Chinatown patterns in North America

This article discusses Chinatown patterns in North America. For the purposes of this article North America is defined as Canada and the United States. For a broad survey of individual Chinatowns in the region, see Chinatowns in North America. For information on Chinatowns in Mexico and Central America, please refer to Chinatowns in Latin America. The common features of Chinatowns and social problems common to Chinatown are covered in the main Chinatown article.

In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America: frontier and rural Chinatowns, urban Chinatowns, and suburban Chinatowns.Fact|date=September 2008

Frontier and rural Chinatowns

Several small towns in the western United States and Canada have or once had a Chinatown that sprang up as a result of early Chinese settlement during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of the Chinese that formed these Chinatowns were from the primarily rural Sze Yap ("Four Districts") region of Guangdong province of ChinaFact|date=September 2008, including speakers of Toisan (台山, Pinyin: Taishan) and Chung San (中山, Pinyin: Zhongshan) Chinese (these are various subdialects of Cantonese Chinese). Experiencing hardships, especially discrimination and prejudice in the big cities, the Chinese banded together and established their own distinct communities in the frontier areas. In a few cases, Chinese were forbidden either through explicit laws or implicit agreements from purchasing land or residing outside of their enclavesFact|date=February 2007.

Origins

Between the periods when the gold rushes on "Gum San" ("Gold Mountain", 金山, Pinyin: Jīn Shān) went bust and the transcontinental railroads were completed, the Toisan-speaking Chinese farm laborers, many of whom already were expert in farming techniques, worked in the agricultural industry of California's Central Valley, and there they formed small rural Chinatown enclaves in white farming and mining communities.Fact|date=September 2008

Locations and layout

In frontier ("Wild West") and rural Chinatowns, a Chinese general store also provided a post office, bank, townhall, translation services and local stomping ground for the Chinese population. Also included in several Chinatowns of this type were Chinese religious shrines (called joss houses, incorporating Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist temples.

Examples of rural and small town Chinatowns include the communities of Locke and Weaverville, located north and northwest of San Francisco, California. Others include a "China Alley" in the Central Valley town of Hanford, California, Chinese Camp, and a site in Butte, Montana.

In the late 19th century western United States, Chinese-American immigrants were not always welcome, and found it dangerous to be seen in public. In response, these immigrants built elaborate underground communities in many cites through the American West.Fact|date=September 2008 Many of these underground communities have been preserved, and are now the subject of historical tours, in cities such as Pendleton, Oregon, Havre, Montana, and Deadwood, South Dakota.

Extinct Chinatowns include the ones in California (San Luis Obispo, Nevada City, Riverside, Walnut Grove, Rio Vista, Marysville), British Columbia (Lillooet, Barkerville, Yale, New Westminster, Cumberland and others), Alberta (Strathcona), Nevada (Reno, Virginia City), South Dakota (Deadwood), and Wyoming (Rock Springs).

Nowadays, these small, early Chinatowns tend to serve as museums rather than areas of bustling commerce as is the case in their urban and suburban counterparts. While most of these frontier-era Chinatowns have largely disappeared, their remnants and other small Chinatowns still standing can be found, especially in the western region of the U.S. The majority of "Chinese" restaurants in these particular Chinatowns tend to prominently display Budweiser beer signsFact|date=February 2007 and serve American Chinese cuisine, such as chop suey. The old rural/frontier and urban Chinatowns were often stereotyped for having ethnic Chinese-owned laundries. In most cases, they have now widely disappeared over time in most of the old urban Chinatowns and the stereotype no longer persists.

In recent years, several excavations have been made and some remnants of the rural Chinatowns were unearthed such as in San Luis Obispo, California. Many early Chinatown artifacts and pieces can be found in some local museums.Fact|date=September 2008

In the early years of Locke, California, the Chinese-American population was booming and thus led to a creation of the local chapter of the Kuomintang.Fact|date=September 2008

Decline

In the 1880s, several rural Chinatowns were burned and destroyed by white residents.Fact|date=February 2007 Some towns may have had two or more Chinatowns.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Chinese Americans (i.e., descendants of the earliest Chinese immigrants) who were generally better-educated and often spoke more fluent English than their parents and grandparents—and also lost much fluency in the Chinese language during acculturation in American society—moved out of the rural regions and resettled in the major cities. After immigration restrictions were placed on Mainland Chinese, there has been no new Chinese immigration to these towns. Nowadays, there are few remaining pockets of ethnic Chinese that live in these small rural Chinatowns. The extant Chinese American population in these particular rural Chinatowns is aging and slowly dying out.Or|date=September 2008

Urban and suburban Chinatowns: old vs. new

Sources: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Citizenship and Immigration Canada

ee also