American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods

Bonnie Tsui has composed a very readable history of someplace many (including me) have taken for granted - Chinatowns. Rather than being comprehensive, Tsui has wisely focused on 5 Chinatowns, 4 of historical significance - New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu, and the newest entry in the group, Las Vegas. Each neighborhood gets its own section of the book. She discusses the historical context of each Chinatown, but the "People's History" mentioned in the title is the more compelling part of the story. Tsui tells the stories of the people who currently either live in, or hang out in each Chinatown. She also tells her family's personal history and their relationship with New York's Chinatown. Although each of these have changed in nature and population through time, they have also always served as a safe spot and beacon for new immigrants and Americans of Chinese descent. The charm of this book is how the different stories come alive. After reading it, you will never see a Chinatown the same, and it will be a much richer experience because of that.

Notwithstanding the subtitle, this book is more a documentary-style survey than a history. The author conducted a large number of interviews with people living in or connected with Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Las Vegas. Some insights about the history of these various Chinatowns emerged, but the book is primarily an oral history of various people's experiences with Chinatown, most of it from a contemporary perspective. My favorite was the Los Angeles segment, largely because of the description of how the film business has impacted Chinatown over the years. Opportunities for Chinese-American actors to play leading roles were rare until recently. Even when a film was set in Asia, the leading roles would often go to Caucasian actors in "yellowface." But there was also opportunity in these films for residents of the Los Angeles Chinatown, as extras in a "cast of thousands." Hilariously enough, during filming, sometimes the whole population of Chinatown ended up at the film studio playing Chinese peasants. It was a good way to pick up a little extra money. Tsui does a good job describing the paradoxes of Chinatown. To big-city Chinese visiting America, Chinatown looks dirty, shabby, and old-fashioned. Their Chinese cities are clean, modern, and convenient, sometimes more so than American cities. The iconic "oriental" look of San Francisco's Chinatown is not its original incarnation. Before the earthquake of 1906, Chinatown just looked, architecturally-speaking, like part of the Old West. After the earthquake, in an effort to win goodwill for Chinese-Americans in San Francisco, Chinatown's backers had white architects construct the area's "Oriental" look that we associate with Chinatown today. Fortune cookies, of course, are not Chinese but Chinese-American, and people from various parts of China often feel less than fully at home in restaurants run by immigrants from another region. Chinatown tends to take on the local flavor of the location where it is found. Nowhere is this true more than the last two Chinatowns studied, Honolulu and Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Chinatown is found inside a mall constructed specifically for that purpose and carefully promoted by politically-astute backers. New immigrants are essential to keeping a thriving Chinatown going, even though they often suffer the worst living conditions. "American Chinatown" wasn't exactly what I expected, but I felt like I learned a lot about how Chinatown works in today's world and about how people feel about it. It's a fast read and an interesting one.

I grew up in San Francisco's satellite Chinatown mentioned in this book - the Richmond District. I was one of the few white kids in my school, and grew up eating dim sum and snacking on Haw Flakes and Pocky sticks. After moving away ten years ago to a small, mostly white town in far Northern Cali, I long for the sights and sounds of the neighborhood where I grew up. The author is Chinese, but sounds like she had a similar experience growing up in that she did not live in Chinatown, but felt at home there, even though she was a tiny bit of an outsider. This book starts out by talking about San Francisco's Chinatown - how it came to be, the racism that confronted residents of the past and still does in the present, and brings Chinatown to life by talking personally with some of the folks who live there today. I'm frankly not that interested in history, but this author really brought it alive by connecting it to modern day life and talking about the human stories behind the history. The author then moves on to talking about her own family's past in New York's Chinatown, then discusses some of the other Chinatowns in the US. This isn't an academic study, and it doesn't try to draw too broad of conclusions about what it all means. Rather, it's a humanizing portrait of how some very different Chinatowns came to be, and what the culture is like there now. As a person missing the Chinese culture of my home, and the stark differences between the Chinatown facade and everyday life for the residents, I thought this book was a wonderful read. The style is clear and simple, and is warm towards Chinatown and its residents while being realistic about the negative aspects of Chinatowns.

Ling Fung (Bonnie) Tsui describes the character and history of five Chinatowns: San Francisco, New York, LA, Honolulu, and Las Vegas. She's been a resident of two of them herself and as an ABC (American Born Chinese) finds herself fascinated by them. Edit: I wanted to mention, but forgot, that this book is quite obviously a work of love for 'Chinatown' - all of them, even the ones not included here. I have no Chinese ancestry whatsoever, but found myself enthralled by this book. Each Chinatown has a different character and history - New York's is the largest and most industry (sweatshop) driven, San Francisco's is the oldest yet most artificial architecturally, Honolulu's was most insulated from the early 20th Century's pervasive anti-Chinese sentiment, etc. Tsui leads the section on each city with a hand drawn map, gives her own impressions of each, and interviews various 'players' in each Chinatown, from the conservative old guard to the thoroughly Americanized youth who nonetheless have a natural attraction to their roots. Particular subjects merit their own chapters, such as the very American Chinese invention of fortune cookies and the largest producer of them in NYC, Wonton Foods. What I found most fascinating were the contradictions that life is so fond of - no matter the city, Chinatown is both a refuge and a trap, and that comes across very clearly in the many personal interviews. It's a place of familiarity and people you can rely on where they speak your language(s), but if you don't learn English you're trapped. For many parents who don't have the time, the best you can hope for is that your children learn English - and then they might laugh at your wish that they also learn Chinese. And while you might think of 'Chinese' people as some big amorphous blob, most American Chinese speak Cantonese, while Mandarin is the ascendant official language of mainland China, and many of the immigrants only speak Fujianese or Toisanese dialects. There are of course conflicts between the various groups, and even between the ABCs and the FOBs (Fresh Off the Boat). The most bizarre thing for me in this entire book was the woman who couldn't even speak to her own mother, but had to rely on her father to translate for them. This book is 250 pages, which means each town gets an average of 50 pages: just enough time to get the mixed sweet and sour flavor before moving on to the next one. If you grew up in one of these, you might reasonably feel your Chinatown got short shrift, and since Tsui is most familiar with the San Francisco and New York Chinatowns these have the most intimate feel and the others are more amorphous. These are reasonable complaints, but as an overview, as a contrast and comparison, and a collection of personal interviews, it nonetheless fascinated me and felt just about the right length and I felt compelled to read it in a single afternoon. It was also interesting to read this soon after Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese

Let me say from the start I was surprised that Seattle wasn't one of the five Chinese neighborhoods, since I spent many years as a child on an island near Seattle and fond memories of the many Chinese families who were close friends of my parents. Seattle's Chinatown dates back to the 1860's. Whereas New York city didn't have many Chinese until the 1880's after the California gold rush started to die down. Which Chapter 1 is about in discussing San Francisco which the book notes is the oldest mainland Chinese community. Love how the authors goes beyond what one sees when visiting the Chinatown areas in the book. And how she takes us to the back alleys and lives of those who live in the homes past and present. How she respectfully shares the struggle between the old generations and the younger generation, those who have lived in the areas and those newly arrived. And I love how she shares the struggle than many Chinatowns have had and still have when it comes to repairs and upgrading so the homes are safe and healthy. And how as an example in writing about San Francisco she tells of the creation of Chinatown, by non Chinese men who wanted to make a destination for tourists and not a good area for the Chinese to live Hawaii is another place I know well and the author does a great job in showing the state off and especially Honolulu. It was the late actor Jack Lord of the old Hawaii 5-0 series that helped expose mainlanders to the wonderful area. The area has some of the best dim sum ever. As does San Francisco. What makes Honolulu and San Francisco special is their year round access to the freshest vegetables and other ingredients. In the in the Chinese Cultural Plaza there is an awesome Buddhist restaurant that serve vegetarian and vegan dim sum. Hawaii is the most diverse place I know. Liked her last chapter which deals with Las Vegas which she calls the newest Chinese community, and it is newer and smaller. Being from New York she spends a great deal of time on New York City, which is indeed a large area, but also the least Chinese for me. Its way to much of a tourist area than I would like. One thing I would love to see, is state representatives as well as Congressman/women and Senators who seek the votes of those in Chinatown, actually care about the citizens whose votes they seek, and usually get. And even though I do not live in Chinatown and never have, I am writing my Congressman and two Senators to urge them to help more. But what a great informative book this is. And one I want people to read.