-
Essay / History of New York's Chinatown
Table of ContentsIntroductionThe Formation of New York's ChinatownWork OpportunitiesCultural AspectsConclusionIntroductionThe meaning of home can vary from person to person. Some will say that home is where we grow up, and others will say that home is the home of a family. However, in an unknown country, our family is far from us. In order to find a suitable place to belong and feel safe and protected, people sharing similar cultures formed a new “home”. New York is a melting pot of diversity that has welcomed and encouraged communities from around the world to immigrate here. In a big city like New York, finding the right place to live and feel like you belong can be a big challenge. New York City is known for being the center of world trade. With sky-scraping buildings and architects and a mecca of arts and entertainment, this city was built by the hands, dreams and determination of diverse people, including from Asia, Africa and Europe around the world entire. Chinese immigrants began their journey to New York in the late 1840s and 1850s, but the development of their own community, Chinatown, did not form until later in the 1870s. This article aims to study the deployment of Chinatown in New York and how Chinatown can improve the lives of Chinese immigrants in terms of cultural aspects and employment opportunities. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe Formation of New York's ChinatownDue to the discrimination and racist mentality of the cities' white residents, Chinese immigrants had to support to their needs in unknown lands. So they isolated themselves and formed their own community. Chinese immigrants then created a little "China" in the middle of New York called Chinatown and received strong support from their own people. Chinatown not only supports and welcomes new immigrants, but also created a structure that included their own association of leaders, which supports the community and businesses, and meets the basic needs of residents, such as food and employment. As mentioned above, Chinatown was established in the 1870s. However, the rapid development of the enclave economy and emerging social problems related to the influx of new immigrants made the formation of Chinatown more complicated ( Li, 2015). Neighborhood segregation was also a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first immigration law targeted at a particular race and class (Li, 2012) which completely stopped the possibility of Chinese immigration to the United States (Fisher, P and Fisher, S., 2001). The transformation of New York's Chinatown represents a case of postwar transformation linked to both the structural adjustment of the national urban economy and global geopolitical changes. Chinese immigrants to the United States can be divided into three categories: wealthy entrepreneurs and highly skilled professionals; those who escaped poverty and political unrest in their hometowns; and undocumented immigrants smuggled through their networks of connections (Santos and Yan, 2008). Thanks to class dynamics, rich and educated immigrants have been able to better integrate into society, but poor and undocumented immigrants, who lack economic resources and have lower levels of education, have had a harder time. “being alone” in the city. Therefore, lower-class Chinese immigrants settled in Chinatown. Work OpportunitiesEmployment opportunities for New York City's Chinese population increased with the creation of Chinatown. Chinese immigrants to the City traditionally settled along Mott Street and around the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s, with the majority of the Chinese population then working in the laundry industry in metropolitan areas (Li, 2015). With the development of the garment, construction, and restaurant industries, Chinatown not only maintained its vitality, but also created jobs for a low-wage, low-skilled workforce, particularly in the informal economy ( Guest, 2011). Although these were low-paying jobs, Chinese immigrants were able to find more jobs in restaurants and garment factories. In the early 1980s, Guest (2011) reported that clothing stores in Chinatown employed more than 20,000 people. A few years later, according to Martin's (1998) report, more and more Chinese immigrants became more financially stable and slowly became businessmen. As Chinese immigrants were gradually accepted by New York City, Chinese businessmen continued to urge others to put up English signs everywhere to appear closer to the rest of the city. Chinatown is considered the social and political center of Chinese immigrants. The collection of homes, commercial facilities and regional association headquarters are all anchored in Chinatown. In the second half of the 1950s, the core of New York's Chinatown was surrounded by Canal Street, Worth Street, Bory Street, and Baxter Street, which Lin (2015) estimated was home to approximately 4,000 Chinese immigrants (Figure 1). Cultural aspectsChinatown in the United States has become an important part of the multicultural agenda. The highly educated American middle class, attracted by the ideal of multiculturalism, frequents Chinese restaurants and participates in the celebration of multicultural festivals. As more and more people are attracted to Chinese culture, especially food and commercial products, Chinatown plays the role of a “Gastronomic Republic” (Santos and Yan, 2008). Chinese culture is formed by a long history. Therefore, Chinatown also represents the national characteristics of China. In other words, Chinatown is the crystallization of the Chinese as a unified cultural entity (Santos and Yan, 2008). The original images of New York's Chinatown in 1986 provided insight into daily life in Chinatown several years after its development. Listening to the natural sounds, admiring the architecture and decoration, understanding the way Chinese immigrants dressed in the past, and seeing the overall culture of Chinatown all show the cultural heritage of the Chinese in New York. The video shows how life for Chinese people in New York has changed, from the city's discrimination to living in a community that feels like home. Chinese culture can be observed through many aspects presented in the video. For example, Chinese signs and posters are everywhere, whether on buildings, cars or in the street; Restaurant windows display traditional Chinese dishes such as barbecued ducks; and the only language used between Chinatown residents and workers is Chinese. These working-class immigrants gradually found their place in the city. Their daily lives were constantly changing and surrounded by people with the same cultural background.ConclusionMany immigrants are scattered around the world, and people often choose to emigrate to other countries where social, environmental, and economic stability develops..