social mobility of the old inner-city Chinatowns described above, to ethnic Chinese immigrants from Southeast Asia, and to new immigrants from mainland China after the PRC government under Deng Xiaoping opened up the border for emigration in the 1980s and 1990s, and gradually the neighborhood turns into a new Chinatown making the old Chinatowns nearly obsolete.

These new satellite "Chinatowns" have been called 'suburban Chinatowns' and 'mini-Chinatowns', especially by the U.S. press such as with the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. However, there are many people in these communities who do not embrace those terms due to the negative connotations and perceptions attached to the Chinatown.

Neighborhood evolution

In the Urban District

Since the 1970s and 1980s, the developing of the new Chinatowns within urban confines started off in run-down and blight districts that once was heavily populated by working-class ethnic "minorities", such as Irish Americans (in the Richmond area of San Francisco) or Italian Americans (in the Flushing, Queens burro of New York City). As these groups vacate those areas, the Chinese-speaking immigrants would invest in the area, essentially reviving areas with ethnic Chinese commercial districts in the process.

In the Suburbs

The new "Chinatown" developments often displaced long-time residents, especially in areas that were once predominantly Caucasian. As white Americans and Canadians either relocated to other "whiter" communities in white flight or passed away, many long-standing "white" businesses were absorbed and supplanted by ethnic Chinese ones. It should be noted that several suburban business districts have already undergone some decline prior to the arrival of new Chinese immigrants. For instance, in Monterey Park, California, in the late 1980s, a Safeway market was converted into a Chinese supermarket (the building has since changed hands several times and it is now part of the major 99 Ranch Market chain). In the same city, as the demographics changed, a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant became a Taiwanese cuisine fast food deli, a pharmacy turned into a ginseng specialty shop (Chinese-owned and operated pharmacies do exist), a former trailer park lot was a site for construction of a major Chinese bank, and other older buildings were purchased individually and either renovated or razed collectively to clear the way for new Chinese shopping center developments. However, this is not the case in Richmond, British Columbia. Many ethnic Chinese Canadian businesses currently co-exist with mainstream retail stores such as Canadian Tire and Chapters. Other businesses have adapted to changing times. For example, some retail chain locations use the Chinese language on their signage, such as Office Depot in Richmond.

Massive traffic problems that were characteristic of the old Chinatowns are plaguing the newer suburban Chinatowns, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley and the Vancouver area. Local white residents have attributed to the influx of Chinese immigrants and to the rapid growth of "exclusive" shopping centers.

These changes did not happen overnight nor all at the same time, but rather gradually and over a course of a decade and mobilized the local citizenry to packed city council meetings. Similar transformations and conflicts between white residents and new immigrants were also felt in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond [1], Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel, California, the Silicon Valley suburb of Cupertino, California [2], and the Toronto suburbs of Markham and Scarborough, Ontario [3].

In addition to commercial business districts, residential areas also underwent major change. In Monterey Park and neighboring cities, in particular, new luxury mansions, townhouses, and small gated communities for affluent Chinese and large apartment complexes and condominiums to house working class Chinese immigrants were built alongside older 1940s era single-family homes - once inhabited by white residents, but now also occupied by ethnic Chinese homeowners as older whites died off and white flight continued to take its course. Chinese gentrification in Monterey Park has caused property values to rise in the city. Elsewhere, other suburban Chinese American and Canadian communities have seen an increase in the development of hillside homes and gated communities geared towards prospective Chinese American home buyers and their families. Housing developers have also attempted to meet feng shui requirements to court these home buyers.

The precedence was set by Monterey Park as it became one of the first U.S. suburban cities to become the "first suburban Chinatown" and to also contain an Asian American majority beginning in the 1980s. The trend of ethnic Chinese immigration and the creation of suburban Chinatowns would essentially transcend to other parts of the United States and also Canada and Australia (where new suburban Chinatowns would be formed as well; see Chinatowns in Australasia). New Chinatown areas would also be formed and invested in urban cities that traditionally have not had a Chinatown, such as in Oklahoma City and Atlanta, Georgia.

Architecture and attractions

Although the popular image of Chinatown is urban and crowded, Monterey Park, Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel, and Bellaire Boulevard in Houston have quite interesting and unique architecture which is a mixture of freestanding storefronts, large shopping centers and shopping malls found in American suburbia and traditional Chinese motifs.

Interestingly, tourist guides (e.g., bus and walking tours), Internet sites, and travel publications (including those published by official city, state, and provincial visitor's bureaus) invariably refer to the more traditional old Chinatowns without mentioning the much larger, modern and vibrant new Chinatowns.

Many urban Chinatown-based development and visitors bureaus maintain official tourist-oriented Web sites containing extensive lists of Chinatown businesses, maps, and upcoming events. A large number of less-touristy satellite/suburban Chinatowns do not have such sites. Please see external links at the end of this article for several examples of them.

Professionalism and occupations

The Chinese in the new Chinatowns, many of whom are wealthy professionals, tend not to be isolated from the rest of American society, and the institutions of the new Chinatowns, such as Asian Chambers of Commerce, are much less powerful. Also, in contrast to Chinese immigrants of the 19th century, there are large numbers of Chinese who live outside of Chinatown in suburbia. In contrast to the old urban Chinatowns, many, if not all, of the Chinese living in these communities—especially Chinese American executives, computer programmers, bankers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate agents, college professors—are able to communicate more fluently in English as well as Chinese (whether Mandarin or Cantonese). Ethnic Chinese living in the urban and suburban Chinatowns with limited English proficiency tend to start small family-run businesses such as small Chinese bakeries, restaurants, discount stores, video rental stores (specializing in Chinese-language films), bookstores (dealing in Chinese-language media), and curios shops.

Politics and activism

In the 1900s, the U.S.-educated democratic revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (called Dr. Sun Zhongshan in China) visited many old Chinatowns to gain moral and financial support of Chinese Americans for his cause in overthrowing the ruling, although weakening and crumbling, Qing Dynasty government and to gain support for his fledging Kuomintang, a pan-Chinese establishment, that prior to 1949 was based in Mainland China. The Chinese Americans greatly lent support to Sun. Many Chinatowns have honored Dr. Sun's work through erecting statues, botanical gardens, and naming Chinese-language schools in his name, and generally displaying the Republic of China flag (with a white sun and red and blue colors).

The Kuomintang also maintained local branches in several Chinatowns. During the World War II, Chinatown leaders also supported the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek in its campaign against the invading Japan.

There are also differences in the relationships between the Chinatowns and various Chinese political actors. Chinese politics in many old Chinatowns were dominated by the Kuomintang party tied to Taiwan. In newer Chinatowns, there are significant numbers of supporters of Taiwan independence who were estranged from the Republic of China government before the 1990s but who have been drawn much closer since the mid-1990s as the government on Taiwan has become more localized. Until the mid-1980s, the People's Republic of China generally ignored the Chinatowns in the United States as they were bastions of Kuomintang support, but more recently the PRC has made a stronger and somewhat successful attempt to gain sympathy and influence within American Chinatowns. In particular, the PRC has made a strong effort to court supporters of the Kuomintang who have become disenchanted with the movement that the ROC government is making toward Taiwan independence as well as maintaining support among the wave of new Mainland Chinese diaspora to the upper-class suburban Chinese communities in the United States that views Taiwan as a part of the People's Republic of China.

Both the People's Republic of China and Republic of China governments tend to be established in cities with large Chinese populations and both attempt to maintain close relationships with leaders of Chinatowns. Mainland China has am overseas office and Taiwan is represented through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. In San Francisco's Chinatown, in particular, there has been fighting between the Mainland China and Taiwan. Formerly a bastion of KMT following, most of San Francisco's Chinese have shifted allegiances with China. This is due to fact that ethnic Chinese have ancestral ties to villages in Mainland China, rather than a support for the CCCP.

The "Happy Happy Happy..." Man has been a regular promoting Chinese nationalism in San Francisco's Chinatown since the 1970s.

Since the 1970s, the old guard Taishanese in several old Chinatowns have seen some of their political power and influence somewhat wane with the arrival of Fujianese immigrants in Manhattan's Chinatown and to the ethnic Chinese Vietnamese in Los Angeles's Chinatown. For example, New York City's politicians have courted the Fujianese mainland Chinese community. On the other hands, the Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodian population - while owning about 90% of Los Angeles Chinatown's businesses - has not yet transformed into full political power.

With many recent Mainland Chinese immigrants and political dissidents arriving to the United States, there is the Falun Dafa movement and Mainland Chinese democracy activism in several North American Chinatowns.

One factor in political influence involves the legal status of the residents. In general, upper-class Chinese professionals are legal immigrants who eventually qualify for citizenship and voting rights. Many Chinese residents of Chinatowns, however, do not have legal immigrant status, and hence do not have voting rights, although the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1993 had the very unintended side-effect of legalizing the status of large numbers of immigrants from Fujian province of mainland China. Working-class immigrants, legal or otherwise, in Chinatowns are mainly struggling for survival rather concern themselves with politics.

Another factor which limits political activism is the widely and conflicting political views and agendas of Chinatown residents. There are in North American Chinatowns people who both strongly support and oppose the Communist Party of China, the Kuomintang, and Taiwan independence as well as those that are indifferent to politics altogether. Furthermore, the political views and priorities of Chinatown business leaders and residents are widely mixed, with widely differing amounts of interest toward the politics of the United States (for example, local issues such as education, political empowerment of Chinese Americans in general through voting, and foreign policy in Asia), Mainland China (Chinese nationalism, democracy, and human rights), Taiwan (questions over independence or unification), Hong Kong (democracy and the One Country, Two Systems), and Southeast Asia (rights of the ethnic overseas Chinese minority). These political wrangling in the old Chinatowns have failed to addressed some economic stagnations in the community, with numerous vacant Chinatown businesses and declining tourist revenues.

The San Gabriel Valley region in Southern California is home to several contiguous cities with heavy concentrations of Chinese Americans, with a wealthy, working- and middle-class population alike, and with major suburban Chinatowns, including Monterey Park. Several Hong Kong and Taiwanese-born Asian Americans, many of whom wealthy, have gained political power by financing campaigns of political candidates and have been elected to several city councils and school boards. Chinese Americans nearly form a majority on several councils - something almost unheard of elsewhere in the United States. In the past, this has been speculated by several local Chinese-language press.

Immigrants from Taiwan generally retain dual citizenship with the Republic of China on Taiwan even if they acquire American citizenship. Although the American naturalization procedure requires the applicant to renounce all foreign citizenships, the ROC does not recognize this renunciation, and naturalized American citizens retain almost all legal rights of ROC citizens, except the right to hold certain high government positions. In particular, they retain the right to return to Taiwan to vote, and both pan-green and pan-blue parties maintain active party branches in Chinatowns.

The San Gabriel Valley (California) and Flushing in New York are also homes to local branches of the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party, the party that officially advocates and asserts the independence of Taiwan. During the 2004 Republic of China Presidential elections, both pan-green and pan-blue groups were active in Chinatowns, and both candidates made trips to the United States which included campaign stops in Chinatowns. The importances of the Chinatown vote can be seen by the fact that an estimated 20,000 Taiwanese from North America returned to vote in an election where the margin of victory was 30,000.

In mid-2004, Kuomintang loyalists staged a mass protest in Los Angeles Chinatown to demand a recount of the contested Chen Shui-bian election. (The old Chinatown itself has very few Taiwanese; it predominantly populated by those of Cantonese and Teochew-Vietnamese origin.)

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

Another major part of the political structure of Chinatowns are the conservative Chinatown elite of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which act as a semi-government for Chinatowns. The CCBA has first started in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1882 and later in the Manhattan's Chinatown chapter was formed in 1882. The CCBA are comprises of Chinatown business owners.

The CCBA has been more ethnocentric in its outlook as it operates Chinese-language schools and Chinese cultural events. During the US civil right era of the 1960s, the conservative CCBA were at odds with the more radical and militant U.S.-born Chinese American activists. The civil rights era also coincides with the large influx of poor working-class Hong Kong Chinese immigrants that were living and working in poor conditions in San Francisco Chinatown during the 1960s.

The CCBA has support for the Kuomintang.

Establishment of local chapters of the CCBA in major Chinatowns

Portland - 1887
Chicago - 1906
Los Angeles - 1907
Boston - 1912
Seattle - 1918
Houston - 1935
Oakland - 1936

Media

There are several large and influential Chinese-language newspapers in North America, which serve the Chinese-American and Chinese Canadian readership. There are the Taiwanese-owned pro-Kuomintang World Journal and the liberal International Daily News, the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily and Ming Pao, Zhong Guo Daily News, and The Epoch Times (a great progressive paper run by Mainland Chinese immigrants). These newspapers have a large circulation and are sold or circulated gratis in many still-thriving Chinatowns and in suburban Chinese communities.

Many suburban Chinese immigrant communities are served by cable and satellite Chinese-language stations beamed from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, such as the Cantonese-language Jade Channel (TVB) and Mandarin-language ETTV, China Television (CTV), and the propagandistic Chinese Central Television (CTTV). These stations feature lengthy television drama series and feature Chinese-language films. Some satellite Taiwanese stations are 24-hour all-news formatting. Call-in programs with "talking heads" and pundits on Taiwanese politics are major features of Taiwanese-based networks and are likely to affect the overseas Taiwanese vote.

There are also many large and smaller Chinese-language newspaper, broadcast, and telephone book (Chinese yellow pages listing Chinese-owned businesses in a certain area) companies.

The World Journal is widely read among the pro-unification Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese.

The Epoch Times newspaper is mainly focused on news of human rights and democracy issues in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Inter-Chinatown transportation

A commercial phenomenon that has arisen in the last several years on the East Coast of the United States is that of the Chinatown bus lines, which provide discounted and competitive fares and flexible schedules between many major different Chinatowns. A major example of such bus line is the Fung Wah Bus. Such services started out catering to the local Chinatown community, with the first route linking New York and Boston, but have generally become a favorite of travelers of all ethnicities as well.

Following the successes of the East Coast bus lines, similar services are occurring on the West Coast, albeit on a smaller scale. There are bus services connecting the Chinatowns and suburban ethnic Chinese communities of the San Francisco Bay area, the Greater Los Angeles area, and Las Vegas. The bus stops are typically at a parking lot of a Chinese supermarket. One major West Coast bus line offering such service is Bravo Travel.

Intra-Chinese diversity

Although the common image and belief of Chinatown is that of a homogeneous and harmonious group of people and the popular belief that all Chinatowns inhabitants are mainly from "China", the backgrounds and experiences of most residents and business owners are diverse. Chinatown residents may share Chinese ancestry but differ in many respects. People speak various Chinese dialects and other Asian languages (e.g., Vietnamese or Thai), often have very little common ground with each other, have conflicting political views as well as those that are apolitical, and they are shaped by different life experiences from one another. For example, the blue-collar Chinese Vietnamese refugees that have experienced persecution and communism in war-torn impoverished Vietnam and the Fujianese from the People's Republic of China who arrived with very little capital in comparison either with to the affluent Taiwanese immigrants from a prosperous Taiwan or from high-tech professionals from Beijing or Shanghai.

Americanized multigenerational Chinese Americans—many of whom are monolingual in English and are descended from working-class ancestors—encountered restrictive housing covenants in the first half of the 20th century while in the past two decades or so, housing developers and Realtors have sought prospective upper-middle-class Hong Kong and Taiwanese clientele in recent years, thus resulting in the growth of new "monster" housing tracts in the new Chinese communities, sometimes giving the neighborhoods a somewhat rugged, inconsistent look. Many new homes for the new Chinese immigrants have conformed to feng shui and superstitious principles.

Immigration trends in North America

The major cities of Vancouver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto continue to be magnets for Chinese-speaking immigrants. Generally speaking, there has been very little Asian immigration to the Midwest (with exception to the Chicago area) and Southern states of the United States and certainly the Maritime provinces of Canada. However, there has been major internal Chinese migration from the major cities of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida.

From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, substantial waves of Taiwanese immigrants arrived primarily to the United States, mostly to the Los Angeles area and Silicon Valley of California. While there has been Taiwanese immigration to Canada, it has been in relatively smaller amounts compared with the large numbers of immigration from Hong Kong.

Taiwan's economy vastly improved and the democratic reforms took hold. Therefore, by the late 1990s, immigration from Taiwan began to decrease, and new Chinese immigrants now generally consist of two groups: well-educated professionals from the People's Republic of China, who tend to work in high-tech areas, and legal citizens and undocumented aliens from Fujian province working mostly in unskilled service industries. Most mainland Chinese are heavily concentrated in the New York City area, especially the working-class Fujianese population, and the Los Angeles area. According to The New York Times, many illegal immigrants from Fujian to the United States are said to be smuggled through Canada and Mexico.

An influx of working-class Hong Kong immigrants—many of whom were Mainland Chinese immigrants from the Taishan and other areas of Guangdong province who settled in Hong Kong for several years before moving on—arrived to the United States during much of the late 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, however, there has been relatively little immigration into the United States from Hong Kong, with most emigrants from Hong Kong ending up in Canada, usually Vancouver, British Columbia.

In the U.S., this change is a result of stricter requirements and the limited U.S. immigration quota (approximately 5,000 per year; formerly 600 per year in the pre-Reagan era) allotted for the SAR, compared to 20,000 per year for a country. However, this negates the fact that some Hong Kong Chinese immigrate to Canada, reside and become citizens there for several years, and then resettle in the United States in indirect immigration, so to speak. These Chinese Canadian immigrants have blended in with the Chinese American population.

In addition, after the Vietnam War, the immigration of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese refugees, some of whom represented the Vietnamese bourgeoisie as well as former farmers and fishers and were poor upon arrival, had steadily increased during the 1980s. The Chinese Vietnamese speak Cantonese and/or Teochew (Pinyin: Chaozhou) as well as fluent Vietnamese and this group provides a stark contrast to the generally well-educated and affluent Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrants. Several Chinese Vietnamese have established themselves.

Ethnic Chinese immigration from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to the United States has been somewhat more limited.

With figures based on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, New York City (including Flushing, New York) remained the top choice of immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, China. Throughout the 1980s, the Los Angeles cities of Monterey Park (and the San Gabriel Valley) and Silicon Valley region attracted more Taiwanese. They now attract mainly new Mainland Chinese and a smaller number of Hong Kong immigrants.

Canada offers easy entry for any family rich enough to invest in the Canadian economy. One can practically buy a citizenship by opening a small business in Canada. Vancouver attracted most of the Hong Kong emigrants because of its milder climate compared to the rest of Canada. However, Hong Kong immigration has topped off. Vancouver now ranks as the top destination for the large number of Taiwanese immigrants arriving in the city. Statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada reveals that Toronto is consistently ranks as the main destination for the Mainland Chinese, with Vancouver ranking second.

Some of the older Chinatowns continue to attract naturalized working class mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian Chinese immigrant families. In some cases, many families often use them as a starting point for later integration and social mobility into North American society.

Group	Main large wave of immigration	Primary destinations
Hong Kong Chinese (Hong Kong, Special Administration Region)	1960s-1970s, 1980s (mainly to Canada)	Vancouver, San Francisco, New York, Toronto
Taiwanese (Republic of China)	1970s-1980s	Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco Bay Area
Mainland Chinese (People's Republic of China)	1980s to present	New York City, Toronto, Los Angeles
Southeast Asian overseas Chinese	1980s	Los Angeles, Houston, Oakland, Toronto

Sources: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Chinatowns in the United States

Arizona

A Chinatown-themed shopping center built to traditional Chinese architecture was opened in 1997 near the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market operates a branch there. The shopping complex has attracted few tenants due to high rents. However, throughout Phoenix, there are many pockets of Chinese communities and areas nearby contain many Chinese supermarkets and restaurants.

California

Given its relative proximity to East Asia and Southeast Asia, California has the largest number of historic and contemporary Chinatowns in North America. The state boasts of the largest number of Chinatowns of all types, including the most well-known and largest Chinatown in San Francisco, the first all-Chinese rural town of Locke to be built by Chinese immigrants, and the first "suburban Chinatown" of Monterey Park and multiple other areas.

Many early Chinese immigrants were processed at Angel Island (now a California state park) in the San Francisco Bay area, which is equivalent to New York's Ellis Island for European immigrants.

San Francisco
Main article: Chinatown, San Francisco

One of the largest, most notorious and prominent, and highly-visited in North America is the San Francisco Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking with some Hakka, though there has been a rise in Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Mainland China. While the downtown Chinatown is the Chinese cultural center, smaller neighborhoods in the Richmond (Geary Avenue, Clement Street) and Sunset (Noriega Street, Irving Street west of 19th Avenue) districts have developed in recent years, coexisting with ethnic Russian and Korean businesses.

Founded in 1850 or thereabouts, Chinatown was destroyed in 1906 earthquack that hit San Francisco and was later rebuild and re-realized, using the garish touristy "Chinese" architecture. With it's Chinatown as the landmark, San Francisco has one of the largest and predominant Chinese American population centers, with 152,620 of 743,478 (19.6%) as of the 2000 Census. San Francisco's Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows. A number of "firsts" includes chop suey was invented in Chinatown, the currency for the then-newly emerged Repubic of China was print in Chinatown, and the first Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was established there. During 1960s civil right movment, San Francisco's Chinatown was also at the epiccenter for Chinese American activism and radical politics, some of which were militant, as well as major gang activity with the emergence of the notorious Wah Ching in North America. Currently, the historic Chinatown shows some signs of decline.

After President Richard M. Nixon's historic visit to the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s, the arrival of new Chinese immigrants to the San Francisco area helped "diversify" and introduce new Chinese cuisine from many regions throughout mainland China in its Chinatown—the restaurants previously served mainly Cantonese and unauthentic Chinese-American fare. It also received many Chinese from Latin America, especially Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, when Fidel Castro overtook their businesses. Pacific Islanders from Guam, Hawaii, and American Samoa — especially of Chinese descent — also resided here.

Silicon Valley
Other examples in California are suburban Fremont, Milpitas, and Cupertino in the south San Francisco Bay Area. These three cities are located in the Silicon Valley, where large numbers of Taiwanese Americans (i.e., U.S. citizens) and Mainland Chinese nationals (many of whom are on U.S. work visas) are employed in the high-tech industry and where large number of Taiwanese high-tech firms are headquartered. Foster City also has a large Taiwanese American population.

There are many Chinese shopping centers scattered around the Silicon Valley, which may have a social and economic impact on the old Chinatown in San Francisco. The Silicon Valley tends to be mostly Taiwanese-dominated, whereas the Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland tend to be more heavily Cantonese-speaking.

Oakland
Across from San Francisco, the urban Chinatown of Oakland on Broadway Avenue had existed since the days of the California gold rush but remained economically stagnant for many years, especially after multigenerational Chinatown residents began heading to the suburbs in the late 1960s. However, the Chinatown saw much development during the 1980s and 1990s after an exodus of Chinese American merchants—who were already experiencing stiff and ever-growing competition and rising costs of rent in the San Francisco area—across the Bay Bridge and increased immigration from mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Many ethnic Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodians began opening new small businesses, essentially replacing many of the older Taishanese-dominated businesses. Also, with investment coming from Hong Kong in the 1980s, new modern shopping centers were built. It still retains the traditional aspects and characteristics of an older Chinatown.

Although it is overshadowed by its well-known counterpart in San Francisco and also suffering from a high crime rate, the Chinatown area is bustling with activity. Other Asian cultures are represented in Oakland's Chinatown as it has also been settled by non-Chinese Asians such as ethnic Vietnamese (many of whom operate many of Chinatown's jewelry businesses), Koreans, and Thais making it more of a pan-Asian area as opposed to a "Chinatown".

North of Oakland, there are several Asian-themed strip malls scattered in the Bay Area suburb of San Pablo.

Sacramento
Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown. The city consists mostly of Vietnamese American businesses. There are also other Asian strip malls such as Pacific Rim Plaza and a major Asian supermarket. Sacramento has a long Chinese influence dating back to the California gold rush period. However, in the past decade, Sacramento has seen a booming ethnic Vietnamese population with a large migration from other parts of California.

Los Angeles
Main article: Chinatown, Los Angeles

In the city of Los Angeles proper, the old inner-city Chinatown was built during the late 1930s - the second Chinatown to be constructed in Los Angeles. Formerly a "Little Italy," it is presently located on Broadway Avenue and Spring Street near Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles with still several restaurants, grocers, and tourist-oriented trinket shops. A statue honoring the Kuomintang founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen adorns the more touristy area in the northeast section. New "Chinatowns" really for the Chinese immigrants have been developed in the Los Angeles suburbs of Monterey Park and San Gabriel.

A relatively minor satellite Chinatown in Los Angeles is the Lincoln Heights district (Broadway Avenue) which is predominantly Latino but they also include those of Chinese descent and also contains a working-class aging Chinese population and recent Vietnamese immigrants. Lincoln Heights is located about a mile from Chinatown, so the area has not been fully developed into a completely new Chinatown, but there are still some Asian-owned businesses in the area.

Orange County
The upscale southern Orange County city of Irvine (爾灣二店), located several miles south of Disneyland, contains yet another Taiwanese-dominant satellite "Chinatown" with several strip malls containing mostly Taiwanese businesses. It is centered on Culver Drive and Alton Parkway.

The top-rated University High School and University of California, Irvine (UCI) are major draws for several upper-class Taiwanese immigrant parents. Incidentally, Asian Americans form the majority of UCI's undergraduate student population. Indeed, Irvine's Chinese American population has grown significantly over the years. Pao Fa Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Western Hemisphere, has been opened.

San Diego
San Diego had a historic Chinatown, formerly around Market Street and Third Avenue, that has disappeared over time. A de facto new "Chinatown" is found about 10 miles away to the north on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Convoy Street, with a 99 Ranch Market complex and nearby pan-Asian strip malls and restaurants. Chinatown has also been settled by Chinese from nearby Mexico, especially nearby Mexicali, where Chinese-Mexicans are concentrated.

San Gabriel Valley
In the Greater Los Angeles area, there are several suburban Chinatowns throughout the San Gabriel Valley (see the Chinatown, Los Angeles article for specific streets).

In a sense, the old Chinatown of Los Angeles has ceased to be the economic and cultural node for the local Chinese American community within the Los Angeles area. Within the region, the Mainland Chinese population outnumbers the Taiwanese population at 212,861 to 30,651 as of the 2000 Census. There are also smaller numbers of immigrants from Hong Kong. Indeed, several cities are fast-approaching Asian American majority populations, although several updated - albeit unofficial - statistics place the numbers past 50%. In addition, the region has also been considered by food critics - for example, of the Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic Monthly - as having some of the best Chinese cuisines in the nation due to the large variety of competing Chinese restaurants (whereas there are very few authentic Chinese restaurants in the more well-known Los Angeles Westside).[4] The region also features the large Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, among the largest Buddhist temples.

The suburban city of Monterey Park (蒙特利公園), nicknamed "Little Taipei," was among the first satellite Chinatowns to be developed. It once contained a large Taiwanese population, but due to the in-migration of affluent Taiwanese Americans to other suburbs in the early 1990s, their numbers have dwindled and the Cantonese-speakers have gradually become predominant in the city. As of the 2000 Census, Asian Americans form 61.8% of the total population in Monterey Park (Chinese Americans make up 41.2%).

Since the mid-1980s and on, Monterey Park has experienced continual immigration of working-class and upper-income mainland Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese. In this city and adjacent areas, the number of Taiwanese-owned businesses actually began to decline and there are several Chinese Vietnamese-owned businesses, such as restaurants and supermarkets. Countless Chinese-owned businesses occupy nearly the main thoroughfares of the city, except for the Mexican-dominated areas to the south. There are many more competing large Hong Kong seafood restaurants found within the city.

To the north of Monterey Park, the satellite Chinatown in the city of Alhambra has rapidly grown during the 1980s and it is home to the largest Hong Kong immigrant population within Los Angeles. With an Asian descent population of 47.2% (33.1% Chinese American), the area contains numerous Chinese-owned banks, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. Alhambra also hosts the annual Chinese New Year festival that draws local Chinese Americans (this event and the one held in the Los Angeles Chinatown are held at different dates to avoid direct competition). The Los Angeles edition of the Cantonese Sing Tao is also based in this city.

The adjoining neighboring city of San Gabriel (聖蓋博), with 48.9% population of Asian Americans with 33.6% of Chinese origin, still has the largest Taiwanese-dominated community in the area (along with the more upscale San Marino and Arcadia), while the "Chinatown" in the city of Los Angeles remains tiny, touristy, and Cantonese-speaking. The city contains a somewhat more vibrant, trendier, and "diverse" satellite Chinatown than Monterey Park with a long row of Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and Hong Kong Chinese businesses. It is among the largest suburban "Chinatown" business districts in California. The suburban Chinese areas of Alhambra and San Gabriel both share the same thoroughfare of Valley Boulevard.

Another so-called suburban "Chinatown," so to speak, includes the Taiwanese-driven Rowland Heights (羅蘭崗 - approximately 20 miles east of the Los Angeles Chinatown) with its fragmented smattering of shopping centers. Although there are several large Chinese American populations in nearby residential suburbs, Rowland Heights serves as the main business district. The Chinese strip malls are mixed with separate strip malls containing Korean American businesses.

Outside these main suburban Chinatown areas, there are also many isolated pockets of authentic Chinese strip-malls, restaurants, and supermarkets scattered in parts of the San Gabriel Valley, which cater solely to the local Chinese immigrant community.

South Bay

The Pacific Coast Highway in Lomita and Torrance has a small gathering of Chinese businesses. At present, the Chinese population in the South Bay is minuscule.

Florida

There is a rapidly growing and organic, but still informal, Chinatown on 163rd and 167th Streets in the Miami suburb of North Miami Beach. Chinese Americans from other parts of the United States have migrated to the Miami area and started businesses in the quasi "Chinatown" as well. It is also becoming multi-ethnic with Korean and Vietnamese communities and businesses in the mix. The local chamber of commerce has been prodding for its further development and investment. [5]

An artificial Chinatown is in touristy Kissimmee as part of a theme park called Splendid China. It is marketed as a "Chinatown" for white people. [6]

Georgia

In the Atlanta area, fledging new pan-Asian shopping centers are on Buford Highway in the suburb of Doraville. While the city of Atlanta proper does not have a traditional "Chinatown" or "Koreatown" as such, this area has become unique. The area started as Korean immigrant neighborhood, but refugees from Southeast Asia began arriving and established Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants started moving away from traditional immigrant urban centers. However, with a mix of ethnic Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations, the official name is the International Village. While the area is pan-Asian in general, it is also pan-Chinese in itself with many businesses and shopping centers invested, owned, or staffed by Taiwanese, Chinese Vietnamese, Chinese Indonesians, and Chinese Thais immigrants. In the 1970s and 1980s, just prior to the incoming of the Asian immigrants, General Motors laid-off thousands of workers in the area and light-manufacturing began shuttering, thus resulting in blight. For several years, several shopping centers were abandoned and neglected by previous owners. New capital by Asian investors have helped contribute to the revitalization of the area. Interestingly, the area has the highest concentrations of Asian businesses and it is definitely one of a kind in southeastern Dixie.

Hawaii

The Chinatown of Honolulu, on North Hotel Street and Mounakea Street, contains traditional ethnic Chinese businesses. It is also diverse with Pan-Asian and Pacific Islander businesses. The Vietnamese are largely demographically represented in Honolulu's Chinatown. The Pacific Islanders, Chinese, and other Asians went to mainland United States, as well as its Chinatowns.[7]

Illinois

Main Article: Chinatown, Chicago, Illinois

The Chinatown in Chicago has a traditional urban Chinatown occupying the area along Wentworth Avenue at Cermak Road south of downtown. There are also newer Pan-Asian ethnic areas on the north side near the intersection of Broadway and Argyle Street.

Massachusetts

There is a Chinatown in Boston, on Beach Street and Washington Street near the South Station. There are many Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurants and markets. From 1960s-1980s, Boston's Chinatown was known as The Combat Zone, and served as it's red light district. Boston's Chinatown is experiencing a threat of gentrification policies.

Michigan

As part of the broader movement of urban redevelopment Detroit, there be plans and efforts to revitalize its fading Chinatown, which happens to be on Cass Avenue and Peterboro Avenue.

New Jersey

The Chinese population, mostly consisting of Cantonese-speaking inhabitants, is fast-growing in New Jersey. There is now a booming new Chinatown with several authentic Chinese restaurants, banks, and pan-Asian supermarket cropping up in suburban Edison, New Jersey on Route 27. An annual Chinese New Year event also takes place in this area. There are also two branches of Hong Kong Supermarket in outlying areas.

New York

Main article: Chinatown, Manhattan

The old Chinatown of New York City is centered around Canal Street in Manhattan, but at least two other satellite Chinatowns have cropped up on Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street in Flushing, Queens and in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn around 50th to 65th Streets along 8th Avenue. Some portions of Manhattan's Little Italy, largely vacated by Italian Americans as they headed to the suburbs, are being engulfed by Chinatown. Manhattan's Chinatown is further subdivided and segregated into several smaller communities such as "Little Fuzhou" or "Fuzhou Street" (on East Broadway Avenue) because of the high prevalence of Fujianese Mainland Chinese immigrants—who speak Hokkien Chinese—in the area.

New York being an exception to many things, Flushing is hardly suburban, and the Manhattan Chinatown still has many Chinese markets and other businesses, as well as a large Chinese-American population, including first-generation immigrants who speak little or no English and work in garment factories in the neighborhood.

On the other hand, Flushing has more Taiwanese immigrants and businesses while the Manhattan Chinatown remains Cantonese and Fujianese. The area is generally a hotbed for support of independence and self-determination for Taiwan. Flushing is considerably a "Little Taipei" or "Taiwan Town", so to speak, although there are also Mainland Chinese settling into the area.

The new Chinatown in Sunset Park has grown from a seedy, drunken neighborhood to a vibrant Chinese immigrant community with numerous businesses. With a booming population, the area is now extending into formerly Italian American communities such as Bay Ridge.

New York City, in particular, contains a strong mainland Chinese presence. The Chinese that settle in New York City are often undocumented immigrants from the Fujian province of China. Although the Min-nan that they speak is similar to Taiwanese (Hokkien and Hoklo), there is relatively little social interaction between Fujianese and Taiwanese and indeed between the Fujianese and professionals and students from Mainland China. Although they would ordinarily have very little chance of gaining legal status, a large number of Fujianese benefited from the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1993 which granted permanent residence to PRC nationals in the United States as of 1990 regardless of whether they were students or not. Furthermore, the Cantonese-speaking population has also perceived the Fujianese as bringing crime and other social problems to Chinatown.

Chinese from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam — especially ethnic Lao, Khmer, and ethnic Vietnamese — also settled New York as Vietnam War refugees. Many Chinese New Yorkers also include people whose parents or grandparents were from or born in Latin America. The most important Chinese Latin American populations are Chinese Puerto Ricans who are natural-born Americans of Chinese descent, Chinese-Cubans who fled from the cruel Fidel Castro rule, and Chinese Peruvians who immigrated when earthquake shakes Peru and Velasco ruled. Large numbers of Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders (mostly Hawaiians, Guamanians, and Samoans) also settled New York's Chinatowns.

In upstate New York, a planned mixed Asian commercial business district on North Pearl Street in Downtown Albany is in the works for the burgeoning Asian American population. There is already a mini-mall named "Chinatown Plaza" with great Chinese architecture.

Nevada

Main Article: Chinatown, Las Vegas

The only Chinatown in Las Vegas was initially just a large shopping center called "Chinatown Plaza." It is the so-called "first master planned Chinatown in America" with the Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market (大華超級市場) serving as its anchor. The plaza location is west of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15 at 4255 Spring Mountain Road, just outside the casino areas in what is a typical American neighborhood. However, as the Chinese American community continues to grow in Las Vegas (itself the fastest-growing city in the U.S.), many adjacent shopping centers have been developed while others are still in the planning and development stages. The area has become more competitive as the large Shun Fat Supermarket mega-store opened its doors in Chinatown in the early 2000s.

First built in early 1995, the infrastructure of Chinatown closely resembles many of the suburban Chinese business districts - that is, massive shopping centers and mini-malls with huge parking lots - found in California. However, it also has had the distinction of being officially designated a "Chinatown" by the city of Las Vegas with parking areas allotted for buses as well. (The Chinatown has its own exit off-ramp sign on Interstate 15.) Furthermore, the Chinese American population tends to be somewhat more dispersed throughout Las Vegas than in Southern California.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City's Chinatown represents a new trend in urban cities that traditionally did not have a concentrated Asian population. Today, Oklahoma City's Asia District has transformed a once blighted urban area near Oklahoma City University due north of downtown into a myriad of restaurants, supermarkets, shoppes, and galleries representing the growing mosaic of Asian residents of the city.

The area began as a "Little Saigon" back in the late 1980s due to the more than 17,000 Vietnamese refugees that inhabited the area but was recently renamed to "Asia District" to better reflect the true colors of the neighborhood.

Oregon

Main Article: Chinatown, Portland

There is a Chinatown in Portland.

Pennsylvania

There is a Chinatown on Cherry Street in Philadelphia.

Texas

Main Article: Chinatown, Houston

Yet another example of the new-Chinatown/old-Chinatown contrast is Houston, Texas, where there is an old and largely disappearing Chinatown near the Convention Center, and a new shopping center-laden Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard in the southwestern part of the city. In the early 1980s, Bellaire Boulevard initially started off as a Taiwanese immigrant business district but it has since grown to also include countless ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese businesses. Check out some pictures from http://www.dragonmap.com/blog/index.php?cat=2

An emerging Asian/Chinese population in the Dallas area has established a number of Chinese supermarkets in the high-tech centered area, mainly in suburban Richardson.

Archaeological work has been done to uncover the long history of El Paso's Chinatown, which stood from 1881 to around the 1920s. The area is significant in which it attracted a large number Chinese workers in the American Southwest and there a Chinatown sprung up.

Washington

Main Article: International District, Seattle, Washington

The large Chinatown of Seattle has been consolidated as the International District in the 1950s, which is a now concentrated pan-Asian business district enclave along with Vietnamese and other Asian-origin people within the city. In the 1980s, Vietnamese refugees and immigrants formed the nearby Little Saigon next to Chinatown. There has been some controversy over the name "International District", in which local Chinese American inhabitants do not embrace the term due to it being a perceived insult, and thus preferring "Chinatown" as a source of pride. Ethnic Chinese have protect the bane by claiming to have settled the area first and Chinese businesses being more dominant in the area. Other Asian groups have accepted the term for the sake of political correctness. This local debate gained some attention and was covered in a story on Fox News.

A similar pan-Asian area, but not necessarily considered a "satellite Chinatown" per se, has proliferated in a form of a shopping center in the Seattle suburb of Kent. The name of the shopping center is Great Wall Mall. [8]

The historic Chinatown in the capital of Olympia disappeared by the 1940s. Three Chinatowns existed in Olympia after several relocations and the third Chinatown was at Water Street and 5th Avenue.

Washington, D.C.

Main Article: Chinatown, Washington, DC

The old and shrinking Chinatown of Washington, DC is on H Street, several blocks east of the White House. The new suburban Chinatown is located about 20 miles to the north in Rockville, Maryland, where there is a large ethnic Chinese—mainly Taiwanese—population.

Chinatowns in Canada

Alberta

There are actually two Edmonton Chinatowns: The newer Chinatown North dominated by Hong Kong Chinese emigrees and the older Chinatown South.

There is also a Chinatown on 4th Avenue in Calgary.

British Columbia

Vancouver

File:Vancouver Chinatown Gate.jpg

Old Gate of Chinatown, Vancouver

Main Article: Chinatown, Vancouver

Vancouver's Chinatown is the largest in Canada and the third largest in North America, after New York's and San Francisco's. The main centre of the older Chinatown is Pender and Main Streets in downtown Vancouver, which is also, along with Victoria's, one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America, and has been the setting for a variety of modern Canadian literature.

Vancouver's Chinatown contains numerous galleries, shops, restaurants, and markets, in addition to the Chinese Cultural Centre and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park; the garden is the first and one of the largest Ming era-style Chinese gardens outside China.

Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, is the exception to North American Chinatown trends described above. Unlike the Mandarin-dominated or the pan-Chinese new "Chinatowns" in the U.S., Richmond is practically a "Hong Kong Town" and hence, it does tends to be more or less Hong Kong-centric in terms of it's offerings. However, the semi-official name is Asia West, under a consortium of Asian shopping centres to promote the area as a tourist attraction. It is quite possibly the largest Chinatown in North America, complete with several malls, a large grocery store and an endless number of restaurants and small businesses. Like the San Gabriel Valley region in southern California, Richmond is considered by food critics as having some of the best Chinese cuisine available. Many top Hong Kong chefs have been lured to Richmond-area restaurants.

As of 2002, one-third of Richmond's population was of Chinese descent—which is approximately 55,000 people.

The Richmond area is 10 kilometers south of downtown Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway; its main street is No. 3 Road.

During the 1990s, the Chinese Canadian population moved away from the old Chinatown in downtown Vancouver and southward into the suburbs of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. In addition to Richmond, there are now some other Chinese immigrant communities developing in Burnaby and Coquitlam.

Currently there is new momentum near Vancouver's old Chinatown consistent with the venerable condominium boom seen in most of downtown. A new Taiwanese enclave, an international village mall, and several new developments promise to rejuvenate downtown's Chinatown [9] and keep it anchored as the centre of Chinese Canadian culture, as promised on the new Millennium Gate at Pender Street entrance.[10]

Victoria
A very small Chinatown can be found in the provincial capital of Victoria, although it is mostly touted as a tourist attraction. It is centred on Fisgard Street and is, along with Vancouver's, one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America. There are fewer than five Chinese-oriented businesses in this area.

Manitoba

The Chinatown of Winnipeg was formed in the 1910s. It is on Rupert Street.

Ontario

Toronto

Main Article: Chinatown, Toronto

Toronto's largest Chinatown is centered on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. There are multiple other Chinatowns throughout Toronto's suburbs, especially those in Agincourt, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, and Scarborough. To the north of the city of Toronto, the Markham area is noted for its large concentration of Chinese strip malls; in 2001, 30 percent of Markham's population, or 62,355 people, was of Chinese descent. [11]

Toronto's Chinatowns include businesses from several regions of China, but they also are dominated by businesses set up by Hong Kong companies as well as immigrants from Hong Kong and their families. Also, the old Chinatown of Toronto of Spadina Avenue has certainly experienced a Vietnamese influence, with several Vietnamese restaurants in the landscape.

Ottawa

Ottawa's "Chinatown" is actually named the Asian Village and it is located in the Centretown area, on Somerset Street West near Bronson Avenue. It is a community mixes with the ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese-oriented businesses. For more information, read on http://www.ottawakiosk.com/somerset/index.html

Quebec

The gate on boulevard Saint-Laurent

Montreal's Chinatown is on rue De La Gauchetière and around rue Saint-Urbain and boulevard Saint-Laurent, between boulevard René-Lévesque and rue Viger (Place-d'Armes metro station).

The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois in French. Over the years, Vietnamese Canadians, especially of Chinese descent — who are already French-speaking before arriving — have set up shops and restaurants in the area as well.