Altogether New York has three Chinatowns. One of these is Flushing in the borough of Queens, which has the appellation "Little Taipei" (see the report in our June 1990 issue); the second is the Old Chinatown on the Lower East Side in Manhattan; and within the last three to four years, because of the expansion in the Lower East Side Chinatown, more than 100 Chinese shops have congregated on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, which is connected to the Lower East Side by subway--this is New York's newest Chinatown.

　Flushing: Most Familiar to Taiwan Visitors: For those coming from Taiwan, the feeling is completely different for the three Chinatowns. In Flushing, Chinese-owned shops like restaurants, dry goods shops, or gift emporiums are lined up alongside the shops of Korean, Italian, and other immigrants. At night, the Chinese who close up their shops basically go home to middle or upper class neighborhoods, taking the "scattered" pattern of residence.

　In Queens, the streets where there are more Chinese are still broad, clean, and well-lit, maintaining a certain "American standard." For those from Taiwan, Flushing is that much more embracing, because not only is it possible to communicate in either Mandarin or Taiwanese, but also the Chinese language shop signs are "very Taipei."

　The Lower East Side: Where Cantonese Is King: The Chinatown on the Lower East Side is different. Here the "hinterland" is quite large, and is a densely concentrated Chinese neighborhood. Using the Chinese honorific arch at the Manhattan Bridge as a landmark, going west it approaches where the city government is located; to the south it abuts on Wall Street; and to the east the area all the way to the Puerto Rican neighborhood at Henry Street is included in its scope. And its area is continually expanding.

　This is a classic Chinese district, supplying the special needs of Chinese from funerals to dim-sum. There is no service--food, clothing, residence, employment, birth, aging, sickness, death--which is not included. Because its history goes back so far--it took shape in the 1890's--and because maintenance has been less than thorough, the whole area shows decay and disarray. It is markedly different from the forest of modern office buildings only a half-hour's walk away in Manhattan.

　But also because it goes so far back, one can see the traces of history everywhere. For example, at Mott Street in the center of Chinatown is the site of the Association for the Rebirth of China where Dr. Sun Yat-sen came to promote revolution in China. China's first ambassador to the US, Chen Lan-pin, and Li Hung-chang, the renowned late-Ch'ing minister, both passed through this place. The older generation tells that a number of dishes which are now popular among foreigners came about because Li Hung-chang ordered them when he was here. If you just stand on a street corner and look about casually, it would not be hard to find restaurants, coffee shops, or curio shops over 100 years old. This is a very conservative, very closed Chinese society, and even today only people who can speak Cantonese are recognized as equals by local residents. And this is said to be real progress over 20 or 30 years ago, when only those who spoke the Tai-Shan dialect were acknowledged as "Chinese."

　Brooklyn's "New Chinatown": The Chinatown on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, by contrast, looks like the new kid on the block. The Chinese areas here mainly follow the streets with entrances to the B, D, or Q lines on the subway. Restaurants, clothing factories, dry goods shops, and curio shops, and even a Chinese nursery school, are stuck hither and thither along the main streets, and you can see the embryo of a Chinatown similar to what the Lower East Side must have looked like in those early days. Besides the subway, this area also has a tour bus run by Chinese themselves which connects it to the Lower East Side Chinatown; a lot of people take the bus to the Lower East Side to go to work in the morning, then come back here at night to live. You could say that this is a satellite city of the Lower East Side.

　Brooklyn is also the main shooting location for the film Season of Love in Another Land. It goes without saying that the frightening scenes of Chinese shops being robbed at gunpoint and women being raped are exaggerated, but crime is even worse here than in Flushing or the Lower East Side. Those who dare to live here are mostly new immigrants with poor economic situations. "Some of them only have 50 dollars on them when they get off the plane," says Brooklyn Chinese-American Association Executive Board Chairman Paul P. Mak.

　Nevertheless, because the location is convenient and prices are still low--on average about 20% lower than the Lower East Side--it is seen by many Chinese as an area of great potential for a new Chinese district. Two years ago, the World Daily News opened the first World Bookstore here, showing that they look highly upon this area, and the flourishing of the Brooklyn Chinatown can be anticipated.

[Picture Caption]

The Brooklyn Chinatown is concentrated along 8th Avenue.

Vendors in the Lower East Side often attract more customers than regular shops.

The streets of Flushing are often highly reminiscent of Taiwan. (photo by Vincent Chang)

The streets of Flushing are often highly reminiscent of Taiwan. （photo by Vincent Chang）

Vendors in the Lower East Side often attract more customers than regular shops.