"From Chinatown to Every Town explores the long history of Chinese immigration within the U.S. Zai Liang studies the fundamental shift of spatial settlement for low-skilled Chinese immigrants from New York City's Chinatown towards new immigrant destinations. Beginning in the 1990s, Liang examines the role of Chinese restaurants' expansion and their growing popularity on the subsequent shift in settlement to more rural areas. Using a mixed method approach over a decade in Chinatown and six immigrant destination states, From Chinatown to Every Town explores key players such as employment agencies, Chinatown bus, and supply chain shops to argue how they together facilitate the process of spatial dispersion of immigrants and at the same time maintain linkages between Chinatown in Manhattan and new immigrant destinations"--
CHINATOWN, U.S.A.: a state of mind, a world within a world, a neighborhood that exists in more cities than you might imagine. Every day, Americans find "something different" in Chinatown's narrow lanes and overflowing markets, tasting exotic delicacies from a world apart or bartering for a trinket on the street -- all without ever leaving the country. It's a place that's foreign yet familiar, by now quite well known on the Western cultural radar, but splitting the difference still gives many visitors to Chinatown the sense, above all, that things are not what they seem -- something everyone in popular culture, from Charlie Chan to Jack Nicholson, has been telling us for decades. And it's true that few visitors realize just how much goes on beneath the surface of this vibrant microcosm, a place with its own deeply felt history and stories of national cultural significance. But Chinatown is not a place that needs solving; it's a place that needs a more specific telling. In American Chinatown, acclaimed travel writer Bonnie Tsui takes an affectionate and attentive look at the neighborhood that has bewitched her since childhood, when she eagerly awaited her grandfather's return from the fortune-cookie factory. Tsui visits the country's four most famous Chinatowns -- San Francisco (the oldest), New York (the biggest), Los Angeles (the film icon), Honolulu (the crossroads) -- and makes her final, fascinating stop in Las Vegas (the newest; this Chinatown began as a mall); in her explorations, she focuses on the remarkable experiences of ordinary people, everyone from first-to fifth-generation Chinese Americans. American Chinatown breaks down the enigma of Chinatown by offering narrative glimpses: intriguing characters who reveal the realities and the unexpected details of Chinatown life that American audiences haven't heard. There are beauty queens, celebrity chefs, immigrant garment workers; there are high school kids who are changing inner-city life in San Francisco, Chinese extras who played key roles in 1940s Hollywood, new arrivals who go straight to dealer school in Las Vegas hoping to find their fortunes in their own vision of "gold mountain." Tsui's investigations run everywhere, from mom-and-pop fortune-cookie factories to the mall, leaving no stone unturned. By interweaving her personal impressions with the experiences of those living in these unique communities, Tsui beautifully captures their vivid stories, giving readers a deeper look into what "Chinatown" means to its inhabitants, what each community takes on from its American home, and what their experience means to America at large. For anyone who has ever wandered through Chinatown and wondered what it was all about, and for Americans wanting to understand the changing face of their own country, American Chinatown is an all-access pass.
Chinatown Pretty features beautiful portraits and heartwarming stories of trend-setting seniors across six Chinatowns. Andria Lo and Valerie Luu have been interviewing and photographing Chinatown's most fashionable elders on their blog and Instagram, Chinatown Pretty, since 2014. Chinatown Pretty is a signature style worn by pòh pohs (grandmas) and gùng gungs (grandpas) everywhere—but it's also a life philosophy, mixing resourcefulness, creativity, and a knack for finding joy even in difficult circumstances. • Photos span Chinatowns in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Vancouver. • The style is a mix of modern and vintage, high and low, handmade and store bought clothing. • This is a celebration of Chinese American culture, active old-age, and creative style. Chinatown Pretty shares nuggets of philosophical wisdom and personal stories about immigration and Chinese-American culture. This book is great for anyone looking for advice on how to live to a ripe old age with grace and good humor—and, of course, on how to stay stylish. • This book will resonate with photography buffs, fashionistas, and Asian Americans of all ages. • Chinatown Pretty has been featured by Vogue.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Design Sponge, Rookie, Refinery29, and others. • With a textured cover and glossy bellyband, this beautiful volume makes a deluxe gift. • Add it to the shelf with books like Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen, and Fruits by Shoichi Aoki.
Winner of the American Book Award San Francisco Chinatown is the first book of its kind—an "insider's guide" to one of America's most celebrated ethnic enclaves by an author born and raised there. Written by architect and Chinese American studies pioneer Philip P. Choy, the book details the triumphs and tragedies of the Chinese American experience in the U.S. Both a history of America's oldest and most famous Chinese community and a guide to its significant sites and architecture, San Francisco Chinatown traces the development of the neighborhood from the city's earliest days to its post-quake transformation into an "Oriental" tourist attraction as a pragmatic means of survival. Featuring a building-by-building breakdown of the most significant sites in Chinatown, the guide is lavishly illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs and offers walking tours for tourists and locals alike. "A stunning new guidebook. . . . History buffs will be amazed by the wealth of lore, legend and radiant fact."—San Francisco Chronicle A Los Angeles Times summer reading pick "San Francisco Chinatown illuminates the untold history of the enclave . . . to consider the political, historical, and cultural implications of Chinatown's very existence."—San Francisco Bay Guardian "Part history book and part tour guide, San Francisco Chinatown is definitely niche, but wonderfully so. In it, Choy quickly outlines the history of San Francisco as a whole, then jumps into a section by section investigation of the city's famous Chinatown. . . . San Francisco Chinatown whets ones appetite to learn more about Chinese-American history."—Evelyn McDonald, City Book Review Retired architect and renowned historian of Chinese America Philip P. Choy co-taught the first college level course in Chinese American history at San Francisco State University. Since then he has created and consulted on numerous TV documentaries, exhibits and publications. He has served on the California State Historic Resource Commission, on the San Francisco Landmark Advisory Board, five times as President of the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) and currently as an emeritus CHSA boardmember. He is a recipient of the prestigious San Francisco State University President's Medal.
Tensions of opposites in America's oldest Chinatown Following up his award-winning book on San Francisco's Mission District, Dick Evans turns his attention to the fifth of a square mile that attracts more tourists than the Golden Gate Bridge but where the median household income is a quarter of the citywide average--Chinatown. From delicious dim sum to wok-filled shops, from iconic red lanterns to elaborate parade floats, from inside single-room occupancy apartments to outdoor games of Chinese chess in Portsmouth Square, Evans captures a place filled with diverse residents and a unique mélange of American and Chinese architecture, cuisine, and culture. Vibrant images are interspersed with sidebars highlighting particular people and institutions, deepening viewers' immersion into this community. Kathy Chin Leong's lucid text introduces readers to the history of the neighborhood, as well as to themes of tourism, daily life, and celebrations. At the heart of the book is a tight-knit community and a thriving neighborhood, which welcomes immigrants with supportive institutions and entices tourists to experience a wide array of Chinese traditions. Evans's photos highlight a place undergoing visible progress but, unlike other San Francisco neighborhoods that are gentrifying, maintaining its unique character and authenticity.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes "one of the funniest books of the year.... A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire" (The Washington Post). A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.
Chinatown -- a place of dragons and dreams; fireflies and memories Chinatown -- full of wonder and magic; fireworks on New Year's Day and a delicious smell on every corner Chinatown -- where every day brings something familiar and something wondrously new to a small boy Chinatown -- home? Kam Mak grew up in a place of two cultures, one existing within the other. Using extraordinarily beautiful paintings and moving poems, he shares a year of growing up in this small city within a city, which is called Chinatown.
This book is a definitive history of Chinatowns in Canada. From instant Chinatowns in gold- and coal-mining communities to new Chinatowns which have sprung up in city neighbourhoods and suburbs since World War II, it portrays the changing landscapes and images of Chinatowns from the late nineteenth century to the present. It also includes a detailed case study of Victoria's Chinatown, the earliest such settlement in Canada. The culmination of twenty years of research, which has included detailed surveys of over fifty Chinatowns in North America and interviews with numerous community leaders and city planners in all major Chinatowns in Canada, this book explains why Historic Chinatowns are seen as important by Chinese today and why they may survive despite the competing attractions of New Chinatowns. It also sheds new light on the chracteristics of these communities and provides useful insights for geographers, historians, sociologists and anthropologists.
Unearth the origins of Napa Valley's prosperity. Chinese laborers were once the backbone of Napa Valley. Throughout the late 1800s, they toiled in the grape fields, mines, hop farms, leather tanneries and laundries, and carved out neighborhoods in towns throughout the Valley. These contributions did little to deter discrimination and Anti-Chinese Leagues sprang up to harass and intimidate immigrants like Chan Wah Jack, who ran the successful Sang Lung store in Napa's Chinatown. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act hastened the decline of local Chinatowns and these once vibrant communities disappeared while the industries they helped to foster flourished. Join author John McCormick as he uncovers the forgotten contributions of the Chinese people in California's most famous wine region.
