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Chinatowns are enclaves of Chinese people outside of China. The first Chinatown in the United States was San Francisco's Chinatown in 1848, and many other Chinatowns were established in the 19th century by the Chinese diaspora on the West Coast.
- San Francisco, CA. One of the oldest and most established Chinatowns in the United States (it was established way back in 1848), SF's Chinatown is full of culture and attractions, from arts organizations like the Chinese Cultural Center and the annual Chinese New Year festival to the famous Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory and modern watering holes like China Live.
- New York City, NY. Walk through the area south of Broome and east of Lafayette Streets that make up Chinatown in NYC and it might feel like you’ve been transported to another continent.
- Seattle, WA. Officially known as the Chinatown-International District of Seattle or the I.D. for short, Seattle's Chinatown is actually a blend of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Vietnamese residents after being settled in the 1860s.
- Los Angeles, CA. Though small in terms of area, the list of things to do in L.A. 's Chinatown runs long enough to fill an afternoon. Of course, you’ll find the tastiest dim sum west of the San Gabriel Valley, but there are also grocery stores that stock those hard-to-find ingredients, under-the-radar art galleries, cultural festivals, dimly lit dive bars and a culinary scene that’s abuzz.
- Overview
- A land of opportunity—and gold
- Immigrant cities rising from the ashes
- From bustle to bust and back
- With the pandemic, xenophobia and hope
- Hard work and resilience
Rooted in both racism and marketing, historic immigrant enclaves grapple with a crippling pandemic, rising rents, and uncertain futures.
Behind an ornate archway with a tiled, curved roof in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, a solemn golden statue of Chinese revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-Sen sits alone. Although it’s a sunny August afternoon, most of the souvenir stores and art galleries surrounding him in the usually busy Central Plaza marketplace are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, doors locked shut behind heavy metal gates. The craggy Wishing Well at the center of the shopping zone is bone dry.
The eerie silence breaks as a figure—spotting me—emerges from underneath an unlit “Phoenix Imports” neon sign. “Come on in!”
Born and raised in Chinatown, Phoenix Imports owner Glenn SooHoo has witnessed the growth, decline, and revitalization of his neighborhood over the past 50 years. Since as early as Lunar New Year in January, L.A.’s Chinatown—and other such enclaves across North America—has been in crisis, buffeted by the twin traumas of xenophobia and a public-health crisis.
(Related: America has a long history of scapegoating Asian immigrants.)
“The virus is hampering business and the tourist industry,” says SooHoo. “At New Year’s, we had our 121st Golden Dragon Parade celebration, and only like 10 percent of the people showed up. The virus didn’t have anything to do with Chinatown, but it being associated as an Asian thing by the president, people just got that phobia about it.”
Chinatowns have been in the U.S. for more than 170 years. The first one, in San Francisco, served as an unofficial port of entry for Chinese immigrants escaping economic and political chaos in the mid-1800s. Men sought their fortunes in the California Gold Rush, and when mining waned, they found work as farmhands, domestic helpers, and in the 1860s, as workers for the Transcontinental Railroad. These men needed sleeping quarters, clean clothes, and hot meals after long days of grueling labor; this led to a proliferation of housing, laundry services, and restaurants in burgeoning, Chinese-centric neighborhoods.
As the immigrants fanned out around the country seeking more work, Chinatowns mushroomed all over the United States. At one time, there were more than 50 of them.
Left:
A chef prepares eggs boiled in tea and spices at Hon’s Wun-Tun House in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Right:
Asian immigrants settled in Oakland, California’s Chinatown during the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. The neighborhood still hosts multiple Chinese-run businesses, including one of the oldest fortune-cookie factories in the U.S.
While the earliest Chinatowns comprised modest wooden and brick buildings, the Asian motifs—pagodas, tiled roofs, bamboo-shaped fonts, and dragon imagery—we see today came about as a way to promote tourism. When the original San Francisco Chinatown was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and the devastating fire that followed, a group of wealthy Chinese merchants saw an opportunity to combat anti-Chinese sentiment by giving their neighborhood a flashy makeover.
Until then, San Francisco’s Chinatown was thought of as a seedy, crime-ridden ghetto, rife with opium dens, gambling, and prostitution. The Chinese merchants hired Scottish-American architect T. Paterson Ross and engineer A.W. Burgren to design a new Chinatown, incorporating religious iconography and architectural elements of the 10th-13th century Song dynasty.
The new neighborhood was a fantasy vision of China, a country neither man had ever visited. A prominent Chinese-American businessman, Look Tin Eli, spearheaded the project as a new city with “veritable fairy palaces filled with the choicest treasures of the Orient.” The strategy worked: San Francisco’s Chinatown was reborn as an “exotic” destination for Western tourists.
Other Chinatowns followed suit, adopting similar aesthetics. After Los Angeles’ original Chinatown was torn down in 1933 to make way for a new Union Station, Chinese community leaders organized efforts to rebuild Chinatown a few miles away. Prolific L.A. architects Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson modeled the open-air Central Plaza in the new Chinatown after the Forbidden City in Beijing, with restaurants, souvenir shops, grocery stores, bakeries, and nightclubs featuring musical performances.
Chinatowns’ fortunes rose and fell over the ensuing decades. In 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act and immigration opened up again. In 1965, the Hart-Celler Act removed quotas based on national origins, which led to an explosion of newcomers from China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. Chinatowns, once again, became the first stop for many immigrants.
Peter Ng, CEO of Chinatown Service Center (CSC), moved to L.A. from Hong Kong in the 1970s. “When I first got here, my parents and I lived inside Chinatown,” he says. “Everyone was conducting business inside Chinatown. There were only a couple of authentic Chinese restaurants back then, so everyone came here. It was really a thriving time.” CSC was founded in 1972 to provide health, housing, and advocacy to the growing community.
The ’60s also marked turbulent times in American history. Washington D.C.’s Chinatown was devasted when Chinese-owned stores were looted and buildings were burned down during the weeklong 1968 riots triggered by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil unrest and urban decay, along with the search for more housing and job opportunities, prompted immigrants to move away from Chinatowns in D.C. and other cities, giving rise to new satellite Asian communities in places like L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley and New York’s Flushing, Queens. “The Chinese diaspora is cast so far and wide even within large metros that a single hub for Chinese people is no longer practical or desirable,” says journalist Eddie Lin, who grew up in L.A.’s Chinatown in the ’70s.
(Related: This photographer captured family life in New York City’s Chinatown.)
But before the pandemic, downtown living in many cities had gained popularity and commercial developers had started paying attention to once-neglected Chinatown real estate. Luxury apartments and trendy restaurants took over rent-controlled buildings and mom-and-pop stores. As a result, gentrified Chinatowns in cities like D.C. and San Jose, California, were reduced to shadows of their formerly vibrant selves, with only a handful of Chinese restaurants and arched gateways left standing.
Enter President Donald Trump and the coronavirus pandemic. “Unfortunately, Trump’s rhetoric around the virus and beyond has empowered even more horrific and racist acts since COVID,” says Hoi Leung, curator of the Chinese Culture Center (CCC) of San Francisco. California has tallied at least 800 hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since the pandemic began.
Alarmed by anti-Asian sentiment and the downturn in business, many Chinese Americans are fighting back. This year, CCC partnered with artist Christine Wong Yap for the Art, Culture, and Belonging in Chinatown project, for which people were asked to submit their personal recollections of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Through intentional art and educational programming, CCC hopes visitors and residents view the neighborhood like a museum, “where it becomes an interactive site to deepen their understanding and sense of belonging through engaging with stories, people, and history,” Leung says, cautioning that without care and activism, Chinatowns will eventually disappear.
Left:
A Buddha figurine sits inside Hon’s Wun-Tun House in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Right:
Open-air produce stands line many blocks in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
In L.A., sun-bleached red lanterns line the green awning of a brick building. Next door, the concrete parking lot has been converted into an outdoor dining space with potted plants, umbrellas, and string lights. Hop Woo was one of a handful of restaurants that remained open during the pandemic. “We’ve never closed,” says chef-owner Lupe Liang. “During the stay-at-home order, we changed to takeout. And now, we have a beautiful space for outdoor dining.”
When Liang and his wife, Judy Cen, opened Hop Woo in L.A.’s Chinatown in 1993, they started with just eight tables. Hop Woo grew to be a thriving business with more than 150 tables, serving garlicky lobster noodles and barbecued meats to a diverse crowd of tourists and locals. “We’ve been in Chinatown for 27 years and we’ve always been busy,” Cen says, “except for this year.”
A few blocks north of Hop Woo at Phoenix Imports, SooHoo is working to ensure his shop’s future. SooHoo’s grandfather, She Wing SooHoo, launched a gift shop called Chew Yuen Company in 1938, one of the first businesses in Central Plaza. When She Wing retired, Glenn’s father Walter took over the family business, opening a storefront next door and renaming it Phoenix Imports.
“We’ve been here for 80 years,” he says. “We’ve been through everything, good and bad, and whatever it is, we’re still going to be here. I’m not here to make money, I just want to keep this Chinatown alive for the next generation.”
Rachel Ng is a Los Angeles-based writer who specializes in food and travel. Follow her on Instagram.
Andria Lo is a Berkeley, California-based photographer. Her book Chinatown Pretty celebrates the street style and wisdom of senior citizens in Chinatowns across America. Follow her on Instagram.
- San Francisco, CA. San Francisco's Chinatown, one of the nation's oldest and most recognisable Chinatowns, is a cultural Mecca. When you enter its busy streets, you will see vibrant lanterns, ancient temples, and a plethora of eateries selling delicious dim sum.
- New York City, NY. The biggest Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere is found in New York City, tucked away in the middle of Manhattan. It's a busy neighborhood well renowned for its exciting celebrations like the Lunar New Year Parade, lively street markets, and mouthwatering dumplings.
- Seattle, WA. Seattle's International District is where you'll find the city's Chinatown. Beyond the captivating dragon gates, you'll discover an authentic and thriving community.
- Los Angeles, CA. L.A. 's Chinatown is a dynamic and ever-evolving neighborhood. Beyond the traditional architecture and bustling markets, you'll find art galleries, craft breweries, and fusion cuisine that reflect the diverse cultural influences of the city.
- Manhattan, New York City. 249 39 Manhattan's Chinatown has to be one of the most famous Chinatowns in the USA. While it certainly isn’t the largest, it is the most populated.
- San Francisco, California. 298 34 San Francisco's Chinatown is not only one of the must-visit Chinatowns in the USA but the oldest.
- Chicago, Illinois. 341 45 Back in the early 1900s, the Loop part of Chicago managed to attract the bulk of the Chinese immigrants.
- Seattle, Washington. 213 33 Chinese immigrants have tried to settle in Seattle for a long period of time. However, something always got in their way.
Mar 8, 2014 · Chinatowns are cities within cities: adventurous, bustling, full of distinctive signage, street vendors selling unusual items, specialty shops, a noted lack of big chains, a variety of dialects...
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Chinatowns in the United States of America have existed since the 1840s on the West Coast and the 1870s on the East Coast. The Chinese were one of the first Asian groups to arrive in large numbers.
