An Expedition Into Chinatown https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc MCHC 1002 Tue, 23 May 2017 01:23:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5829/2017/04/16143852/cropped-asdf-32x32.jpg An Expedition Into Chinatown https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc 32 32 Reflection Paper-Megan Jean Louis https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/22/reflection-paper-megan-jean-louis/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/22/reflection-paper-megan-jean-louis/#respond Mon, 22 May 2017 23:04:52 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=356 Chinatown, for  me is a mixed neighborhood just like any other. In Chinatown and beyond: The Chinese Population in Metropolitan New York, it states that a longitudinal study of the rate changing racial or ethnic composition of New York Chinatown cannot be done because of the lack of data, and it made me pause. It reminds me of the repressive governments that we used to and continue to live under. It also makes me have more hope for the future, in regards to how new and open minds can tackle the problem. That we can continue to try and rectify the mistakes of our past. In the past it was stated that the entire triangular space of Mott, Pell, and Doyers Streets including Chatham Square was basically for people from China. While many would characterize it as a self-imposed segregation, I would refer to it as a form of self-preservation from others. That same area is still the core of Chinatown but it’s starting to give way to a mixed neighborhood. Regardless of make up, Chinatown is probably more diverse than some states in the union.

Chinatown in New York provides recreational, financial, and other services for east Asians in the metropolitan area. My experience in Chinatown observing them and speaking to certain people have guided my belief that this ethnic enclave indoor for time to come make stronger decisions on what will happen in the future. However, Chinatown is changing as people with higher income, education, occupation tends to move near the city. Students also tend to live around institutions of higher education which are mostly uptown as opposed to downtown/ Lower East Side where Chinatown exists. As the younger generation tends to move away from Chinatown as it attempted to be a land of tradition as opposed to a land of the future where many Chinese Americans who become enveloped in the idea of Americanism begin to downplay the importance of some portions of their cultural heritage. I would assume that in the future the Chinese population will be dispersed over the metropolitan area.

 

Chinatown is a site that structures and also signifies the incorporation of Chinese immigrants inter-American society. As an urban area, New York’s Chinatown is familiar for its residential tenant buildings, loft manufacturing sweatshops, restaurants and street markets. The district is jammed vigorously into the southern pocket of Manhattan’s lower East side. The labor power of its industrious people have constructed an ethnic enclave that is the center of economic and social life for the Chinese population through out the New York City metropolitan area. To the people that live in Chinatown, it represents not just a productive arena but, from what I heard after speaking with a shopkeeper, a place of “cultural significance” and a quote “community of symbolic and sentimental value”.

 

For many who live outside of New York’s Chinatown, Chinatown has historically been inscribed as an overcrowded, dilapidated place, plagued with vice and social wretchedness. Personally, I tack that onto the anti-Oriental images of the late 19th-century. However, the end of ongoing durability of negative mental constructions is evident in a variety of ways. In many of the prime time television shows that are placed in New York, Chinatown has been viewed as an are hiding its crime, Implicating Chinatown as a place beset with social problems as well as undocumented immigrants. Even last year Fox News approached elderly Asian people and mocked them on television. After approaching many other Chinese Americans who lived in Chinatown for decades, I met a woman that I purposely kept out of my field notes. She spoke to me about how the US immigration policies in 1965 were the set of laws that provided the opportunity for American Chinatown to become family centered communities. New York’s Chinatown began to grow expansively in the nation’s largest Chinese American settlement, absorbing both legal and illegal migrants. I believe that the source of the changes from the United States government’s outlook on Chinese migrants is born from the alliance between the United States and China during World War II because it created a favorable diplomatic climate and Congress had rescinded the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943(King).

 

 Chinatown is a very singular place in the way that it created a home away from home for its people. After traveling through Chinatown and feeling like an outsider looking in, I believe that there’s so much that every culture has in common with another. While the foods and language may be different, the sense of family remains. My ideas about Chinatown weren’t challenged because I already knew that there was nothing wrong with it.  Chinatown will continue to an area of immense importance to Chinese Americans regardless of gentrification and revamping(Sze). I am of the mind that Chinatown is just going to evolve, and that the next generation will care more for its protection.

 

Works Cited

  • Yuan, D. Y. “Chinatown and Beyond: The Chinese Population in Metropolitan New York.” 27.4
    (1966): 321-32. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
  • Lin, Jan. Reconstructing Chinatown: ethnic enclaves and global change. Vol. 2. U of Minnesota Press, 1998.
  • King, Haitung, and Frances B. Locke. “Chinese in the United States: A Century of Occupational Transition.” The International Migration Review, vol. 14, no. 1, 1980, pp. 15–42.,
  • Sze, Lena. “Chinatown Then and Neoliberal Now: Gentrification Consciousness and the Ethnic-Specific Museum.” Identities, 17:5 (2010): 510-529, EBSCO. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.
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A Trip down Mott Street(Field Note#1) https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/22/a-trip-down-mott-streetfield-note1/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/22/a-trip-down-mott-streetfield-note1/#respond Mon, 22 May 2017 17:19:02 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=347

After researching Chinatown, I realized that there was one common theme; Mott Street. Mott Street, for me, is a shopping street. Large stands with designer knockoff bags, electronics, scarves, gloves, and other souvenirs.  In my first trip to Chinatown, I mostly saw fruit sellers, fishmongers and butchers. This area is where you allow your culinary imagination to run wild.  On certain blocks, open fish markets are extremely lively. Auctioning off the freshest catches create lots of discussions over pricing. An elderly woman who ran a certain fruit stand on Mott Street gave me a dragon fruit to  try. It has a pretty sweet flavor and lots of health benefits. They also had red dragon or pink dragon; with the pink being more tangy as opposed to the sweeter red dragon fruit.

South of Canal Street are more restaurants and small specialty shops with antiques, dresses, housewares, and items for cooking. A few of the dim sum restaurants , I’ve been told by friends, are on par with any in Hong Kong. Most stick with the shrimp and beef dumplings, but others will start off with marinated chicken feet and chicken tripe.

Mott Street also contains the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.  With over forty exotic flavors, you can always find something new to try. Its extremely experimental with new flavors appearing every few months. The shop is usually packed but certain days you can go straight from the line they also have flavors that are favored by Americans, such as chocolate, vanilla, Oreos, cookies and cream etc. It is pricey, mostly because of its type in the media. But it never disappoints.  For over 30 years, this family ice cream shop has been serving their homemade ice cream from Chinatown.

Mott St  is Chinatown’s unofficial Main Street. It runs from Chatham in the south to Bleecker Street in the north. Mott Street has existed in this way  since the mid 18th century. Mott Street feels like it was built around natural landscapes rather than running through or over them.  One interesting featuring of Chinatown and ethnic enclaves in general, are their proximity to each other.  Mott Street north of Canal Street was historically part of Little Italy. It is now predominately Chinese. This section of Mott Street between roughly Canal and Broome Streets has a number of Chinese- owned fish and vegetable markets, as well as some remaining Italian businesses. Regardless, Mott street is an important fixture in how Chinatown functions.

 

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Reflection Paper: Grace Paré https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/19/reflection-paper-grace-pare/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/19/reflection-paper-grace-pare/#respond Fri, 19 May 2017 23:29:04 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=314 When I planned my first trip to Chinatown, I found myself unsure about what places I would go to see. Looking over a few Chinatown travel guide websites, I realized that most of the places suggested were restaurants or more modern dessert spots or specialty stores. I was puzzled about the lack of diversity in this representation, but soon realized that anyone looking to be guided on a visit to Chinatown online was most likely a tourist who would want to be entertained and experience something recognizably Chinese. Having visited Chinatown before this project many times, however, I knew about little cobblestone side streets off of Canal and Bowery that were full of small shops. The online representations were guides for a superficial experience of the neighborhood. It was important to recognize that this was the image that outsiders, such as non-New Yorkers, or non-Chinese people, would get on a first visit. To get the view of a true visitor, I decided to go to some of the more popular and visible sites.

Honestly, I did not enjoy these spots as much as the rave reviews online prepped me to. Munchie’s Paradise, which came to New York in 2000, seemed insipid and overly expensive compared to the street carts I had just passed which offered pounds of fruit for pocket change (Jay, par.3). I could see, however, that if I had come with the expectation only to get something Chinese, I would have been more than satisfied with the store. It was brightly colored; dozens of bins of snacks and candy lined the walls. The candy mostly conformed to the general flavor canon of green tea, red bean, pudding, and milk, that I had experienced innumerable times before in every Asian market. The people in this shop were all clearly from other neighborhoods or even other states. Every single person who was in that store took pictures of the rows of candy on their phones or cameras.

I’ve always had a certain amount of disdain for people who go into a neighborhood trying to get an “authentic” experience. Firstly, a day spent in the neighborhood is definitely not sufficient to get a grasp of the lives of the people who live and work there. Secondly, people seeking to get an “authentic” experience often start with incorrect assumptions of the culture, and expect something exotic, while these people may, in fact, live very similar lives to themselves. Thirdly, I don’t think that a neighborhood should be diminished into an experience, just something to be enjoyed. If one wants to enjoy a place, they should also care about and support the people who make up the neighborhood. This lies in the same vein as the issue with people who support Trump’s deportation laws and wall building, but still want to use Mexican culture when Cinco de Mayo comes around. However, as I had a limited number of trips that I would be able to make to Chinatown, I felt that I would be guilty of some of these offences. I would have to plan day trips that I thought would encompass as much of Chinatown as I could. However, the concept of Chinatown is a difficult one. Would I try to visit as many small businesses as I could? Should I target stores that were everyday stops for a resident there? Or should I focus on the experience of the main customers: the tourists and the young people who came for the trendy restaurants? I resolved to visit a couple of each of these sorts of places. Munchie’s Paradise was my tourist stop, an unnamed bakery and Elizabeth Street Deluxe Market were my everyday stops, and Mahayana Buddhist temple was my attempt to learn more about those who hold tightly to their culture and religion. It was very difficult for me to talk to residents there, because I do not speak Chinese, and most of them do not speak English, and even if they did, they were often irritated or too busy to speak to me.

One of the most common types of businesses in Chinatown is the small bakery. These places often sell lunches in addition to cake and bread, and so have become a regular stop for many Chinese residents and other people who work in the area. I stopped by one of these, and had quite an interesting experience as I tried to explain to the lady at the counter what I wanted. She did not speak English, and there were no signs in English, so the best I could do was point and gesture. Language was certainly one of the biggest setbacks during this entire experience. Without the ability to interview people who were running the places I visited, I certainly missed out a lot on the opportunities to gain insight into their lives and their thoughts on the changes taking place in their own neighborhood.

The visit to the market was chaotic and a little dizzying. The place was packed, and I realized, most acutely, that I did not belong there. I went in to visit, but there was no such thing as a casual visit in this place. The crowd was mostly women, all middle aged or older, who were buying pounds of meat, and huge bunches of leafy green vegetables, perhaps part of a weekly shopping routine. I came in with the intent of seeing a spot that was truly unique in its “Asianness”, and I definitely got what I asked for. I was not the cool calm observer I had imagined myself to be. I was pushed this way and that by the crowd, and I was overwhelmed by the action around me. In the process of going to study people, there is a danger of setting yourself up as a little god, picking and choosing which people you’d like to see that day, and scribbling down little notes of approval or disapproval as you strut through their home. This market certainly put me in my place. There was no pretense of control I could muster. They didn’t care about my interests, and they weren’t interested in what I cared. After a minute or so of spinning about in the crowd, I decided to put away my notebook and become part of it. I pushed my way through and bought some food like I was supposed to. I think I’ve learned that it’s pretty silly to expect to go to a bustling market and stand on the side making little notes. I don’t think that it’s effective to learn about a community just by watching stuff play out in front of you. Anthropology requires the researcher to not only observe, but also participate in the daily activities of the people they study (“Intro to Anthropology”). I couldn’t do this for as long as a real anthropologist would, but just to experience a few minutes along with people who really lived and worked in Chinatown was better than only peering in on them from the outside.

 

Thinking back over the visits I took to Chinatown, I can’t really say whether I’ve had an “authentic” experience or not. I don’t know if that word can ever be used to describe an experience that an outsider takes into a cultural center where they have little knowledge or experience of the lives of the people who really live, work, eat, and learn there. The food I ate may be authentic, and the temple I visited may have been authentic, but my experience was just a superficial scraping of the depth that the Chinese community there lives every day. Now that Chinatown is a destination, and not a “ghetto” like dumping ground for the immigrants that Americans wanted to ignore, much of what is really organic and natural in this neighborhood may disappear, or be banished to little corners of the city, just as all of Asian culture used to be (Lee 422). My hope is that the increased visibility of Asian culture will cause people to become more accepting of all of it, even the parts that might offend Western tastes, sights, and smells, but this is unlikely, given the trends of gentrification that I have seen, as businesses begin to clean themselves up for the White middle class, rather than the White middle class educating themselves on the worth of deep cultural identity.

My visits to Brooklyn Chinatown were made a little bittersweet by this realization. This Chinatown is relatively untouched by gentrification, and I could see that the one in Manhattan could have been like this at one time, more blatantly Chinese, with crazy smells and sounds coming from every corner: old men playing Chinese music on ancient radios as they sold herbal remedies on the sidewalk, women shouting out the prices of the food they were selling, children yelling and running along the street, and grandmas haggling with street vendors. The entire place was like the Elizabeth Street Deluxe Market. As an American born and raised, I was more uncomfortable here, since there was less of a chance of anyone knowing English, and I had no idea what many of the items for sale were. However, I could recognize that this was more of a home to its people. There was no show put on for the uninitiated. While many people believe that immigrants should assimilate to American culture when the live here, I see no possible loss if they don’t. Through exposure to another culture, I gain understanding that people can think and act and live in ways wildly different from my own. There is less value in a community where culture has been stripped to be replaced by cheap commercialism and capitalist overtures to tourists. I want Brooklyn Chinatown to remain what it is, for my sake, just as much as for theirs. 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

“Introduction to Anthropology”. University of Toronto. 2003. http://individual.utoronto.ca/boyd/anthro4.htm. Date Accessed 19 May 2017.

Jay, Ben. “A Tour of Aji Ichiban, an Asian Snack Paradise in New York”. Serious Eats. n.d. http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2014/02/a-tour-of-aji-ichiban-the-asian-candy-havens-outpost-in-nyc.html. Date Accessed 10 May 2017.

 

Lee, Rose Hum. “The Decline of Chinatowns in the United States”. American Journal of Sociology. vol. 54, no. 5. March 1949. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2771160.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aebd01f687f22917b4c8fe80e4f90ea72. Date Accessed 19 May 2017

 

McCarthy, Ciara. “Chinatown is Being Taken Over By Wealthy White Gentrifiers, City Report Says”. Lower East Side Patch. 26 April 2017. https://patch.com/new-york/lower-east-side-chinatown/chinatown-being-taken-over-white-wealthy-gentrifiers-city-report. Date Accessed 10 May 2017.

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Field Trip: Chatting Over Ice Cream https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/19/field-trip-chatting-over-ice-cream/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/19/field-trip-chatting-over-ice-cream/#respond Fri, 19 May 2017 21:33:46 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=309 On my third visit to Chinatown, I was determined to get an interview. I had previously been unsuccessful because of the language barrier that existed between me and all the business owners I had come across. I now planned to find an English speaking visitor and ask them what they thought of the gentrification I had read so much about in my research.

I intentionally decided to visit a tourist attraction in order to ensure that I would find some English speakers. It was a warm day, so I decided to go to the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. The place is a small, slightly dingy establishment sheltered by a yellow awning with green dragon on it.

There’s no seating, but many people stand in or around the store as they eat their ice cream. I paid $5 for a single scoop, which seemed like a lot at the time, but the first bite I took was enough to justify the price. The ice cream is rich and intensely flavorful. The rose lychee scoop I had was exactly what rose and lychee should taste like, but made even better by the thick cream. I just stood in the shop for a bit as I ate it, and scoped out potential interviewees. A couple other customers walked in while I was there, but they seemed in a rush, so I let them pass. Finally, when I began to think that I should get going and try somewhere else, a group of three men came in who joked around a bit with each other and seemed like they were going to hang out there for a bit. I started off with a question about their ice cream, then asked if I could do a quick interview. They obliged.

The group was made up of two White men, Jake and Evan, and one Asian man, John, all within the age range of 26-35. They were coworkers at an office on Mott Street, and they came to Chinatown regularly for lunch. I wasn’t able to get a recording of the interview since they didn’t have too much time, so I quickly asked a couple questions and wrote down paraphrases of their answers after they left.

I first asked them how long they had been visiting Chinatown. I wanted to know if they would have had a chance to observe long term changes in the area. John had come to the neighborhood a lot as a kid, and Jake used to date a girl there, so both had known Chinatown for about 15-20 years. I asked if they had seen any changes, but they were confused by the question, so I specified that I was looking for signs of gentrification.

The guys were puzzled since they “thought this was the only neighborhood not getting gentrified, dude”. They claimed that the only difference they had seen was the increase in tourism along Canal and other main streets. I realized that a lot of the gentrification that was occurring, and that was evident in statistics was not necessarily obvious on the street level. However, as I walked to the train station on my way home, I saw a lot of new businesses that catered to a more modern and less traditional taste: bubble tea spots on ever block, fancy restaurants, bakeries with Western goods and multitudinous tourist souvenir shops. I think the process of gentrification happens  too slowly and steadily in some cases to be obvious. In Williamsburg, the coffee shops with mason jars and fancy roasts may stand out enough from the bodegas to be visible, but in Chinatown, the slow transition of businesses that were already there to cater to white middle class tastes will not be so apparent.

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A Field Trip to Three Very Different Places https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/18/food-where-you-expect-it-and-also-where-you-dont/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/18/food-where-you-expect-it-and-also-where-you-dont/#respond Thu, 18 May 2017 18:27:44 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=290 For my first visit to Chinatown, I planned to check out Aji Ichiban (better known as “Munchie’s Paradise”), Deluxe Market on Elizabeth Street, and Mahayana Buddhist Temple. I picked these spots, since the first one is a tourist attraction, the second is an everyday stop for Chinatown residents, and the third is a religious and cultural center, hoping that I’d be able to get a general feel of the different sections of Chinatown life.

Aji Ichiban (Munchie’s Paradise)

Sights

Aji Ichiban is a small store with a glass store front. When I walked in, I was immediately struck by how colorful everything was. There were rows of small bins, about a cubic foot large, lining the left wall, full of dried fruits, such as mango, papaya, kiwi, ginger, melon, and about ten different types of plums. Along the back, there were dried meats and fish. The center of the store had open top bins with wrapped candy, and closed bins with loose candy. These were all sorts of bright, artificial colors, and in all sorts of shapes: sharks, worms, peanuts, bears, bananas. The people in the store were about half Asian and half White. Most of the people were young adults, but there were also some mothers with children. The young adults all had their phones out to take pictures.

Sounds

The cashier and the other woman who worked there mainly spoke Chinese, so I wasn’t able to do an interview with them.  I heard a mix of Chinese and English from the rest of the people in the store. Some of the bins squeaked a bit when they were open- most of them weren’t new. The sounds of the street outside were audible. It was pretty busy despite being a small side street, with both foot traffic and delivery trucks.

Taste

There were little bowls on top of each closed bin (but not the ones with candy in them) that were filled with the chopped up contents of the bin. I tasted most of the dried fruit, and the plums, but I didn’t have the guts to try the fish. Dried fish is more of an Eastern snack. My Korean mom used to try to make me eat it because it’s apparently very healthy for you, but I never did. These bins told me that the store was still directed towards Asian palates, not just the young tourists who came for the green tea and red bean candy.

Elizabeth Street Deluxe Market

Sight

This indoor market is set up like a farmer’s market, with separate counters for all the different types of food it sells. There was a counter for meat, one for fish, one for vegetables, one for fruit and two for prepared foods. The floor was cement that had turned dark grey, and the lights were hanging fluorescents. The place was mostly crowded with middle aged Asian women around the raw food stalls, and a mix of men and women around the prepared food counters. I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to a counter where I bought some sushi rolls and a coconut red bean pudding. The place was visually overwhelming for me, but the other shoppers seemed comfortable as they found their way around through the crowd. They looked at ease, as if this was a normal stop for them. This market probably functions as a daily or weekly shopping stop for Chinatown residents.

Sound

The noise in this market was not incredibly loud, but it was a constant hum of voices and footsteps. I only heard Chinese spoken the entire time I was there. When I tried to speak in English to the cashier, they didn’t respond.

Smell

The strongest smell here was the prepared hot foods at the front of the market. I smelled soy sauce, garlic, and ginger from the steaming buffet. Near the vegetable counter, there was an earthy smell, and the smell of raw meat and fish was evident near the back of the market. The sushi I ate was pretty fresh, so it didn’t smell like much.

Taste

I had a pretty normal serving of sushi: just some salmon rolls. The coconut and red bean pudding was a strange experience, though. Unlike American pudding, which has a loose, custard like consistency, this seemed more like a coconut jello, with sweetened red beans throughout. It wasn’t very sweet, but I enjoyed it.

Mahayana Buddhist Temple

Sight

The exterior of this temple is a normal building front decorated with awnings in the shape of the sloping clay tiles of Chinese temples. The interior, however, is stunning. When I first entered, I was immediately drawn to a shrine on the right, which filled a room about 10′ by 12′. A golden Buddha, only a little smaller than life size sat at the back, and numerous plates of oranges, bottles of oil, and other food items were placed before it. On the left were stairs up to the temple gift shop and a couple offices. When I entered the main temple though an entrance at the back of the front space, I was awed. The ceiling was about three stories high, and at the back of the room was a Buddha statue that, even sitting, was almost twenty feet high. 

The room was covered in gold decoration and red carpet, seats, and curtains. In front of this Buddha, and at the back of this huge room, there were piles of oranges, cups of tea, bakery goods, and bottles of oil set down in offering. Along both sides of the wall were depictions of the life of Prince Siddhartha, the man who became the religious figure Buddha. These depictions were done artistically in metal on wooden boards. While I was there, a few older and middle aged women came in to pray and light incense. I didn’t want to disturb them, so I didn’t try to speak to any of them. This was clearly a sacred and solemn place for them.

Smell

One of the most striking things about the temple besides the magnificence of the visual display was the smell of the incense. This was a heavy perfumed scent, which sort of clouded my mind as I walked around the temple. I am already very sensitive to scents, but I knew that this was particularly strong.

Sound

Other than the prayers that the women were saying, I didn’t hear much. However, when I went up to the gift shop when I was about to leave, there was some droning music, which I took to be a religious song- it sounded similar to the music I had studied in a class before which was sacred Buddhist music.

 

Of all the places I visited, I was most impressed with the temple. The other two stops showed me how businesses serve tourists and the natives of Chinatown, but the temple showed me the enduring culture and religion which remains central in the lives of many residents. As I was leaving the temple, I noticed a wall covered in the names of deceased family members. These were left as prayers for those who had passed away. This temple is a stronghold of Chinese identity that serves the spiritual needs of Chinatown’s residents.

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The Rising Price of New Immigrants from China https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/13/the-rising-price-of-new-immigrants-from-china/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/13/the-rising-price-of-new-immigrants-from-china/#respond Sat, 13 May 2017 04:45:39 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=260 The Rising Price of New Immigrants from China

The gentrification that we see occurring in Chinatown does not only apply to the one in New York, but also in Chinatowns around the world, one of which being in Vancouver.  In the video above, the story behind the mass immigration of Chinese immigrants to Vancouver is unmasked. The cultural disconnect mentioned in the video is what most likely attributes to this new age of Chinatown. A lot of the trends that we observe like the growing disconnect between the new generation and the old traditions of China is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. This is most likely the reason why we are no longer seeing traditional Chinese stores opening up in Chinatown and instead seeing businesses start up with a growing distinction from their Chinese culture. There is also a growing influx of wealthy Chinese immigrants coming into neighborhoods like Chinatown and essentially buying it out for commercial intent. Chinatown is becoming more of an investment area than a residential area. Chinatown was not intended to be a commercial district. When the Chinese immigrants came into America, they were not living lavishly. They were living in poverty and worked hard to make ends meet. What we are seeing now a days is the steady decline of the traditional Chinese immigrants. Chinatown is losing its original purpose of keeping traditions alive and creating a environment deemed comfortable for other Chinese immigrants. Instead, Chinatown is now beginning to lose that purpose in that its becoming less and less affordable for Chinese immigrants to live in and that it is becoming more and more like a tourist attraction site. It has become a business.

What the future of Chinatown will look like The old building representing the old Chinatown and the new high rise buildings representing the new Chinatown

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The Tourist Experience(Field Note #2) https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/11/the-tourist-experiencefield-note-2/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/11/the-tourist-experiencefield-note-2/#respond Fri, 12 May 2017 00:05:39 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=232 During my second traipse through Chinatown, I wanted to get the true tourist experience. Many tour guides have all of the hotspots to get the “Chinatown Experience” and I intended to go all the way through. I started with the Manhattan House of Detention. Because the building was built to resemble an Egyptian mausoleum, the jail came to be called “The Tombs”. The original building was torn down and eventually a new modern Manhattan House of Detention was erected. It is still referred to as “the Tombs” by attorneys and prosecutors today.

 

After some time walking, I arrived at Columbus Park.

Many elderly Chinese people come to play cards and mahjong there.  During busy hours, you’re more likely to hear musicians singing traditional Chinese songs and playing lutes. Early in the mornings you may even spot a group of people doing tai-chi. The area where the park stands now and the surrounding streets was known as Five Points, an infamous, crime-ridden slum depicted in the book and movie Gangs of New York.  Using the map provided to me by a guide, I arrived at the Church of the Transfiguration (at the corner of Mosco and Mott Sts.).

This multi-denominational, multi-lingual church has served immigrants here for more than two centuries. The building was erected in 1801 by a Lutheran congregation. The church is still Roman Catholic but its congregation is mainly Chinese making it one of the largest Chinese Roman Catholic congregation in the Western world.  Sermons are held in English as well as two dialects of Chinese, Mandarin and Cantonese.

 

Aji Ichiban Candy Store 37 Mott Street

Despite the Japanese name, this Chinese chain of candy stores sells hundreds of kinds of Asian and Western candies and dried fruits, nuts, jerky, seafood and a fabulous selection of all things gummy! There are small sample dishes next to most items – I would ecommend you sample the pre-served rose petal, a wasabi peanut and the candied baby-crab.

Pell Street

This narrow colorful street, lined with 100 year old brick tenement apartment buildings, small storefronts and awnings and flags with Chinese writing is a favorite locale among photographers and filmmakers, as no street more than Pell screams out “This is Chinatown!”  Due to the numerous barber shops and hair salons, locals sometimes refer to Pell Street as ‘Barbershop Alley’. By the early 20th century, like many of the smaller streets branching off of Mott Street, Pell Street had its share of vice in the form of brothels, gambling houses, gang hideouts and opium dens, two of which were located at 11 and 13 Pell.

Shearith Israel Cemetery

This small, hardly noticeable sliver of land is the oldest cemetery in New York, dating back to 1683. At that time, this area was outside the boundaries of New York proper and thus suitable for a graveyard. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were the original founders of the Shearith Israel congregation, the only one in New York for nearly 200 years until 1825.  Though you cannot enter this tiny cemetery, you can see some headstones with Hebrew writing. This is one of the very few pre-colonial sites left in the city yet most New Yorkers have never heard of it. It is a treasure of history tucked away and should not be missed.

 

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Reflection Paper – Aaron Yam https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/09/reflection-paper/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/05/09/reflection-paper/#respond Tue, 09 May 2017 15:21:16 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=201 The project on Chinatown was an interesting one. It definitely had a significant impact on my perspective of Chinatown. Coming into this project, Chinatown was simply a comforting place for me to grab traditional food, but through this project, I have come to learn that Chinatown is much more than that and that  it is slowly fading away; at least what I considered to be Chinatown. Had it not been for this project, I would have stayed ignorant about the deeper meanings that Chinatown has and also what it truly means for the people living in it.

Coming into this project, I knew that there were several smaller sects of Chinatown in Flushing and in Sunset Park. These were places that contributed a significant part of my childhood because of its comforting environment. Visiting Chinatown, Flushing or Sunset Park felt more like a visit to China or Taiwan than it did to going to another neighborhood. These places are practically my second home because of how tight of a community it is. There were several cases where restaurant/store owners would know our family personally because of how frequently we came back to these places. I knew that these “Chinatowns” were cultural centers that preserved what was brought over from Asia. From food, to festivals to even language. I find it amazing that Chinatown was able to preserve many of its traditions despite the growing pressures from Americans and other ethnic influences.

The history of Chinatown is quite an interesting one. However, it didn’t start in New York. The origins of Chinatown goes back to the mid-1800’s when Chinese immigrants migrated to America in hopes of striking big with the gold rush. A large number of immigrants went to California and overtime, these immigrants migrated eastward in hopes of better opportunities. Some of these immigrants only came to America for a short time to profit a little bit of pocket change and then headed back to China. Others went into businesses in these gold hot spots such as textile workers, restaurant owners, and tobacco rolling. Unfortunately for the Chinese, they were heavily discriminated against by others because of the amount of jobs that they were taking. This discrimination is one of the biggest reasons for why Chinatown was formed. Chinese immigrants were more accepting of their own kin because of the fact that no one else was. Chinatown served as a sort of haven for Chinese people to live in. Even though there was not a lot of living space for the immigrants, Chinatown continued to thrive. This however, was quickly shut down when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, calling for the barring of naturalization for many Chinese immigrants, including the ones already in the United States. Because of this act, there was a huge hatred brewing in America for the Chinese and it persisted well into the early parts of the 1900’s. The act was lifted around World War 2 and this finally let the Chinese populace continue to grow. The Chinatown that we know of in New York, developed when a massive amount of Chinese immigrants bought out some land near Little Italy and flipped it to cater to the businesses they were trying to open. Some opened laundromats, some opened restaurants and other opened markets. There are other varieties, but the more general stores were the ones listed above. I have always wondered why most laundromat store owners and textile store owners were Chinese. A conclusion that I have reached through this project is that they were just the market-need at the time and the Chinese immigrant workers filled the niche. There is no particular reason for why they opened it other than just trying to make some money to survive in the brutal, harsh world they moved into. One of the biggest learning moments in this project for me was realizing the hardships and burden that the Chinese immigrants had to go through when first settling into Chinatown here in New York. I had always thought that the Chinese immigrants lived together in a neighborhood like that because they felt more comfortable doing so. I could not be more wrong about that. They had no choice as they were facing discrimination almost to the point of segregation. It was the only place where they can settle. The reason that there is a Flushing and Sunset Park “Chinatown” is because of overcrowding in the Chinatown in Lower Manhattan. The fact that two smaller Chinatown’s emerged from the original one just goes to show that there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in New York, but not enough room to house them all in one place.

Many of the stores in the early 2000’s were observed to be family owned businesses and were passed down from generation to generation. What I observed through this project, was that there was a shift in the market geared towards Westernization of Chinese traditions and culture. Even in my field visits, I had observed that many traditional stores were slowly closing down as corporate buildings, lavish building complexes and trendy stores for younger people took over the neighborhood by storm. In my first visit, most of the stores that I saw were traditional stores that had been in Chinatown for decades, but as I walked to the edges of Chinatown, most of the stores looked relatively new and had more of a Western atmosphere feel to it. Through this project, I have come to the conclusion that a major part of this shift in the target market was influenced by the Cultural Revolution in China. Post-Cultural Revolution, immigrants were still flowing into the United States in the thousands. The damage caused by the Cultural Revolution led to a new era for Chinese people everywhere. There seemed to be an invisible, but strong disconnect between the younger generation and the generations preceding it. The interest in traditional culture was slowly dropping in number as younger generations wanted to be more involved in Western cultures. Since the appealing of the Exclusion Act of 1882, relations with the Chinese immigrants have gradually rekindled meaning the integration of Chinese culture into American culture. However, this is still an issue that remains today as Chinese people are not fully integrated into American society. Chinese people still face issues in the food industry, movie industry and much more. In the case of food industry, Chinese food has only been viewed as dumplings and noodles, but a large portion of Chinese food is still unappealing to the vast majority. In the movie industry, many Chinese actors and Chinese based-stories are white-washed. Another issue that has been more recent is the resurgence of hate for the Chinese because of the recent presidential campaign. Trump’s campaign consisted of making America great again, which included bringing back jobs to America and a lot of bashing on China. Because of this campaign, there seemed to be a revival in disapproval of Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants living among us. A lot of these issues frustrate me when I read about it in articles or on the newspapers. This project helped guide me in the direction to the root of the problem. This sort of apartheid present in America stems back all the way to when Chinese immigrants first arrived in the mid-1800’s. Just like any other issue that has roots stretching back centuries, it will be an issue that will take some time to resolve.

To conclude, Chinatown has a long history of struggle and it there are still remnants of that struggle here today, just not as visible as it was back then. Chinatown’s struggle should be a story that everyone knows about because only then, can we truly appreciate what Chinatown has to offer.

Sources Used to Guide Reflection

  • “New York Chinatown History.” New York. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2017
  • Cuozzo, Steve. “Chinatown Slowly Losing Its Charm – and Its Restaurants.” New York Post. New York Post, 09 Feb. 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017
  • Chu, Peter. “‘The Best Coffee in Flushing’ Shuts Down.” Showcasing the Best of the Community and Ethnic Media. Voices of NY, 1 Mar. 2017. Web. 07 Apr. 2017
  • China’s Millionaire Migration. Youtube. SBS Dateline, 7 June 2016. Web. 1 May 2017
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The Tale of Two Chinatowns https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/04/28/the-tale-of-two-chinatowns/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/04/28/the-tale-of-two-chinatowns/#respond Fri, 28 Apr 2017 18:08:26 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=166 Coming up out of the Canal Street subway station is an ordeal. After jostling with jaded New Yorkers on the train, you find yourself in what I like to call the “tourist trap”. On your right is a girl in a sundress and a floppy straw hat. She’s in New York with her best friend, who dresses identically. On your left is a Brazilian couple (But you’re not sure; you’re terrible with languages), which continues to pour over a subway map long after leaving the train car. And in front of you is the mother of all tourists: the midwestern family. The mother has at least 8 water bottles strapped to different parts of her body. She’s a hydration machine. The father has a baseball cap, white New Balances, cargo shorts and a camera on a strap around his neck. The kids are sunburnt, sweaty. They’re fighting. Try as you might, you cannot escape this posse, slowly strolling as they gaze with wonder at the gritty authenticity of the Manhattan Underground.
You weren’t ready for this. You never are. But when you emerge from the station, dancing with impatience behind the hydration machine and the very daddish dad, you realize that the neighborhood is. The first thing you see is a gift shop. Next door, there’s another. And next to that, there’s a restaurant advertising all you can eat buffet dinners for the low price of $14.99. This place is a tourist heaven. Everyone in the family can get an “I *heart* NY” tee shirt, a keychain, a fan with a vaguely Chinese pattern, sunglasses, fake jewelry, toys, and millions of other things, then skip on over for a New York Chinese dinner. It’s a perfect set up.
It would be wrong for me to report that the only businesses in Manhattan Chinatown are gift shops and restaurants. There are, of course, vegetable markets, doctors’ offices, tutoring classrooms, herbal shops, and many other places that make it possible for those who live there to survive. However, the majority of these “everyday” stops are on the side streets, removed from the hoards that pour out of the train stations. The businesses that survive on the major streets are ones that cater to tourists: professional shoppers. Further down, towards the Manhattan Bridge entrance, there are a slew of jewelry shops, offering everything from jade statues to engagement rings. Situated along Bowery, this is a perfect mall of expensive souvenirs.
After the gift shops and restaurants of Canal Street, nothing is more shocking than the humble, but bustling economy of the Chinatown in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. A walk from 68th to 55th Street along this packed avenue reveals a consistent pattern of three sorts of stores: fish and meat markets, vegetable stores, and bakeries. Also strown among these thriving businesses are herbal remedy pharmacies, clothing boutiques, and cosmetic shops. Every single one of these businesses is full, and the crowds are no less intimidating that those in Manhattan, but unlike those diverse masses, the only languages audible are Chinese dialects. During my entire visit, I only came across three people who weren’t Chinese. This Chinatown is full of its own residents — it is a place to live, not a place to visit. The shops do not clean themselves up to become Insta-worthy for visitor. There are goods in cardboard boxes, food on plastic tables and even live fish in styrofoam bins (one of which escaped and briefly flopped on the sidewalk for a few glorious seconds before he was unceremoniously thrown back in). The stuff is cheap. Money flows around at lightning speed as grandmothers buy hunks of beef for dinner, school kids grab some cookies on their way to the tutor, workers on break order fish balls on sticks at street carts, and middle aged women purchase face cream. The stores are for the people who live there. There are no signs of “I *heart* NY” logos anywhere, and even the restaurants advertise their dishes in Chinese.
I am tempted to say that I like the Chinatown on 8th ave better because it’s so “authentic”. It certainly is; there are no facades, no attractions, no money traps. But I fear that my judgement is made with the arrogant assumption of tourism, that I, an outsider, can get a fully real experience of another culture, if I just find a good, unadulterated place to visit. Brooklyn Chinatown does not ask for tourists to come and validate its existence as Manhattan Chinatown does. In the presence of a real, self sufficient place like 8th ave, I feel that my opinion is of little value. There are people who live and make their living there, without any help from Brazilian couples or Midwestern families. I like it more than I like the one in Manhattan, but it doesn’t need me to.

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Chinatown Before Us https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/04/24/field-visit-031017/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/2017/04/24/field-visit-031017/#respond Tue, 25 Apr 2017 01:14:52 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ayampplnyc/?p=70 March 10th was arguably one of the coldest days of the week. The forecast for the day was expecting some snow fall, but luckily enough, it didn’t snow. Nonetheless, the temperature was still frigid. My field visit starts at the Canal Street station on Canal Street and Broadway. I met up with one of my high school friends to explore the area. We headed down Canal street towards Centre Street. Since March 10th fell on a Friday, we saw a good amount of people around Canal Street and Broadway. However, this would soon change as we walked further into Chinatown. On Canal Street we saw many commercial buildings such as banks and corporate businesses. Around Canal and Centre Street, we saw some graffiti on the building walls, though the theme wasn’t anything related particularly with Chinatown. This corner of Canal and Centre Street reeked of cigarettes, but this wouldn’t be the last place where we smelled a lot of smoke. We noticed that in the distance, we could see a lot of condominiums being build around this neighborhood.

As we walked further down along Canal Street, we saw many stores that were targeting tourists. There were many stores with the “I Love New York” tee-shirts hanging in the front. These convenience stores had almost anything in stock from hats to toys to bags. It makes sense that this tourist shop area was relatively close to the border of Chinatown, close to Soho (one of the points of interest of New York). I have noticed that Chinatown has been changing its target market in the past few years. Going from selling traditional foods and items to selling items that Westerners find more appealing. Stores are trying to renovate their property in order to have a more attractive outlook than its older self. We observed this as we walked further down the block. We started to see more family owned restaurants and bakeries, but one bakery we saw looked slightly more modern than traditional Chinese bakeries looked like. Perhaps this was Chinatown’s way of trying to adapt to the changing market conditions: young, hip and edgy environments. Within the past decade, numerous hip and trendy restaurants began to spring to life in Chinatown; particularly dessert spots. It should be noted that the prices of the pastries here in this store is slightly more expensive than that of traditional Chinese bakeries. Aside from the smell of cigarettes, a fishy smell came into the spotlight. We spotted a local supermarket near our current location where the seafood was laid out in front of the store. On the inside, other products that you would normally find in the typical American supermarket were found. The sort of things we were able to hear were a multitude of conversations going on at the same time, but mostly in Chinese. These conversations ranged from which fish was the best for soup to healthcare.

At this point we were around Canal Street and Baxter Street. We noticed that there were a lot of students in the area in groups. We also noticed that the population was a lot more diverse than we had expected. Normally Chinatown is full of people of Asian backgrounds, but we saw a good mix of ethnic backgrounds. Chinatown is becoming more and more diverse. It is no longer the neighborhood full of Chinese, but rather, it is a tourist attraction now. I think a big factor that attributes to this is the new trendy food places opening up. Some of the places opening up no longer have Chinese-only menus, but rather cater to the whole American community. English menus to flavors geared more towards Western taste, Chinatown is changing to fit Westerner’s liking. We also observed that there was a lot of sewage water on the curbs. This may have been from the rain from the previous day. What I do notice is that this sort of sewage is always present in Chinatown. Chinatown isn’t as clean as other parts of Manhattan like the financial district or places like Times Square. It kind of makes you wonder why Chinatown is treated differently than the other neighborhoods. Does it mean less to others? Does it look like it holds less value than the other neighborhoods? As we walked further down along Canal Street, we saw a lot of jewelry stores and banks. There were a sprinkle of pharmacies, skin care stores, pedicure parlors, herbal stores and also martial arts equipment stores. We turned on Mott Street and walked down the blocks. We encountered a lot of family owned businesses on this street. From noodle shops to cafes to a candy shop. This candy shop in particular was called Aji Ichiban. On the inside there was an abundance of different candies lined up on the shelves. We could see the whole spectrum of the rainbow in this store. I wanted to interview the shop keeper, but she only knew Chinese. She looked to be a sweet middle-aged to elderly woman. She was more than happy to answer any questions I had. I asked her a couple of questions pertaining to the store and the surrounding area. She said that the store was open for about 20 years and that Chinatown was nothing special to her. It was just a neighborhood with a lot of Chinese people. She did mention that in the past couple of years, the population of Chinatown has dropped. Our next stop was to a nearby park called Columbus Park. On our way to the park, we saw more and more family owned restaurants and even some floral shops. There were several funeral homes along the street of the park.

At the park, there were mostly middle-school and high-school students playing leisurely sports. On another side of the park, there were elderly people gambling and playing cards or chess. We were able to pick up another interview. This time it was with three high school students. They were not from the area, but they were familiar with Chinatown. They said that they would frequent Chinatown as little kids, but now they only come once in a while to hang out. One of them said that she came to Chinatown every week for church. From their responses, I got the feeling that Chinatown was more than just a food center and housing for Chinese people. This was a safe haven that Chinese people frequent. It is like a protected community sheltered by the people that make it. The image that I was getting from Chinatown was morphing into something much more than just food.

After this interview, my friend and I were pretty hungry so we walked around the corner to a store called C Bao Asian Bun. It was a small modern looking street food store. They specialized in steamed buns, but it wasn’t completely traditional. Traditional steamed buns are served with pork belly, but this store was taking it to the next level. They substituted the pork belly with many different kinds of meats from: Peking duck, crispy chicken, Hong Kong crispy pork, crispy fish, soft shell crab to even Korean beef bulgogi. It seemed like the store was trying to cater to a younger generation with this menu. Some traditional stores only sold a few items on the menu, but this store was trying to branch out and give more of a variety. I interviewed the store cashier. She spoke Chinese and English fluently. The other workers did not know English that well. The questions were similar to that of previous interviews. Her response was that Chinatown was like a home to her and that in recent years, many restaurants are catering towards a new market niche. They have more Americanized flavors and are more of a Asian-fusion type of restaurant than purely traditional (Much like the store she was working in). She also believed that the future of Chinatown was going to be gentrified. I do agree with her there as I can see Chinatown slowly shrinking in size on the maps. It is slowly losing its charms from the late 1900’s.

Our last stop was to a restaurant called Shanghai Asian Manor. A medium-sized restaurant with semi-bright colored walls. There was a very warm vibe to this restaurant. One thing that I noted was that the main language spoken here in this restaurant by the customers and waiters/waitresses was Cantonese. The place smelled like vinegar with infused spices. From what I know from experience, social gatherings revolved around food. From weddings to casual meet ups, it was almost usually at a restaurant. We ordered soup dumplings and scallion pancakes. These are normally breakfast items in China, but I wanted my friend to try out some of the foods that Chinatown had to offer. The food was extremely aromatic and had a strong flavor to it. We were extremely satisfied with what we had and also the price of the meal. From here, we walked back to the train station to head home. The cold weather stayed unchanged, but so did the life of Chinatown. It persisted into the night as far as we observed. What else awaits for us when we come back?

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