Cherishing Chinatowns

 

 

  

This CNN article profiles a book that is coming out later this month, by Morris Lum, a photographer who has documented 20+ Chinatowns across North America. Even better than a singular time capsule of a culturally unique phenomenon, Lum shoots Chinatowns multiple times over several years, in the process capturing the almost constant churn in retailers and therefore in composition and aesthetic. 

Many urban neighborhoods evolve rapidly and markedly over time, reflecting the broader societal, cultural, and economic forces that impel such turnover. Chinatowns are a particularly interesting case study, as are the reasons for their changes – and, unfortunately, in many cases, their decline and even death. 

To begin with, Chinatowns are, at least in some part if not in their totality, a function of the historical anti-Asian bias that has existed in many parts of this continent. For many Chinese and Asians in general, the birth of Chinatowns in their area reflected the fact that there were very few places where people that looked like them could safely live, work, worship, and play. Most Chinese and Asians who chose to come to America were not fantastically wealthy and in some cases were quite poor, but when they arrived in the Americas they were almost universally consigned to lower-class status in terms of social pecking order and economic comfort level. They scraped together a practically subsistence level of living, serving their own enclaves and doing their best to stay out of trouble. 

As myself a child of immigrants, albeit from upper middle class families who came here for grad school rather than for menial labor, I can safely assert that a dominant theme in the Asian immigrant mindset is working hard to provide for the next generation so that they may thrive in this land of opportunity. For most people, including those whose predecessors hail from Asia, that means a college degree and a professional job. From my place of privilege, this was achieved immediately: my college-educated parents worked white-collar jobs and helped make possible that my sister and I could also attend college and set ourselves for white-collar jobs. 

For others, like those who took up residence in homes and storefronts in Chinatowns, this path may have taken multiple generations. The kids worked the shop, then took over from mom and dad, and in turn their kids grew up in the shop and eventually took charge themselves. This is a lovely aspect of independent retail and particularly in culturally defined places like Chinatowns – the literal “mom and pop shop” – and it is truly a wonderful benefit to the outside world and point of pride for the family itself. But, in many cases, the generational continuity reflected a shutting off of other options that may have been preferred but could not be accessed due to lack of resources, cultural norms, or outright racism and oppression.

Conversely, many of these families succeeded in their great, oftentimes multi-generational objective, which was hustling enough in their challenging existences and creating enough margin in their lives to send Junior off to college. It may have taken a painfully long time to actualize the ultimate aim of coming to America, but eventually Junior did in fact go off to college, and became a lawyer, and got married and went off to the suburbs to raise a family. I’ve read some newspaper accounts of just this phenomenon, and of the elders feeling extremely conflicted about this: extraordinary pride in what they’ve accomplished, relief that their children achieved more than they were able to given their circumstances, and yet sorrow at the loss of continuity in the family business. (And, perhaps, in some cases, sadness that their children have become more Americanized, perhaps marrying outside of their country of origin, not speaking the native tongue, not being steeped in key touchstones in home culture.)

Whether it is gradual or steep, the closure of mom and pop shops in places like Chinatown can be traced to outside forces like gentrification and bad public policy and greedy businesspeople. And, it can also be traced to these inside dynamics, where the inter-generational continuity of family business ownership was a function of restricted opportunities due to racism, and in turn the opening up of avenues for the children and grandchildren to chart new paths is both an indicator of societal progress and yet also a loss of a culturally important through line. 

There are many things we can and should to celebrate, protect, and uplift our Chinatowns. Municipal policy can provide advantages and resources and attention to amplify these incredible places of historical importance and cultural enrichment. We as individuals can contribute our foot traffic, our spending dollars, and our word of mouth endorsement to our circles of influence. I say all this knowing that a lot of why many Chinatowns across this continent are struggling is due to the greater opportunities made available to the children and grandchildren of these long-time storefront owners, opportunities that are a function of both societal progress and a lot of parental blood, toil, sweat, and tears. Lum’s book is, like the Chinatowns in each of our communities, a treasure to be treasured. Let us take the opportunity to treasure our Chinatowns, and to hold in our heart all of the complex and in some cases conflicting forces that compel the changes occurring in them.