The NYLA examines the differences in dynamics over the years of the Chinese communities both in New York city and Los Angeles.

– In New York City, the Downtown Manhattan Chinatown used to be the main center of Chinese immigrants, the heart of their community. These old-time immigrants’ societies used to be extremely closed and culture-focused. This was a consequence to the Chinese Exclusion Acts and the many difficulties that the Chinese immigrants were faced with that forced them to alienate from the rest of the American society. As many changes to the city came about in the years, such as 9/11, the development of a strong real estate market and increase in the number of Chinese immigrants themselves, the way these Asian communities were structured change drastically. People started moving to Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn.  The new wave of immigrants were young, skilled workers who were more willing to interlace with the American society and uniform. The Chinese community grew stronger, politically active and socially involved with the whole neighborhood as a whole rather than just with their co-ethnics. Instead of just family-owned small businesses, the new Chinese communities are dynamic, modern and globally linked.

– As a parallelism, in Los Angeles something similar happened. Monterey Park went from a small, quiet, mostly white community, to a 24-hour active, Chinese neighborhood. As the prices of homes became more affordable and these immigrants started moving into this area, they shaped the community according to factors that include their skills, interests and the economy. Just like New York, skilled workers with college degrees was the main characterization of the new wave of immigrants, allowing for more entrepreneurship, opening businesses and building huge residential complexes that modernized and refaced the community completely. Just like in Flushing and Sunset Park, the Chinese population living in the Monterey Park became more politically and socially active, motivated by the ease the government gave them in becoming permanent residents, which allowed them to be extremely politically successful and interactive with the neighborhood community in a very productive way.

Sara Camnasio