Chinatown Evolution
From Decoding New York
The Chinatown neighborhood in Manhattan started as a four block area across from Canal Street from Little Italy. The small neighborhood grew to ten blocks in the 1940s, and now it stretches from Grand Street to Broadway and from Delancey Street to South Street. Back before World War II, Chinatown was a "bachelor's society" that housed 100 women per 603 men. After the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 it made it easier for more immigrants to come to America with their families, and many settled in New York which already had a sizeable Chinese population. Today, Chinatown is home to more than 200,000 people. Chinatown's residents originally came from Hong Kong and the Guangdong (Canton) province in mainland China, which created the beginnings of Chinatown's dominant Cantonese culture. Most residents speak Cantonese today, creating the feel of a closed society to those without the language. More recently immigrants began coming from the rest of mainland China and Taiwan, introducing more frequent use of the Mandarin dialect. In this sense Chinatown in Manhattan has developed a unique characteristic of internal diversity, encompassing different dialects, religions, and sub-cultures from different parts of China. This is a very different place from the Chinatown a century ago where the majority of the population were Cantonese males. In addition the attitudes of other Americans towards Chinatown have changed over time. A century ago many Americans considered these immigrants in Chinatown "unassimilated" and unable to become Americans. Today Chinatown often serves as the first stop for new immigrants as they accumulate money to move out to other communities in Brooklyn, Queens, or New Jersey.
