Flushing has recently taken off as a Chinese neighborhood, with a large population of Taiwan immigrants. Just the Chinese shop signs sprouting everywhere along the streets would be enough to cheer up homesick Chinese visitors here, while a meal of oyster noodles and the sound of Taiwanese dialect would do the rest.

Two years ago you still couldn't find the smelly fermented beancurd so popular in Taiwan, but today you can even come across kara-OK bars in Flushing! No wonder Taiwan students call it New York's "little Taipei." Interestingly enough, Koreans call Flushing "New York's little Seoul" too.

To be fair, calling Flushing "little Taipei" has a more emotional than rational basis.

New York is divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island. Manhattan is famous as a commercial and business center, while Queens is a residential area. Wealthy immigrants from Taiwan live on Long Island, middle-class families with a good command of English have settled in the suburbs of Queens and lower middle-class families whose English is not so good live in Flushing. A 1989 survey by a Queens newspaper, the Daily News, established that Flushing has a Chinese population of 60,000 and a Korean population of 65,000. So strictly speaking Flushing is a small United Nations with communities of Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Blacks and Whites living side by side. Even the Chinese come from many different places of origin.

Insurance man Tom Tungseng Tai suggests a technique for distinguishing these: "The single surname Ch'en is spelt differently according to various dialects." He points out that Chinese from Taiwan spell their name Chen, while those from the mainland spell it Zhen, Singaporeans write Tan and the Vietnamese change it to Cheng.

Undoubtedly Flushing is a genuine microcosm of New York, but when Taiwanese people see familiar signboards for Ten Ren tea, a Taipei wine bar or Hony cakes the temptation to call it "little Taipei" really is very hard to resist!

"New York is a cosmopolitan city with many different races, so here you sense there is less discrimination," travel agent Chang T'ing-t'ing says. Immigrants fear racial discrimination above all else, but in New York there are minimal difficulties of this kind. Besides, New York has good communications links, it has a Chinatown, the Chinese settled here first, and there are many opportunities to find work. So about one quarter of all Taiwan immigrants to the United States live in New York. But why are they concentrated in Flushing in particular?

"Flushing was really brought back to life by the Chinese, you might say." Queens College professor Chen Hsiang-shui remembers that back in the '70s and '80s several large stores opened in parts of Long Island and Queens, which led many white residents to move away due to dissatisfaction with their deteriorating living environment. Flushing's good transportation links attracted an influx of poorer families which caused the neighborhood to go steadily downhill.

What makes Flushing so convenient to get to? Flushing is situated on the northern side of Queens, and was originally intended as a center in the city plan. JFK International Airport and La Guardia airport are both close by. In addition to the subway, Flushing is also served by 23 bus routes. So its location combined with other factors have made it very attractive to the Chinese community.

The move to Flushing by New York's biggest Chinese-language newspaper, the World Daily, on which much of the Chinese community depends for information and advertising, finally opened people's eyes to the area's potential. "We really moved for the convenience of our staff," explains proprietor Li Hou-wei. For the paper's noon edition staff were required to go to the office in Chinatown at 3 a.m., yet 90% of them lived in Queens and had to spend three hours a day commuting. So the decision was made to move to Flushing, with its handy transportation links and excellent potential. The newspaper's Flushing office formally went into operation in July 1980.

Food and drink is another factor that has attracted Chinese into the area. When Terry H. Huang opened his D/B/A Kam Sen food business here in '81 he was regarded as a crank, but now he can be seen to be endowed with unique insight. "Security and parking problems have encouraged most Chinese to settle in Queens, where these are minimal," Mr. Huang says. The Chinese are very fussy about their food and drink, and like their own local dishes best. They would often go all the way to Manhattan's Chinatown to shop, but that is no longer necessary with so many Chinese shops in Flushing, right here in Queens. In 1980 Jentai Tsai set up the Asia Bank in Flushing. He too spotted its great potential, with handy transportation and residential neighborhoods. His bank has helped entrepreneurs a great deal with obtaining loans of capital. "We first generation entrepreneurs used to find it very difficult to obtain loans from American banks," Tsai notes ruefully.

Many Chinese have settled in Flushing thanks to its good environment, convenient location and good community relations, boosting the local real estate market. "Chinese people love to buy real estate, and once they have built houses they usually sell them to other Chinese," says Yang Wen-yu, president of U.S. Eastern Times, and this is how the neighborhood came into being. "Business is the fuel, and real estate the engine," is how Chen Hsiang-shui describes the area's two great motive forces.

Another way of putting down roots is neighborhood involvement.

"Chinese just tend to keep their wealth quietly to themselves, they rarely donate funds to good causes," is how Julie Lin, secretary of the Flushing Chinese Business Association (FCBA), sums up a widespread perception of the Chinese among the local community. Some people protest about the exclusive use of Chinese characters in some areas where shop signs and menus are all written in Chinese, which they see as discrimination against Americans. So the FCBA has taken on a public relations role which involves not only reflecting the views of both sides but striving to encourage greater participation in community affairs. "We have donated money for repainting the subway station," says Julie Lin, and the Chinese community is also involved in providing Christmas street decorations and plays a full part in the festivities at that time.

The early overseas scholars who settled down in New York have recently started to feel slightly neglected. As Yang Wen-yu explains, great attention used to be paid to their suggestions at home, both by government and the private sector, when Taiwan was more cut off from sources of outside information. But now Taiwan's economy is booming and the American Chinese have come to look a bit jaded by comparison. They are sometimes mocked by their compatriots for dressing and acting like foreigners, being niggardly with money and speaking in a vulgar way.

Politically they have ceased to be the "grassroots," so who listens to these scholars any more? "Middle-aged businessmen in particular have reached the peak of their careers and now feel frustrated," says Yang Wen-yu. As Yueh Chiou, a correspondent of Taiwan Television Enterprise in New York, points out, Chinese working in foreign companies can only rise so far, so of course they feel disgruntled. "They are worried about getting the sack and being left stranded with a worthless university degree." Yang Wen-yu explains that many of this generation are now going back to Taiwan to further their careers.

"Lots of people are finding jobs back in Taiwan nowadays, even working as taxi drivers," says travel agent Chang T'ing-t'ing. So many people are travelling back to Taiwan, especially overseas students who graduate in June and go home in August, that her airline ticketing business is proving a huge success. It is one of Flushing's most exceptional businesses.

"A lot of people have installed satellite receiving dishes now too," Chang T'ing-t'ing points out, and people in Flushing are very concerned about developments in Taiwan. Most of those who have lived in America a long time tend to be highly conservative, and for example worry a good deal about goings on in the ROC's parliamentary bodies. If they spot a visitor from Taiwan at a restaurant, they will invariably enquire how things are these days back in Taipei.

[Picture Caption]

Seeing these shop signs gives the illusion of being transported back to Taipei.

(Facing above) Flushing has a high concentration of Chinese New Yorkers.

(Facing above) Chinese people can't do without Chinese food, and the desire to live where it is readily available is an important factor in the evolution of Chinatowns.

(Above) Convenient transportation links have been a major reason for Flushing's prosperity.

(Below) New York is bursting with talent, and Flushing is no exception. Former international basketball coach Wang Tseng-yu has settled here with his children.

(Above) TTV reporter Yueh Chiou and his wife Chang T'ing-t'ing run their own travel agency. Business has really taken off with increasing numbers of people flying back to Taipei.

(Below) A professional in the Chinese district can only earn fees on a case by case basis, so attorney David S. Chang's experience tells him.

(Above) Apart from a lack of funeral parlors, everything else is just like home.

(Below) In the small Chinese market attentive service is a competitive strategy.

(Above) A homely working environment is how U.S. Eastern Times editor Yang Wen-yu retains talented staff.

(Below) A Taiwan Chinese hairdresser's salon is decked out just as in Taipei.

(Above) They may not occupy detached homes, but more and more immigrants of Chinese descent are moving into apartment blocks.

(Below) These two pairs of kids of different racial origin are having a "discussion" about a ball. The ball that caused all the fuss can't be seen in the picture.

Flushing's rosy future prospects can be judged from the impressive new headquarters of the World Daily newspaper.

Facing above） Chinese people can't do without Chinese food, and the desire to live where it is readily available is an important factor in the evolution of Chinatowns.

Seeing these shop signs gives the illusion of being transported back to Taipei.

（Above） Convenient transportation links have been a major reason for Flushing's prosperity.

（Below） New York is bursting with talent, and Flushing is no exception. Former international basketball coach Wang Tseng-yu has settled here with his children.

（Above） TTV reporter Yueh Chiou and his wife Chang T'ing-t'ing run their own travel agency. Business has really taken off with increasing numbers of people flying back to Taipei.

（Below） A professional in the Chinese district can only earn fees on a case by case basis, so attorney David S. Chang's experience tells him.

（Above） Apart from a lack of funeral parlors, everything else is just like home.

（Below） In the small Chinese market attentive service is a competitive strategy.

（Above） A homely working environment is how U.S. Eastern Times editor Yang Wen-yu retains talented staff.

（Below） A Taiwan Chinese hairdresser's salon is decked out just as in Taipei.

（Above） They may not occupy detached homes, but more and more immigrants of Chinese descent are moving into apartment blocks.

（Below） These two pairs of kids of different racial origin are having a "discussion" about a ball. The ball that caused all the fuss can't be seen in the picture.

Flushing's rosy future prospects can be judged from the impressive new headquarters of the World Daily newspaper.