Name some Chinatowns that
you’ve been to. Have you been to New
York’s? How about San Francisco’s? Maybe even D.C’s? Can you name something
that they all have in common? And no I’m
not talking about the population having a Chinese majority. What they all have in common is that they’re
slowly becoming tourist destinations for some, while others are pretty much
already a shell of what they once were.
Chinatowns throughout
America (and other countries) formed for many reasons. The biggest two reasons were one, many did
not want to live with the Chinese that were immigrating into their homes,
brought on by fear mongering and disdain for those who were different. Secondly, a close-knit community was able to
benefit from each other’s help in a new environment and so they gathered in one
neighborhood. Of course if a homogenous
group of people gather in a community, restaurants that specifically cater to
their diet will pop up as well. So it
makes sense that Chinese restaurants populated the different Chinatowns,
something I’ll get back to later.
 |
| San Francisco's Chinatown is full of these stores that sell tchotchkes tourists love to buy |
As I mentioned in a
previous post, because Chinatowns were cast off communities that preexisting
citizens did not want to associate with, they weren’t always the safest of
areas. Like Boston’s Chinatown, many
have been cleaned up and are nothing like they used to be. The newfound safety led to curious outsiders
that were interested in the many food establishments that they couldn’t
necessarily get in their own neighborhoods.
For example, you can’t really go to Jamaica Plain or the North End for
some dim sum although this is changing (see: Malden/Medford area). Being “adventurous” and trying new “exotic”
foods continued to drive more and more outsiders into the Chinatowns.
Slowly, visitors that try
these Chinese joints brought their friends.
As many realized how safe and quaint the Chinatowns were with their
markets and restaurants along with their close proximities to other large parts
of the city (Downtowns, Financial Districts, etc.) they started to buy up the
dirt cheap property. The property that
used to be so dirt cheap because no one but immigrants wanted to live suddenly
saw an increase in property value continuing until many residents were forced
to relocate from the astronomical home and rent prices. This is what everyone in the community so
lovingly calls gentrification. It’s something
that is talked about over and over …and over again. But it’s only because it’s a very real and
big problem.
If everyone in the
community left, it would stop becoming that welcoming home and slowly become a caricature
of that past community. By caricature, I
mean the type of community that Washington D.C’s Chinatown is now. Apart from a few scattered restaurants, the
only thing Chinese about that Chinatown are the various random stores that have
signs with their Chinese name like Verizon or Chipotle. No longer is D.C’s Chinatown the hub of the
Chinese community that stop for groceries or breakfast or meet to talk to
friends. It becomes just a bunch of bubble
tea shops (I’m looking at you Boston) and restaurants that cater to an ever
growing foodie population. On a side
note, I don’t know if I’m going crazy or not, but I swear that every time a
bubble tea shop opens, one of the small markets close.
 |
| The list of bubble tea shop goes even deeper... |
For further reading regarding D.C's Chinatown situation with residents' accounts press HERE
