Manhattan Chinatown
A Guide for Tourists
FAQ Page
What are the physical boundaries of the community? How does one enter the space?
Of the six Chinatown’s in New York City the Manhattan Chinatown is the largest, and home to about 100,000 residents. While it does not have officially defined boarders, people generally accept that Chinatown lies between Canal Street to the north, Worth Street to the south, East Broadway to the east, and Broadway to the west.
You can find more information on the Mapping and Geography page
How and when did this Chinatown become the shape it is now, and how would one imagine the area to continue developing?
Ah Ken is the man credited to have founded the Manhattan Chinatown in the 1840’s just east of the Five Points district. While the Chinese population grew quickly, the vast majority of residents were men, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allowed many more Chinese, particularly women, to immigrate to the United States and also resulted in a boom in the growth of the Manhattan Chinatown. While the population of the Manhattan Chinatown has grown rapidly, many of the buildings in Chinatown were originally built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Manhattan Chinatown was also greatly hurt by the September 11, 2001 attacks. As it is located very near to ground zero, several roads in the area were closed following the attacks, and tourism dropped sharply for some time.
More recently, as of 2007, luxury condominiums have started being built within Chinatown. The high real estate prices of Manhattan make it difficult for some poorer immigrants to live there, which has slowed down the growth rate of the Manhattan Chinatown, with some moving to Chinatowns located in either Queens or Brooklyn.
Waxman, Sarah. The History of New York’s Chinatown.
http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html
http://www.new-york-chinatown.info/chinatown-history.html
Additional sources on the website: Economy
What is the economy of the area? What is its clientele? What languages are seen (shop signs), heard, and spoken?
The economy of the Manhattan Chinatown is incredibly diverse, with everything from street vendors to banks. The Economy of the NYC Chinatown has been focused largely around tourism and cultural shops. Several companies run bus tours through Chinatown, and Chinatown itself is home to many bus companies running routes between cities. Street vendors sell perfume, watches and handbags to tourists, often operating without set prices. Additionally, there are more than 300 Chinese restaurants in the area, giving Chinatown an active restaurant scene. The New York Food Tours Company even runs tours to visit various restaurants within the Chinatown. Together, these attractions make Chinatown a popular tourist destination. Another important factor in Chinatown’s economy is the garment industry, which prior to September 11th 2001 had over 200 factories and 10,000 workers.
The attacks on September 11, 2001 marked an economic downturn for the Manhattan Chinatown due to its close proximity to the Twin Towers. Following September 11th, nearly 75% of Chinatown’s workforce was unemployed, and many had difficulty finding work for months afterwards. The garment, restaurant, retail and tourism industries were the hardies hit sectors as a result of the attacks. While the local economy and tourism in Chinatown has since recovered, the overall quality of life for Chinatown residents was drastically affected.
Asian American Federation of New York. Chinatown After 9/11: An Economic Impact Study. April 4, 2002.
Are there institutional structures that anchor this community?
Located at the corner of Mott and Park Streets, the Church of the Transfiguration is one of the major sites in the Manhattan Chinatown. It was originally founded in 1664 as a Lutheran Church. However in the mid 1800’s as immigration increased in the Five Points area, many Protestants began moving north. The church was sold on January 28th, 1853 to the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, and has been a Catholic Church ever since.
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http://www.transfigurationnyc.org/parish/en/about-us/our-history
The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), founded in 1965 in response to increased Chinese immigration is another active institution in the community. The CPC has helped Chinese immigrants adjust to American life, as well as running youth programs, opening an English Language Center, providing care services to seniors, as well as job placement. Recently the CPC also began plans to open vocational and business schools in Chinatown, and remains one of the biggest social service agencies to serve the Manhattan Chinatown.
http://www.cpc-nyc.org/about_us.htm
Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. "Beyond Chinatown: Dual immigration and the Chinese population of metropolitan New York City, 2000, p. 115". Middle States Geographer, 2002, 35: 115, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
The Manhattan Chinatown also has within it two famous statues, one of the philosopher Confucius, and one of Lin Zexu, who ignited the Opium War by banning it within China. The Confucius statue was erected in 1976, and is inscribed with proverbs in both English and Chinese. The Lin Zexu statue was erected in 1997 and is inscribed simply with “Say no to Drugs” in both English and Chinese. The statue was built in part because of the increasing Fujianese population in the Chinatown to help battle the stereotype that “only Fujianese sell drugs (Chen).”
On it’s website, the Manhattan Chinatown lists a variety of different attractions it offers. It’s headings are “Restaurants,” “Shops & Markets,” “Culture & Entertainment,” “Buses,” “Hotels” and “Groups.” The website also provides links to maps of Chinatown, and gives directions on how to get there. The website does not seem to go into much of the district’s history/industry, and instead focuses on tourist attractions, which makes sense as the website is entirely in English.
http://www.explorechinatown.com/GUI/Content.aspx-Page=Locate.htm
http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/021/_pix/confucius_1.jpg (photo credit)
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/20/nyregion/chinatown-s-fujianese-get-a-statue.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/158306325/
Can you also locate blogs/newsletters by local residents? Does it feature in restaurant guides?
There are a large number of blogs focused on the Manhattan Chinatown. Ourchinatown.org is an example of a website focused on reporting local Chinatown news and interest stories through the use of smart phones. There are also various personal blogs run by residents that describe life in Chinatown, as well as many others that focus particularly on restaurants within Chinatown. There are also many guides on the Manhattan Chinatown run from outside of the Chinatown itself. Tripadvisor, yelp, and gonyc.com all have features on Chinatown and reviews of many of the restaurants there.
News
http://www.ourchinatown.org/about/
Personal Blog Examples
http://www.christinaofchinatown.com/
http://www.chinatownnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/
Outside Reviews
http://www.yelp.com/list/manhattan-chinatown---restaurants-new-york
http://gonyc.about.com/od/restaurants/tp/best_chinatown.htm
Who are you speaking to? Who are you presenting the information to?
Our website is primarily aimed at tourists and other visitors to the Manhattan Chinatown. The simple layout should be accessible to both children and adults, though the level of information could make it unapproachable to children. The entire website is written in English, and would not be helpful to anyone not entirely fluent in English. If this site was aimed at residents of the Chinatown itself, we would have a parallel Chinese page.
Our website is primarily a historical guide for anyone visiting Chinatown who wants to know more about it. We present information on the Chinatown’s development over time, as well as the impact of major events on the area. While we do examine some individual businesses, this website is not a complete guide to every store in Chinatown.
Rather, it presents general information on the attractions Chinatown offers, and encourages individuals to explore the area for themselves.
Why is this areaa Chinatown in the first place?
The Manhattan Chinatown should be considered a Chinatown because of the integral role it played in settling Chinese immigrants in New York City, as well as its unique self-sufficient status. The Chinatown developed as a result of both discrimination and self-segregation. Both of these factors also helped Chinatown to develop its own system of internal government, health care, businesses and restaurants. Chinatown also provided a safety network and place to live for new Chinese immigrants until they were able to find a job and their own living quarters. The Manhattan Chinatown isn’t a Chinatown simply because of the large number of Chinese residents or the presence of Chinese writing. It is a place that allowed for the spread of Chinese-Americans as well as the creation of a unique cultural space within the United States.
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