Are Chinatowns ACTUALLY Disappearing Or....

[@Jerry-qb7cl]

Last year, I spent nine dollars for a bowl of wonton noodles. This year, it cost me $35 in NYC's Chinatown: nine dollars for congestion pricing, $12 for parking, nine dollars for a bowl of noodles, and a five-dollar tip.

[@hillyseattlenarrowstreets6087]

Asian Strip Malls with good food AND lots of free parking will be the future. Go to Las Vegas Spring Mountain Road Chinatown and it's a long stretch of Strip Malls housing Asian businesses with free parking and thriving.

[@Jerry-qb7cl]

@@hillyseattlenarrowstreets6087 Yeap i go there every year

[@P.90.603]

@@hillyseattlenarrowstreets6087 I saw a video about how strip malls are exapanding. People live in suburbs and stay at home more, so they just want quick access to strip malls.

[@mlem567]

I was in SF Chinatown last weekend. Needed a gon chow ngau huo fix. $15 a plate. Not cheap. But it's good to see business has picked up and more tourists were seen. Honestly, I stick to the Irving Street hood for food and stuff rather than going down to Chinatown. Need to check what's up in Oakland Chinatown next. We must save our Chinatowns as historical locations that helped build this Nation.

[@majorlazor5058]

Hot take.. last time I was SF Chinatown I ran back to my hotel before sundown, because that place is sketch. Also I learned comedians lied when they say there are no homeless Asians.

[@chongkim2064]

I miss old school Chinese restaurants with fish tanks, fancy lanterns, Chinese music! Everything is too modernized! With American fast food style😢

[@L-K-K]

Maybe if more Americans learn about the real China, there'll be increased demand for more varieties of Chinese restaurants, and younger Chinese-Americans will feel less need to Americanise their restaurants. Having said that, also don't expect China & Chinese culture to be stuck in the past just for sake of Western taste for exoticism. All cultures evolve to meet the needs of the people. The best adaptations are a blend of the best old traditions and new innovations that meet current & future needs.

[@utenatenjou2139]

I bet some of the songs were Teresa Teng's.

[@sayajinmamuang]

Oh yes definitely. I miss the rawness of chinatown. Those fish tanks in restaurants were some of the rawness i miss. These new generation chinese businesses/restaurants are nice for gram photos and other social media and what not but imo it doesn't satisfy your overall expectations of hunger. Like i really don't grasp why some of these businesses Make their bread off of being instagram hot spot restaurants with fancy finger food portions on a plate charging you $30 plus dollars for something you could probably make at home for less $. We need more gastronomical places that are not only satisfying to the eyes but also the belly.

[@fosterche]

Seattle CID seems to be a frequent target. 12th-and-Jackson and the local Homeless shelter concentrations, the frequent threats of more shelters....the transit hub...etc. Protecting "Diversity" efforts seem to stop short when it gets to Chinatowns. The younger population will not have an interest in staying in Chinatown unless we can keep it clean and itself, desirable, and developed. That won't happen if city efforts see it as a dumping ground for jails, shelters, and railroad tracks

[@hillyseattlenarrowstreets6087]

Also it's where the City likes to place Gentrified Low Income Housing that become "Lipstick on a Pig" with the Tenants they accept. Look at the reviews of Uncle Bob's Place in the heart of Seattle's Chinatown or any other Low Income Housing Apartment there. You get non Asian residents who could care less about the prosperity of the neighborhood and make the building and neighborhood sketchy. It's unfortunate that Seattle's CID became Drama filled due to City policy.

[@ckennylin717]

You should have a chat with the head of Chinatown BID Wellington Chen. The biggest threats to Chinatown is not Gentrification, but is from Government. DC's Chinatown has been virtually wiped out due to government-initiated development of shopping malls and sports arenas. Philly's Chinatown was saved from an Arena development thanks to the community turning out and building coalitions - their city leaders kowtowed to developers and ended up with egg (foo young?) on their faces when the 76ers' billionaire owners reached deals with other billionaire owners. Other nearby Chinatowns have been lost to history - Newark's Chinatown was razed to build government offices and parking lots, the only memory of that is a diorama of Mulberry Street in City Hall. There are also a number of pop-up "Chinatowns" around school campuses - basically Food Trucks catering to the large Chinese student populations at NYU and Columbia.

[@blaze14ZX]

I live in Newark and I never knew we had a Chinatown. Looking at mulberry street I could see that working as a Chinatown location.

[@DanBurgaud]

With less Chinese tourists and students visiting racist USA, this is expected. The worse has yet to come.

[@alfreedng]

There are a number of Chinese communities developed around the outskirts of LA, where more authentic Chinese food could be found. And more importantly, without the hassle of finding a parking space. Btw, I'm a new immigrant from Hong Kong, China

[@majorlazor5058]

San Gabriel Valley is all Asian now.

[@gunnasintern]

San Gabriel Valley, South Bay, and Orange County are the best places to go for in general

[@gunnasintern]

@@majorlazor5058South Bay and Orange County also have a ton of good places too

[@majorlazor5058]

@@gunnasintern yeah Westminster is basically New Saigon.

[@Celty.Sturluson]

Same is for Seattle, crime is rampant and they drop off people who just got out of prison on this one corner in China town and it's becoming a place to avoid unfortunately

[@AliasHSW]

Back in the days people living in San Jose, Walnut Creek and Santa Rosa makes a weekly pilgrimage to SF for groceries and dim sum with family

[@_TPE_TW_]

If anybody from Vancouver Canada knows chinese people rather go to Richmond for their chinese good than the chinatown in Vancouver.

[@CoryPchajek]

Yup. Some of the restaurants in Richmond are pretty much on par with what you can find in Hong Kong for some things.

[@majorlazor5058]

San Francisco Chinatown needs to get its act together. SF Japantown is clean and safe, yet they have the same financial struggles.

[@P.90.603]

Chinese and Japanese are different people.

[@majorlazor5058]

@ clearly

[@canto_v12]

I hate to say it as someone who has good memories there, but SF Chinatown will gradually downsize. In my 20+ years in the Bay Area I have never found a pressing need to go out to Chinatown when I can hit up any smaller suburban plaza for food that's often more authentic in the modern Asian context. Chinatown descends from 1800s and early 1900s Canton and Hokkien provinces, and is far estranged from the much bigger variety of tastes that have been coming in from modern China. Even Cantonese food has evolved a fair bit, and all of the above is available pretty much Bay-Area-wide. We should definitely keep the cool architecture and add some museum-type exhibits in the SF Chinatown, but those traditional businesses will not last forever, especially since their children generally do not want to run them.

[@TeamGodandChrist90s]

Manhattan’s Chinatown needs to be modernized, but keep the vintage style.

[@sayajinmamuang]

Yes definitely agree and don't take away the authentic cheap eats ie all the good stir fry joints and cantonese simple food.

[@yukuhana]

Depends on the definition of a Chinatown. IMO, it must be city blocks with high concentration of businesses AND residents that are Chinese. Edison NJ doesn’t have a Chinatown; it has high concentration of Asia strip malls housing Chinese businesses and restaurants. About authenticity - Flushing NY Chinatown is modernizing big time and it is still authentic albeit it modernized. Say, Shanghai today is totally different from 30 years ago - does it make it less Chinese or authentic? Surely not, except from nostalgic perspectives; on the other hand, nothing will stay the same unless it is a protected historic landmark etc. Chinatowns aren’t going away…well, except for those that never amounted to anything significant, such as the Baltimore Chinatown.

[@1DeeThunder]

I hope they stay authentic, with the pandemic it’s increased a lot of Xenophobia. Adding fuel with rising costs. Rent, and etc… it makes everything worse. Normally I don’t get political on anything but, politics have been recently adding the fuel with trying to kick everyone out.

[@bsta1382]

The need of Chinatown has faded. Places like SGV are the new Chinatown

[@majorlazor5058]

San Gabriel Valley

[@bsta1382]

@ IMO, it’s best place to be in LA

[@majorlazor5058]

@@bsta1382 Nah.. Long Beach/Torrence is now. The Valley sucks. Too hot and too far from the ocean compared to the cost of living. If someone’s primary goal is to live around mostly Asians then yeah, The Valley is the place for you.

[@kshinokevin]

when you see your favorite hard-working Mom and Pop shops (with a restaurant on the bottom and the living quarters on the second floor; where there could be a metal clothesline with wet clothes). These restaurants or shops were there for decades or centuries, that you often went to daily, after school, to have a couple of little snacks, like Haw Flakes, White Rabbit, Li Hing Mui, dried lemon peel or Tomoe Ame, close down... it is a SAD thing to see. The Jail Scraper looks like a scene from "Escape from New York (1981)," with Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) or "Escape from L.A. (1996)."

[@CP4Z167]

Feels like almost every major city is starting to branch out of its Chinatown and create little or even bigger cleaner and safer strip malls that offers the same things.

[@hiroshi138]

We don't have a Chinatown in San Diego but there are "pockets" of Chinese and other Asian communities and businesses all over the city. I love it!

[@SugarRey-o2c]

When US Chinatowns disappear, you can visit the oldest and most authentic Chinatown in the world, right here in Binondo, Manila, Philippines. Shops in the US are 60 years old? The Spanish established Binondo in 1594 as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants who had converted to Christianity. They can never be more authentic than that.

[@கோபிசுதாகர்]

Well, it's not remarkable they there's a Chinatown in Phillippines, considering that it is right next to China

[@SugarRey-o2c]

@@கோபிசுதாகர் . I respect your opinion that it is unremarkable. Maybe you can ask Guiness to remove it from their list since it is so unremarkable and does not deserve to be listed. I just wanted to put it out there since the topic of the video is about Chinatowns disappearing. Also, I did not say that having a Chinatown is remarkable, there may even be a Chinatown in your country. Chinatowns are everywhere but there can only be 1 Chinatown that can be called the oldest and that is located in the Philippines. Have a nice day.

[@SugarRey-o2c]

@@கோபிசுதாகர் I respect your opinion that it is unremarkable. Maybe you can ask Guiness to remove it from their list since it is so unremarkable and does not deserve to be listed. I just wanted to put it out there since the topic of the video is about Chinatowns disappearing. Also, I did not say that having a Chinatown is remarkable, there may even be a Chinatown in your country. Chinatowns are everywhere but there can only be 1 Chinatown that can be called the oldest and that is located in the Philippines. Also, the Philippines is not right next to China. The shortest distance (air line) between China and Philippines is 1,854.14 mi (2,983.95 km). Even if we wanted to hit it with our Brahmos Missile which is made in India, we cannot because our Brahmos can only strike targets up to 300 kilometers away. If you cannot hit something with a missile than I don't think you can call it as "right next to it"

[@SidVidZid]

If you are going to fly all the way to Philippines for Chinatown, might as well land in China.

[@SugarRey-o2c]

@@SidVidZid I respect your opinion.

[@borednow5390]

Blame gentrification by the outsiders and chinese landlords who kicked out the chinese residents for higher rents and such 😅

[@Buydaa.M]

Exactly!!! seen poster inside Muni bus written in Chinese about helping with rent and stuff...

[@TeamGodandChrist90s]

Also most Asian families are moving away from Chinatown in order to have more kids that could be another factor.

[@charmnGUY]

Chinatown and most asian communities are spreading wider...we were in Vegas last month and the Asian area are huge, but less traditional characters ( maybe not to attract attentions?) Just this last weekend, we were in Los Angeles (Santa Ana) there was Lunar New Year celebration and decorations...but the outskirts didn't even have any signs of LNY decor? Likewise in San Diego, my old stomping grounds, the asian's community didn't have any decor on their businesses...make me wonder, are they not wanting to draw attention, is the community hating when driving through the neighborhood, As most knows and speaking as a vietnamese...our community doesn't like any negative attentions or tensions...very passive so once a year, during the Lunar New Year celebrations...we go all out, but the rest of the year, we put our heads down and go to work

[@echelon2k8]

Less traditional characters and more simplified characters, no doubt, as more and more locusts spread their wings. This is a global trend as traditional Chinese character users are currently being replaced over the world in the places they used to call home.

[@sayajinmamuang]

​@@echelon2k8sad. I miss the rawness of those people. The chinatowns i knew so well and grew up with. There should also be an initiative to keep the traditional characters and using them alive.

[@amandalove3368]

LA Chinatown doesn't even exist anymore really.

[@IkeFromCN]

LA Chinese have Rowland Heights, San Gabriel, Monterey Park, all are better than LA city anyway.

[@蔡偉隆-b9s]

It's a trend. Chinatown is gradually becoming an Asian town. It's not a bad thing.

[@P.90.603]

Asian town is cool...but I just wished the food was kept separate. I get that people are trying to make money and more convenient, but it messes with the experience.

[@DANNOS1993]

In NY With congestion pricing. It will wipe out Chinatown, little Italy, south st seaport and surrounding areas

[@chongkim2064]

The cheap prices and cultural aesthetics are what I love about Chinese food! I honestly love to eat Chinese takeout while watching old school Kung fu flicks!!! 😢

[@pandamoniumfilms4710]

The Congestion tax is the nail in the coffin

[@PreciousEyeballs]

Go to Binondo: the world's oldest and biggest Chinatown outside China.

[@faustinuskaryadi6610]

Technically there is no China town inside China.

[@majorlazor5058]

In California Vietnamese strip malls really have taken over as the safer and cleaner version of Chinatowns. They all tend to have at least one Chinese restaurant and a boba spot.

[@mikeeaston54]

Where in CA? Only San Jose and Garden Grove. Everywhere else is still mostly Chinese.

[@sayajinmamuang]

Where online can i find cheaper chinese products? Because i look on amazon and other places for fish sauce and soy sauce and its like 2xs more expensive then in the supermarkets. Plus the shipping costs. So im conused. Also what is a satellite chinatown?

[@collinhuey2090]

Chinatown will never die in major cities because all Asian migrating to USA finds refuge and feels comfortable to open business. The problem is gentrification. Have you ever live in the states without ranch 99 hot pot banh mi BORING example Hayward California has no Chinatown and Asians drive 46 minutes to Asian supermarkets

[@luckycharm69x]

I'll be visiting New York City next week. What are some must eat place to go and oldest restaurants that you recommend? Thanks in advance

[@arg888]

What do you think congestion pricing will do to Chinatown? Or all restaurants for that matter?

[@haroldp9678]

San Francisco Chinatown ain't goin nowhere.

[@christopherchau8630]

Inevitable. Little Italy across the US couldn’t be saved…no reason why Chinatowns would remain. Assimilation, gentrification, new waves of non-Cantonese Chinese immigrants bypassing Chinatown. It’s normal, expected, necessary and good. Chinatowns’ history can be recorded for future generations but its value proposition has declined. I grew up in 1970’s Chinatown , watched in flourish through the 1990s, and then watched it decline. Time waits for no man…onward to better pastures.

[@canto_v12]

Yep. In the early 20th century Chinatown was necessary for Asian immigrants to survive. These days? They don't need a little corner in town to do their thing and excel in society.

[@christopherchau8630]

@@canto_v12 I look at it slightly differently. The need for the small, dense, urban Chinatowns have disappeared but enclaves will still exist as long as Asian culture isn't accepted as mainstream in the US. NYC is a perfect example. Koreans congregate in Eastern Queens, Fort Lee...they live in nice houses with great public schools but have easy access to Korean supermarkets and restaurants. Same with the Chinese...the Cantonese of my generation started their own families in wealthier NJ, Long Island (Little Neck/Great Neck). No one, unless one has no options, wants to start or more importantly, finish, in a Chinatown...If you haven't noticed, Manhattan Chinatown tenements have existed since the late 1800's and have sheltered poor Irish, Italian, European Jews, and Chinese but everyone leaves once they have enough money.

[@chankane]

Dim sum in Honolulu CTown are commonly $25-35 per person.

[@hungchoonghow5857]

You need the three guys with the big straw hats and capes and they can levitate, to come back! Especially the one who can shoot lightning bolts out of his fingers.

[@supertrouper]

Adding from my last comment, because a lot Chinese associations own buildings they will likely never sell and still mainly rent to Chinese at an affordable price and with many Chinese living in affordable housing developments in nearby Chinatown including Confucius Plaza where many will be hardcore to never move out of those developments, they will continue to be in the area to frequent the Chinese businesses and keep Chinatown alive even though it may shrink or become scattered. Also there is growing Chinese resident populations in other affordable housing developments in other parts of Manhattan, in which they take public transportation to Manhattan's Chinatown for errands and shopping also will contribute to Chinatown staying alive. Western Chinatown likely will remain as the largest concentrated Chinese commercial center because of the high commercial activity from tourists wanting to explore Chinese culture including being an important business center to the remaining Chinese residents for shopping and errands, which will help maintain their business profits to stay behind whereas eastern Chinatown is more limited in this and rather commercially struggling more so, very likely it will become more multi-culturally diverse commercial wise with pocketed concentrations of Chinese businesses here and there. No matter what, Manhattan's Chinatown Chinese population will become more diluted broken up into pocketed concentrated sections like Sheepshead's Bay Chinese community that is interspersed with the much larger Russian community.

[@FarahAbdul]

I arrived in Seattle in 1994 from Somalia(East Africa) today 2025 China Town of Seattle is completely different a lot of new Apperments are taking over 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@ronstallworth9421]

Yes, they are disappearing like Italian or Jewish neighborhoods in major cities. Corporations from the US and abroad are buying properties in those neighborhoods.

[@nack8310]

People don’t care for traditional temple style Chinatowns. It’s outdated and not functional. It has to modernize one shopping center at a time. New Chinese shopping centers are popping up where there are heavy concentrations of Chinese population. Oddly, older centers are not maintained and are deteriorating. I hate how the owners neglect them. Either fix them or sell them. The cities should cite them for not keeping up the maintenance.

[@lilblkrose]

I care... those have becomes historic and iconic marks, they are also great photo locations which brings in visitors. However, you are right there needs to be more maintenance. LA Chinatown do maintain them and/or build new traditional buildings to replace the old ones falling apart- but after Covid and increase of crimes, a lot of maintenance and construction was halted then abandoned. This doesn't help the cost of rent is increasing, but those increase price aren't going to repairs or maintenance (it's going to tax or/and landlord pocket)

[@sayajinmamuang]

Temple style? You mean traditional Chinese artistic style looking places? Well i Care. Whenever i see a place that has that artistic style i at least know they put some effort into the establishment and food and not make it look like another pop up Starbucks looking Cafe or a place that literally looks like a hotel. Not all modernization is appealing. that's why when most people travel around the world they travel for culture. To see something strikingly different then in their home country.

[@MellowSkyy]

From my perspective, it seems like new chinese migrants start and work in chinatown, then once they settle down they move towards the suburbs close to a good school to start a family. When kids grow up, they dont really help out at the family business because they have to focus on school, so they have jobs that are more corporate or online. However I'm seeing a resurgence in local businesses with the tiktok generation. It doesnt help that most chinatowns are near the downtown core which makes real estate prices higher. Once people close their business, it seems like there is a new high rise a few years later.

[@gamingclouds5324]

The thing is nowadays high tech is replacing traditional business, even big brands like 99 cents cant even take the chance, most of Chinatown even Vietnamese town still living with old styles so really hard to compete with new business. For example new boba and coffee stores around OC area, thanks to new generation immigrants so they know how to renew everything and using high tech AND most of materials, from Vietnam. Imagine, if ppl thought the problem is 2nd generations graduated with better job so they not take their parents business, but what if they know how to run it and hire ppl like college students need money? They can earn more than their 9-5 jobs ngl. Check out Vietnamese town in San Jose. Also idk about Chinese since Im Vietnamese but most of Vietnamese able to open business in America they sold everything or brought money from Vietnam to extend their business, example Phúc Long and Trung Nguyên coffee, those brands original from Vietnam and they opened 1-2 places in OC and youth people really love it

[@Johnnecage]

Manhattan Chinatown need to get their act together and gather their political capital and have the ONE VOICE to represent our Lower Manhattan/Chinatown communities. We're politically and culturally divided due to the current influx of PRC mainlanders and Fukienese vs the Loh Wah Kiu and Canto ToiSahn peeps. Without that one powerful political voice to fight for Chinatown is why we continue to get dumped on. I guess we haven't learn our lesson when Koch gifted us with the first jail, and now we're getting a MEGA JAIL.

[@racer668]

Maybe they need to have public restrooms. How you gonna have customers stick around when there's no place to piss?

[@JeffYoshimura]

If you are not the owners, you can only go where you are allowed to. My cat owners allow me to live in my house. Haven’t seen them in a while. Should I be worried? I never see them anyway. I can only hear them yelling at me when I need to feed them.

[@AliasHSW]

Never been to NY Chinatowns but it seems better at evolving than SF’s

[@canto_v12]

"Chinatown" as a social necessity has been on the decline for decades now, but SF's is especially vulnerable because SF as a whole has become so unsafe and crime-ridden that nobody wants to go there.

[@P.90.603]

@@canto_v12 I want to visit Japan town in San Francisco..is it really unsafe?

[@canto_v12]

@ Just visit in the daytime, park in the pricey garage and don’t venture too far. SF is not what it used to be, but if you’re careful it’s probably ok to visit.

[@AliasHSW]

@@P.90.603 being a local I can absolutely say SF Jtown is absolutely safe to visit and Fillmore Street north of Post Street (and so is Chinatown). As in any big city, do not leave valuables in the car in plain sight or not.

[@AliasHSW]

@@canto_v12 I assume the garage you’re referring to is the Japantown Center Mall. Some businesses offer validated parking.

[@jeffo881]

just watched this video, then this came up, Famous Sam Wo Restaurant closes doors after 115 years

[@ralphryders]

Rampant crime has destroyed Oakaland China town leading to a large group moving out of China town. The riots from previous years have increased crime when criminals saw the instability and the China town got boarded up. Chinatown had to close early as 4 pm!

[@majorlazor5058]

Actually covid leading to a massive amount of people losing their homes is why crime rose in Oakland. It’s the case all over California actually. It has nothing to do with protesting that you’re mischaracterizing as riots. I live central California and we didn’t have any protests resulting in property damage, yet property crime skyrocketed and homeless popped up all over…. just like Oakland.

[@supertrouper]

This is continuing from my last comments, now that newer Chinese immigrants have settled into the outer boroughs of NYC which are more affordable, a lot of newer and larger Chinese communities than Manhattan have emerged there. Flushing and Elmhurst in Queens hold the crown as having the most diverse Chinese populations from various regions of China including Taiwan and southeast Chinese with Flushing being the largest Chinatown of NYC. Brooklyn's Chinatowns are broken up into the Fuzhou Chinatown in Sunset Park and Cantonese Chinatowns in Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay. Those new Chinatowns are the new gathering places for most of NYC's Chinese population now and Manhattan's Chinatown no longer serves as the main important community for NYC's Chinese populations for shopping and business and jobs like it once did during the 1970s-90s when the outer boroughs had no large Chinese communities yet.

[@gametri-eq6lj]

the last option is to turn Chinatown modern like the Chinatown in Houston

[@maccha663]

You should read Rothbard Andrew

[@pgdog888]

I grew up in San Francisco Chinatown in it's golden age. Racism push us Chinese into building our own city within a city. SF Chinatown have elementary schools to mid school. Hospital. Clubs. 8 movie theaters. Shops. Restaurants. But as time goes. The new generation can go all over now in the city because Chinese can now. Chinese can't even buy a house outside of Chinatown before the 60s. SF Chinatown mainly is immigrants or seniors now days. But still have the tourists.

[@majorlazor5058]

SF Chinatown used to not allow black people. Bruce Lee did a lot to push back against racism within his community and he allowed black students to join his studio.

[@majorlazor5058]

@@pgdog888 Ironically Chinatown used to be place where black people weren’t welcome. Bruce Lee did a lot to welcome black people into Chinatown when he had a studio in SF.

[@AliasHSW]

Repping ToiSan here!!

[@kev13nyc]

my grandparents (who both passed in 2024) own a building on 8th Ave Brooklyn ….. they made a very smart decision buying the location back in the 80s …. currently my uncle manages the building and may be looking to sell the building in 2025 (because my grandparents passed) …. IMO …. flushing ‘Chinatown’ is more of a KoreaTown …. And it extends a longgggggggggg way down northern blvd going east bound (I would say as far as Bayside) ….. westbound is more occupied by Hispanics ….

[@christopherchau8630]

kudos to your grandparents...most were not that smart or lucky to have done that. Flushing, especially around Main Street and the 7 train station, is very Chinese..very Mainland Chinese. It's stretches from Northern Blvd to way south, west to BJ's and east to Parsons. Koreatown, aside from the stretch on Union (which now has Chinese restaurants) is really on Northern Blvd going east from 149th street all the way through Bayside, up to Bell Blvd. On every block of northern Flushing, Whitestone, Bayside, etc, you will find both Chinese and Korean, both American born and immigrant. It wasn't always like this but I'm also old enough to remember when Main Street and Flushing had virtually no Asian/Chinese and only had 2 nightclub style Chinese American restaurants (Lum's on Northern & Union was one of them) and Flushing HS wasn't ranked as one of the worst high schools in NYC.

[@IkeFromCN]

I think Chinatown issues in big cities are more of an old neighborhood issue than a cultural or ethical issue. I think Chinese Americans moving out of their local Chinatown is a good thing, they have more life choices and opportunities. It's not that Chinese people or culture are disappearing from US society.

[@P.90.603]

Migration and changes is normal. In my area, the Asians moved into the poor areas...many tried to stay but influx of new poor immigrants from Africa and South America came.

[@AliasHSW]

8:00 yep. More to show my kids a piece of my childhood and cultural experience.

[@DenshaOtoko2]

It's Escape from New York trilogy with Kurt Russell as Snake irl frfr!

[@bigheadrhino]

Wouldn’t mind a cyberpunk style update to the Chinatowns to match the modern China.

[@albertc4860]

New congestion toll in NYC doesn't help either....

[@majorlazor5058]

Honestly I think the price of Chinese food has gotten out of hand. $5 for bao is overpriced. It’s like 90% bread with little chunks of fatty cheap cuts of mystery meat.

[@cygnevara8400]

at least y'all have a china town. when blk people tried to get one town it was bombed by the us....the first time the us ever dropped a bomb on its own us territory was on a blk town.

[@eriction84]

Phoenix doesn't have a Chinatown, rather an Asian District, and it is booming. Could be that Phoenix is a much newer city.

[@AndresArias-pm3tn]

little lamb took over

[@wizard_status]

I don't think SF Chinatown is in any danger.

[@carymarshallfelton9188]

Ones in California and NY are safe. I'm not sure others will survive.

[@supertrouper]

Manhattan's Chinatown demographics are increasingly becoming more diverse with a large influx of wealthier hipsters mainly non-Asians moving into new vacant apartments that become market rate. Yes, some wealthy Asians of various nationalities including Chinese have moved in, but not as many as the wealthier non-Asians. Most of the tenements are still populated by a lot of Chinese immigrants because many are long time residents; many are older generations with rent stabilized leases, but increasingly more wealthier hipster residents of all racial backgrounds with only a handful being Asians are moving into these buildings paying market rate rents as those older generation Chinese move to senior housing or have passed on and eventually Chinatown will be mostly populated by wealthier young transplant residents with all types of racial and nationality backgrounds especially since Chinatown tenement buildings are increasingly being sold to multi-millionaire developers, therefore the Chinese population in the future will at most be a quarter of what their population used to be in the neighborhood pre gentrification.

[@Truthseeker1000]

You want to talk about culture change imagine how the North American natives felt when the whites arrived from England...now that's culture shock!

[@JohnTheYouTubeSuperfan]

Are Chinatowns disappearing or what?

[@AliasHSW]

4:43 FACT!!!

[@shaneilellis9832]

Confront your now government.

[@AliasHSW]

Father and son documenting SF Chinatown kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnSqnJ-ceLeZppIsi=adtlEH2cYBz3ANh7

[@DenshaOtoko2]

Being yourself as authentic? Or being true as Chinese.

[@SanchoDomingo_]

they voted for it. They can KICK ROX 🤣🤣 I do like kung pao chicken tho, that can stay

[@borednow5390]

But you're a nobody thoughh...🤣🤡

[@Willxdiana]

not really. its your people sending homeless in shelters into chinatown itself which made east broadway disappear. voting for it was the right way

[@jwclau1]

Hipster Gentrifiers taking over CT's...

[@weifan9533]

I’d make a rather bold argument that some people may not like. Although there’re many reasons behind Chinatown’s decline, one of the primary reasons is the influx of Hokkien migrants, who largely replaced the older Cantonese ran businesses there, and their new businesses lack the generosity and the communal spirit of the Cantonese businesses they replaced.

[@greekyroman2397]

People who complain about the new jail being built are sadly ignorant and uninformed. They are rebuilding a jailhouse. They aren't building a new one. They tore the old one that had a a lot human rights complaints. The old one didn't have air conditioning. Imagine the summers. So they are rebuilding, where it existed before. Right next to the Manhattan criminal court. So that the prisoners can get quicker access to trails and lawyers. While there isn't a jailhouse currently, there is slower access to justice and a higher default to not holding people for trails, because there is no place to hold them for trail. The jailhouse is what that is for. So they aren't building a jail in chinatown. They are building a jail next to the criminal courthouse, and all the courts are south of Chinatown. You go further south and you have city hall. Unfortunately all these protests are informed and lack situational awareness and nuances.

[@P.90.603]

Lol. It's like how the Republicans are pushing the false narrative that the IRS are hiring 100k agents to go after people for taxes. When in actuality, it's a long term plan to hire over to replace retiring workers.

[@seanxi]

NYC china town was built by GuangDong ppl from the 1950s... I came to the city for college about 10 years ago n I didn't even recognize it as "Chinese", in other words, No modern Chinese identifies with that culture. It's a memory of the first immigrants who left china during war time, it was a fantasy of their childhood. The manhattan china town is like the movie Shang Qi (god that name makes no efing sense in Chinese, 上气不接下气吗🤣), its not made for the Chinese, its not made for WASPs, its made for a very small demographic which are the second generation Chinese - Americans who grew up with a complete different experience than any other ppl. On the other hand, Flushing in Queens has a new store open every other week, this is after the pandemic. I drove there for dim sum the other week from Jersey and the wait is 2 fking hrs. We waited! why is that?

[@seanxi]

I'm sry, I just have to add to my own comments. a few years back my cousin who grew up in Texas, never been to NYC, came for a college tour. I took her family to the China town in NYC for food, there was cockroaches in the dish. She's never seen anything like that, n freaked out, vowed to never come to NYC again.

[@canto_v12]

Yup. Chinatown descends from people who came from 1800s and early 1900s China. They have long diverged from China itself, and they are less and less able to represent China meaningfully. Meanwhile, Chinese food pops up carrying the latest trends from modern China, all over the suburban areas where most people live anyway. "Authentic" may have been the case 50 years ago, but it's hard to make that claim today when those immigrants and their descendants have become so distanced from their modernised ancestral land.

[@Wolf1979]

🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@Razear]

As long as there is a vibrant Chinese population, these enclaves won't be going away anytime soon. There's always going to be a desire for cheap Chinese food, barber shops, etc. They might not be offering the most competitive deals compared to yesterdecade due to rising costs, but the demand will always be there. Yeah, it's unfortunate that most of today's generation won't be willing to continue their parents' restaurants and other family businesses, but I still don't see them disappearing within our lifetime. Maybe if commercial real estate reaches a point where continuing operations becomes unsustainable. Let's hope that doesn't happen, though. Demographic shifts will affect every corner of the country, not just ethnic enclaves. It's almost inevitable now with free travel and globalization. By "authenticity," I presume the commenter is alluding to generational differences. Now that the Boomers are retiring and Millennials are gradually taking over, much of the old school flair that we've become accustomed to is disappearing. If the legacy businesses do survive, they'll likely be run by FOBs rather than the owners' sons and daughters. Most of the folks who started restaurants, laundry mats, and the like don't necessarily want their kids to shoulder the same struggle. There's a lot more opportunity now than there was in their generation, and the youth of today are more educated. I can't envision many Gen Z kids spending their lives doing this type of work.

[@TianTianLumpia]

Google/KZbin search: "12th and Jackson Seattle" The local politicians just don't give a flying F. F those people.

[@CoryPchajek]

Vancouver Chinatown looked rundown and sketchy already in 2005.

[@tzenzhongguo]

Hell yeah less canto and more Mando.

[@hungchoonghow5857]

The bounty hunter from Disney Plus?

[@tzenzhongguo]

@ ?

[@echelon2k8]

You're living in America, people. Only place Chinatowns should exist is... drum roll... in China.

[@kimjay1587]

bro you had Chinese food last week lmao

[@echelon2k8]

@@kimjay1587 I did? That's new to me. And even if I did, I'm sure I wouldn't have needed to go to a Chinatown to get it.

[@borednow5390]

Says who? You? 🥴🤡

[@echelon2k8]

@@borednow5390 Me and the vast majority of Americans out there who I'm sure would prefer to live in their own country, not some knockoff of someone else's.

[@borednow5390]

@echelon2k8 Now tell that to the browns and blax that you and the vast majority dare not do 🤣

[@spincoach]

I hope they stay as authentic as possible...

[@AliasHSW]

Never been to NY Chinatowns but it seems better at evolving than SF’s