What was the purpose of chinatowns

The 20th Century brought about a condensed Chinatown but it still retained its distinctive character. The overcrowding made this an ideal location for pickpockets and cut purses. Since the s, along with this physical renovation, the rescinding of the ban on Chinese immigration contributed to a demographic and cultural renewal of the barrio chino as well. At one point, it was even the largest in Latin America.

Photo credit: Andrea Williams. Chinese immigration to Cuba began in when Chinese Cantonese and Hakka contract workers were brought to work in the sugar fields, bringing the religion of Buddhism with them. They were often referred to as coolies, a label that was used to refer to a person from Asia, particularly if they were from Southern China, the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines or Indonesia. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers were brought in from China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and sometimes work alongside African slaves.

The Chinese had strong reasons for wanting to leave China behind. China emerged as the labor source following deep social turmoil after the First and Second Opium Wars. Changes in the farming system, a spike in population growth, political dissatisfaction, natural disasters, banditry, and ethnic friction, especially in southern China led many farmers and peasants to leave China and look for work abroad.

About , Chinese male coolies entered Cuba under contract for eight years. Most were not married, but there was frequent sexual activity between black women and Chinese coolies. The free Chinese practiced buying slave women and freeing them specifically for marriage. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese men engaged in sexual activity with white Cuban women and black Cuban women, resulting in numerous children being born during this time.

These Cuban-Chinese began to develop a distinct community. At its pinnacle, in the late s, there were more than 40, Chinese in Cuba. In addition to working in the fields, they opened shops, restaurants, and laundries and worked in factories. A unique fusion Chinese-Cuban cuisine merging Caribbean and Chinese flavors also surfaced.

Residents developed community organizations and social clubs, such as the Casino Chung Wah, founded in This community association continues to assist the Chinese in Cuba today with education and cultural programs. At the turn of the century, Cuba experienced another wave of Chinese migrants, which included countless coming from California. However, by the s, the Chinese population was declining after the Cuban Revolution.

India boasts only one Chinatown, which is located in Kolkata. Chinese people, principally ethnic Hakka from the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian, have lived in Kolkata for at least years, going back to the time when the city was the capital of the British Empire in India.

One of the earliest records of immigration from China can be found in a short treatise from This record suggests that the first wave of immigration was of Hakkas but does not expand on the professions of these immigrants. According to a later police census, there were Chinese in Calcutta in Spice Sellers in Chinatown Market.

Photo credit: Steve Browne. There was a significant demand, for high quality leather goods in colonial India, which the Chinese were able to fulfill. This profession was off limits to most upper-caste Hindus, who devalued these duties and left the lower class muchis and chamars to take part in this profession.

This also allowed the Chinese to monopolize making leather goods. They contributed in the food and beauty department. Furthermore, the beauty parlours, which were once the sole expertise of Chinese women, now mark almost every corner and street in Indian cities and towns. The Chinese take the credit when it comes to the faces of Indian women.

Additionally, licensed opium dens existed, which were run by native Chinese as well as a Cheena Bazaar where contraband was readily available. Kolkata Chinatown. Photo credit: Sharon Schneider. Many Chinese in India fled the country in the aftermath of the brief Sino-Indian war of Many Chinese-Indians were also in military camps and prisons in northern India following that conflict.

Those who were not imprisoned were faced with boundary restrictions, and some even had their Indian citizenships revoked. Many of the Chinese saw no future in India and decided to set out to the U.

In , ships filled with gold diggers sailed from Hong Kong to Melbourne. Little Bourke Street was the hub of the Chinese community as more and more Chinese began arriving in Melbourne.

This particular location was considered convenient for the immigrants, as it was a staging post for new Chinese immigrants as well as supplies en route to the goldfields.

The Chinese established themselves as storekeepers, importers, furniture-makers, herbalists and in the wholesale fruit and vegetable and restaurant industries.

Christian churches were built and Chinese political groups and newspapers were formed next. Other members of the Chinese community who lived and worked elsewhere used Chinatown to congregate with friends. Chinatown Gate Portland. Photo credit: Rosa Say.

It is notable for being the oldest Chinatown in Australia. The boom forged ahead until the introduction of the White Australian Policy in , when the Chinese, along with many non-European immigrants endured hardship under racist rule. During the s and 80s, the discriminatory laws that were in place came to an end and immigration began to increase again. At the same time, an increasing interest in dining out, and a taste for ethnic variety of cuisine, amongst the non-Chinese population of Melbourne stimulated the growth of over Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

Furthermore, In the s, the large number of overseas Chinese students studying at Melbourne University and RMIT University has brought a new market for Chinese-language cultural businesses and Chinese operated hair and fashion stores. Chinatown is distinguishable by its many unique structures and animal statues.

For instance, large red arch entrance structures known in Mandarin as Paifang are often seen when arriving to Chinatown, especially in more metropolitan areas.

Often, these archways are complemented by imperial guardian lion statues on either side of the structure, to greet visitors. The craggy Wishing Well at the center of the shopping zone is bone dry.

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. Related: America has a long history of scapegoating Asian immigrants. Chinatowns have been in the U. The first one, in San Francisco , served as an unofficial port of entry for Chinese immigrants escaping economic and political chaos in the mids.

Men sought their fortunes in the California Gold Rush, and when mining waned, they found work as farmhands, domestic helpers, and in the s, 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. But these Chinatowns were also borne out of growing racial tension and discrimination in housing and employment. After the abolition of slavery, Chinese immigrants provided a cheap source of labor, leading to resentment from the white working class, especially during the Long Depression from to Beginning in , the Chinese Exclusion Acts severely limited immigration for more than 60 years.

Anti-Chinese sentiment resulted in street brawls, race riots, and even lynching and massacres. During that time, many Chinatowns were destroyed by fire or natural disasters or abandoned by people fleeing the violence. 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 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.

The Chinese merchants hired Scottish-American architect T. Paterson Ross and engineer A. Burgren to design a new Chinatown, incorporating religious iconography and architectural elements of the 10thth century Song dynasty.

The new neighborhood was a fantasy vision of China, a country neither man had ever visited. Other Chinatowns followed suit, adopting similar aesthetics. Prolific L. But some Chinatowns took a different tack. Visitors dined at chop suey restaurants, peeked into opium dens, and maybe witnessed a tong Chinese secret society gang fight in the alley.

In , 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. There were only a couple of authentic Chinese restaurants back then, so everyone came here. It was really a thriving time. Merchants and peddlers provided fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers.

As San Francisco became a recreation center, the Chinese seized opportunities to provide festive activities. In addition an entire theater building was imported from China and erected in Chinatown to house the Chinese theatrical troupe. Chinatown's twelve blocks of crowded wooden and brick houses, businesses, temples, family associations, rooming houses for the bachelor majority, in the ratio of men to women was 20 to 1 opium dens, gambling halls was home to 22, people.

The atmosphere of early Chinatown was bustling and noisy with brightly colored lanterns, three-cornered yellow silk pennants denoting restaurants, calligraphy on sign boards, flowing costumes, hair in queues and the sound of Cantonese dialects.

In this familiar neighborhood the immigrants found the security and solidarity to survive the racial and economic oppression of greater San Francisco. As fires raged, Chinatown was leveled. It seemed that what the city and country wanted for fifty years, nature had accomplished in forty-five seconds. Ironically, because the immigration records and vital statistics at City Hall had been destroyed, many Chinese were able to claim citizenship, then send for their children and families in China.

Legally, all children of U. Thus began the influx of"paper sons and paper daughters" - instant citizens - which helped balance the demographics of Chinatown's "bachelor society. The city fathers had no intention of allowing Chinatown to be rebuilt in its own neighborhood, on valuable land next to the Financial District. While they were deciding where to relocate the Chinese, a wealthy businessman named Look Tin Eli developed a plan to rebuild Chinatown to its original location.

He obtained a loan from Hong Kong and designed the new Chinatown to be more emphatically "Oriental" to draw tourists. The old Italianate buildings were replaced by Edwardian architecture embellished with theatrical chinoiserie. Chinatown, like the phoenix, rose from the ashes with a new facade, dreamed up by an American-born Chinese man, built by white architects, looking like a stage-set China that does not exist.

The average detention was two weeks, the longest was twenty-two months. Conditions on Angel Island were harsh, families were isolated, separated, and the interrogated. Detainees were questioned in great detail about who they were and why they were claiming the right to enter the United States.

Those whose answers were unacceptable to the officers were denied admission. To prepare for the questions, immigrants often relied on coaching papers which contained details on the background of individuals who could legally claim American citizenship. Typically such papers were purchased as part of the package of tickets and information about entering the United States.

Angel Island Station was closed in after a fire destroyed many of the buildings. The Exclusion Act was repealed in and in most of Angel Island was converted to state park.