By: Sophia Li

“The Chinatown landscape,” Norman Denzin once said, “is a cinematic society, a cultural landscape that is guided by a voyeur’s gaze.” (Lin, 1998) Indeed, although Manhattan’s Chinatown may not possess any officially defined borders, it, with the abundance of neon Chinese signage and majestic Chinese red lanterns hanging from the buildings, accompanied by the mouth-watering fragrances of dim sum delicacies that envelope the passers-by, has the ability to transport the typical American into the exotic Orient without undertaking any transpacific travel.

Eclipsed by its charming essence, however, is a certain surreptitious darkness. Pop culture has often depicted Chinatown to be a place chock-full of violence and lurid scenes, as seen from Roman Polanski’s film Chinatown, and the TV series Law and Order. (Lin, 1998) But this stereotype did not appear from thin air. In the past, Chinatown had been so notoriously plagued with organized crime, vice industries, sweatshops and ill sanitation that it became an indispensible part of its image as a cultural landscape (Mitchell, 2000), attracting pedestrians looking for a sense of adventure.

The conception of Manhattan’s Chinatown as a cultural landscape and its accompanying image is just as complex. It is a product of planning regulations that ultimately shaped the course of historical events.

In the mid 1840s, after being defeated by Britain in the first Opium war, Southern China was embroiled in a series of natural catastrophes that lead to famine and peasant uprisings (Joe, 1995). Naturally, when the news of the gold rush arrived, they seized the opportunity and moved to the States. Faced with mounting racial discrimination and new laws that prevented the Chinese in many occupations on the West Coast, they attempted to find solace in the East Coast (Cao, 2007). The Chinese settled into lower Manhattan, and due to discriminatory regulations such as the expensive head tax that the government had posed in order to prevent them from settling into other places, the Chinese immigrants had no choice but to congregate in lower Manhattan. For this reason, the Chinese population became increasingly concentrated in the area and Chinatown was born. (Joe, 1995)

As aforementioned, part of Chinatown’s image as a cultural landscape is its dangerous, dark character and history. Lewis once said, “ a place speaks volume about those who inhabit it” (Lin, 1998). Due to the large number of brothels, opium dens, and unsanitary streets, it wasn’t surprising that Caucasians often regard Chinatown and the Chinese people who inhabited it with disdain.

However, its negative image is largely shaped by planning regulations and not the people who lived in it. In order to cut costs, the government had withheld public services such as street-cleaning, in Chinatown. While working class districts are often unsanitary, rarely was one so identifiable with one single race, as it is there. This led to an unfounded fear of the “Yellow Peril”, which was the alleged power of Chinese people to threaten or destroy the supremacy of Western civilization (Mitchell, 2000). As a reaction to the rising anti-Chinese sentiment, the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in 1882, which further imbalanced the male-female ratio in Chinatown. With only 40-150 women for 7,000 plus Chinese men, the social landscape in Chinatown was altered unnaturally and led to the increased number of brothels (Young, 2011). To make matters worse, the government pushed white prostitutes into the district from other neighborhoods, further linking Chinatown to the public imagination of its moral depravity, a place rampant with opium-addicted gamblers. Yet it was interesting to note that opium trafficking was a business largely controlled by the Caucasians, and it was the Chinese who were at the forefront calling for greater control of it. As Anderson argued, Chinatown is a social and cultural product of negotiation between those with the power to define Chinatown, and those who had to live their lives in it (Mitchell, 2000).

Nowadays, Manhattan’s Chinatown is an integral part of New York City. Gone were the unsanitary opium dens of yesteryear, having been long replaced by clean, bright renown restaurants festooned with traditional Chinese decorations. Manhattan’s Chinatown is a cultural landscape with features that represent distinct chapters in the historical and social development of the Chinese community, and thus proudly serves as an important landmark.

There are, however, growing concerns about the preservation of Chinatown in recent years. The pro-development stance of the Bloomberg administration has decreased the affordability in the neighborhood. Indeed, the landscape is being rapidly transformed with the construction of bank office headquarters, luxurious residential towers and hotels. Advocates fear that, Chinatown, like much of Lower East Side, will be rezoned and displaced. Already, tenants are deliberately harassing numerous Chinatown residents by not supplying heat or hot water, hoping to drive out long-time tenants from low-rent apartments (Lee, 2009). Hence, planners and advocates alike are urging for the adoption of special district zoning for Chinatown, because without it, the cultural landscape will dissipate precipitously, and the struggles and stories of Chinese-Americans will be forever forgotten.

Works Cited

Cao, Y. (2007). Cross-cultural perceptions of the cultural landscape in American Suburban Strip Chinatowns. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from Asla Student Awards 2007: http://asla.org/awards/2007/studentawards/100.html

Joe, E. (1995). The Story of Chinatown. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from KQED.org: http://www.kqed.org/w/hood/chinatown/resourceguide/story.html

Keim, A. (2007). Landscape and Memory: an Archaeology of Chinatown. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from Academia: http://www.academia.edu/1286793/Landscape_and_Memory_an_Archaeology_of_Chinatown

Lee, J. (2009, March 4). Special District Zoning is Urged For Chinatown. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from City Room, New York Times: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/special-district-zoning-is-urged-for-chinatown/?_r=0

Lin, J. (1998). Reconstructing Chinatown- ethnic enclave, global change. Regents of the University of Minnesota.

Mitchell, D. (2000). Cultural Geography- a critical introduction. Syracuse: Blackwell.

Young, G. (2011, Spetember 23). Manhattan’s Chinatown: a tribute to the old neighborhood, and to the temptations of rich delicacies and basement vices . Retrieved November 21, 2013, from The Bowery Boys: http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2011/09/manhattans-chinatown-tribute-to-old.html