There is a region called Chinatown in many major American cities, a region where Chinese immigrants have gathered together and opened businesses in such numbers that they have created a small version of their home in China. Such regions have a strong attraction for tourists because of the exotic nature of the food and goods sold. The best-known Chinatown may be that in Los Angeles because of its being featured in the movie Chinatown, which had little to do with Chinatown then or now.
The Chinatown best known as a tourist mecca is probably that in San Francisco, a Chinatown that has been closely identified with the city for decades. The reason for the concentration of Chinese in San Francisco in particular is historical, since many Chinese were brought to California in the nineteenth century to work on the railroads. Once the railroads were built, most stayed on and had to find other ways of naming a living, and they came together in this region of San Francisco for that purpose (Lewis 14). Many of the Chinatowns in other American cities have been patterned on the one in San Francisco as Chinese immigration has become more widespread across the country. If San Francisco still stands as a major collection point for Chinese immigration, it is because San Francisco is an arrival point for traffic from the Far East. In the novel Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong, the way in which the two cultures mix is seen in the Chinatown where the author lives:
Chinatown in San Francisco teems with haunting memories, for it is wrapped in the atmosphere, customs, and manners of a land across the sea. The same Pacific Ocean laves the shores of both worlds, a tangible link between old and new (Wong 1).
Many of the Chinese who work in Chinatown have either come from mainland China, have relatives still in mainland China, have relatives who came from mainland China, or otherwise have some ties to that part of the world. So...