ancient cities

132 Chinatowns
Chinatown in London’s West End
Source: Karen Wiley.
common cultural background and source nationality,
Chinatowns are predicated upon similar identities
and reactions to the other, but have essential
differences, based on their geographical localities.
The major factors of these differences are the communities’
initial migration motives and their interactions
with their host societies. Differing migration
motives have resulted in the divergent natures of the
Chinatowns in Southeast Asia compared with
those in North America. Many of the Chinese settlers
in Southeast Asia set up and ran businesses,
forming a large upper-middle class. The effect of
this in cities like Rangoon and Kuala Lumpur has
created an image of the Chinese
as wealthy and of Chinatown as
an expensive neighborhood.
This is not the case in North
America, where the overwhelming
majority of the original
Chinese settlers were hired as
cheap labor, who would contribute
to the resulting image of
Chinatown as run-down parts
of the city with low rent.
Differing interactions with
host societies can be seen in the
assimilation of the Chinese into
the local communities. This has
happened at a high rate, for
many different reasons, in many
of the Southeast Asian cities like
Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City,
and Bangkok. The Chinese in
Bangkok are deeply involved in
Thai politics. In the case of
Singapore, the ethnic Chinese
make up the majority population,
prompting state-led claims
of “racial harmony.” However,
in the cities of North America,
Australia, and the United
Kingdom, the Chinese were seen
as “unassimilable foreigners.”
Chinatown developed as a defensive
strategy as the host society
endeavored to separate “us”
from “them,” and the Chinese
insulated themselves out of unfamiliarity
and fear. This has created
a tension that still exists,
but in Canadian and Australian
cities today, the presence of the Chinese is a marker
of “multiculturalism.” Although this appears to bring
similarity to separate and distinct Chinatowns, the
underlying power and social relations between the
Chinese and host communities demonstrate very
localized and regional differences.
Location
Although initially located in the inner city as a
result of age and urban history, Chinatowns are
undergoing a process of suburbanization. The
increasing occurrence of Chinese enclaves outside