Chinatown Regions in San Francisco & L.A.

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:

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ny Chinese-designed goods, including colorful fans, scarves, holders for incense, products made from bamboo and teakwood, finely painted silks, and carved figures of people and animals. The food shops contain packages with Chinese lettering and containing foods with which most people may not be familiar, or may not have seen outside of a Chinese restaurant. The Mandarin Plaza entrance is a Chinese Gate with pagoda-like arches, and similar designs are seen on the roofs of many of the buildings in Chinatown. The architecture suggests an image of China, with the curved roof design, the colorful paint, the overhead lines with paper lanterns, and the stores with Chinese characters displayed sometimes alongside English translations and sometimes not. The pagoda-design is one that is most closely associated with China, though the design is also found in Burma and India (Tansey and Kleiner 518). It is difficult to decide how much of what one sees in Chinatown really evokes Chinese culture or only an Americanized version of Chinese culture. For one thing, Chinatown is clearly a tourist attraction and as such has the freshly-painted and maintained look of Disneyland or some similar theme park. It is certainly based on Chinese theme

Category: History - C