The Rising Price of New Immigrants from China
Aaron Yam
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. The Cultural Revolution in China attributes to this disconnect because in the Cultural Revolution, old traditions that were practiced at the time were frowned upon by the government. It was like the purging of traditions. 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. People who open up stores in Chinatown now a days open stores with the mindset of catering to Western norms and culture. The interest in old traditions have dropped sharply since the Cultural Revolution. 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
