Chinatown

:Alternative meanings: Chinatown (disambiguation)

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A Chinatown is a section containing a large population of Chinese people within a city that is not predominantly Chinese. Chinatowns are most common in Southeast Asia and North America, but growing Chinatowns can be found in Europe and Australia, as well as in São Paulo, Brazil.

Related Topics:
Chinese - City - Southeast Asia - North America - Europe - Australia - São Paulo - Brazil

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Chinatowns were formed in the 19th century in many areas of the United States and Canada as a result of discriminatory land laws that forbade the sale of any land to Chinese or restricted the land sales to a limited geographical area and which promoted the segregation of people of different ethnicities. A Chinatown in a particular city may change its location or disappear over time.

Related Topics:
19th century - United States - Canada

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In the past, overcrowded Chinatowns in urban areas were shunned by the general non-Chinese public as ethnic ghettos, and seen as places of vice and cultural insularism where "unassimilable foreigners" congregated. Nowadays, many old and new Chinatowns are considered viable centers of commercialism and tourism; some of them also serve, in various degrees, as centers of multiculturalism (espoused in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom) and "racial harmony" (especially in Malaysia and Singapore).

Related Topics:
Ghetto - Commercialism - Tourism - Multiculturalism

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Quite a number of Chinatowns have a Disneyland-esque atmosphere, while others are actual living and working communities; some are a synthesis of both. Chinatowns also range from rundown ghettoes to sites of recent development. In some, recent investments have revitalized run-down and blighted areas and turned them into centers of vibrant economic and social activity. In some cases this has led to gentrification and a reduction in the specifically Chinese character of the neighborhoods.

Related Topics:
Disneyland - Ghetto - Gentrification

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Many Chinatowns have a long history, such as Nankinmachi, the nearly three-century old Chinatown in Nagasaki, Japan, or Yaowarat Road in Bangkok, which was founded by Chinese traders more then 200 years ago. Other Chinatowns are much newer: the Chinatown in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. formed in the 1990s. Most Chinatowns grew without any organized plans, while a few (such as the one in Las Vegas and a new one outside the city limits of Seoul, South Korea to be completed by 2005) resulted from deliberate master plans (sometimes as part of redevelopment projects). Indeed, many areas of the world are embracing the development and redevelopment (or regeneration) of Chinatowns, such as in Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. In Ireland and Italy, right-wing ideology and anti-Chinatown sentiments have made efforts at such redevelopment more challenging.

Related Topics:
Nankinmachi - Nagasaki - Japan - Yaowarat Road - Las Vegas - Nevada - U.S. - Seoul - South Korea - Germany - Netherlands - United Kingdom - Ireland - Italy - Right-wing

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