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Short Stuff: Chinatowns · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and it's just short stuff. Getty up, let's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: go a little sailor salon towards short stuff. Now, yeah,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: this is about chinatowns. And uh, I found this to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: be very interesting because I love a good Chinatown or
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a good japan town, or I like town. I like
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: ethnic groupings, love Koreatown. He so live in your Koreatown
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in l A. Actually I was in Little Armenia technically
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: was my neighborhood. But I like groupings of ethnicities. I
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: think it's cool. I think it's something that people might
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: naturally do. But in the case of Chinatowns, it's not
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: only something that can help immigrants as they come into
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the country and did from the very beginning. But sadly,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the dark side is they were a necessity because of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: racial exclusion and and to protect themselves sin seek refuge
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: among their own because for many, many years in this
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: country there was, and some might say there's anti Asian
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: bias that continues today in the wake of covid Um.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: And by some might say, I mean it's fairly obvious
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: because what's going on very sadly, but for many many
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: years in this country there was a very much anti
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Chinese immigrant feeling going on. Um. A lot of it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: had to do with, you know, good old fashioned Americans
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: thought that Chinese immigrants were taking their jobs. And Chinese
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: immigrants did come to this country on mass starting in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds of Chinese immigrants came in the eighteen
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: fifties alone. Yeah, that's quite a bit. UM. And they
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: were drawn to the United States pretty understandably because all
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of a sudden America was this land of opportunity, UM,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and the westward expansion was producing a lot of railroad jobs.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: There was a gold rush in California at the time.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Apparently the um lumber mills and the lumber industy stream
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest was really getting going. UM. And so
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it attracted a tremendous amount of Chinese people. And at
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: first I get the impression I think from this is
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: this a how stuff works article? You got? Um. It
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: basically makes the point that you know, at first, UM,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the influx of Chinese immigrants in the mid nineteenth century
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: where was tolerated, if not just you know, if not welcome,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: they were it was fine. And then UM, as they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: started to show up in greater and greater numbers, faster
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and faster than the xenophobia really kicked in. And like
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you said, um, they were they were basically like you
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: go over here and and you stay together. And this
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: is a really great example of um Chinese immigrants making
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: lemon chicken out of lemons um and creating these really vibrant,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: really interesting communities that almost as like, well, can we come,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: can we come eat over? And your and your little
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: enclave that we forced you guys to make um And
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that's where those China towns came from. It's a pretty
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: cool example of of of of something good coming out
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of something bad. You know. Yeah, the first formally recognized
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Chinatown was in San Francisco, and this was in the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, and it was called Little Canton at the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: time because most of the immigrants in that area at
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the time were from what was known as Canton in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: southeastern China. Today it's known as I would say Guangso,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure that's wrong. What is it guang joe? Really? Yes,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a new day and stuff you should know history pronunciation. Uh.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: In the eighteen fifty three, I think is where when
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: they first actually said the word Chinatown in the newspaper,
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  Speaker 1: and it was about a twelve block area, twenty two
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: thousand Chinese immigrants, so many people by the end of
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, and at the time, because of the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Page Law from eighteen seventy five that prevented Chinese men
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: from bringing their wives and kids, it was there was
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a ratio of twenty men to every woman in Chinatown
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: because either single men only were coming over or men
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: left their families behind to come over. Right, So, I
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: mean twenty one in twenty two thousand people living in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: uh in in I guess San Francisco's Chinatown in the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighties and a twelve black district, and um, only
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: hundred of them were women. That's nuts, dude, but them
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: as I guess, America started to ease its immigration laws,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: especially against the Chinese immigrants after World War Two. It
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: took quite a while, and so finally women, um, wives, daughters,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: moms started coming over. And I get the impression that
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the character and the complexion of um chinatowns or in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the United States started to change. They became a little
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: more family oriented. Yeah, And if you've ever been to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a chinatown, you uh have probably seen what's known as
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: a a pi fang, which is, you know those beautiful
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: decorated gateway arches that sort of lead you into the district. UM.
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  Speaker 1: The business districts are usually defined by a few different
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: uh A few. I mean, well, there's there's tons of
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  Speaker 1: Chinese owned businesses. Obviously, they very early on were involved
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in shoemaking, laundry service, cigar production, and they serve Chinese people,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: they serve white people. And in those days, the organizations
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that serve the actual immigrants in Chinatown were broken down
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  Speaker 1: into social organizations uh, district and family organizations, which were
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: further broken down into like what region basically you came from,
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  Speaker 1: and then what's known as tongs uh. These are brotherhoods
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: that they would provide housing and jobs or legal services
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: for people just arriving into the community. Yeah, because, I
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: mean that was one of the greatest functions and first
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: functions of Chinatown. UM in the United States was too too.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: It was a place where if you were a Chinese immigrant,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that's where you went and the community would help take
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: care of you. UM, which is a it's a that's
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a pretty great thing to have when you're newly arrived
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in a new country. You know, I think so too.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Should we take a break, I think, go to the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: dark side. Yeah, exactly, let's do that. We'll be right
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: back alright. So, like I was saying, chuck. At first, Um,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the American sentiment towards newly arriving Chinese immigrants was at
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: least tolerant, and then um, it quickly turned to xenophobia.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: And one of the problems with having a lot of people, um,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of the same ethnics of the all living in one places,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: it's an easy target for outraged, um, xenophobic white mobs
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to attack and burn down and beat people up in there.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And um, that's what happened a lot in the late
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: nineteenth and early twentieth century in chinatowns around the United States.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Anytime there was a problem and it was blamed on
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Chinese people, there was probably a violent attack on chinatowns.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: It just seemed to be par for the course. Yeah.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: There was one in eighteen seventy one in Los Angeles
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  Speaker 1: where a white mob lynched seventeen Chinese men and boys. Uh,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And the governor at the time, John Bigler said, you know,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: we that we need more restrictions on these Chinese immigrants.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Coming in, so uh, it was you know, the local
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: government wasn't doing them any favors at all. I think
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty two is when the Chinese Exclusion Act
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: was passed. It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act for
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: God's sake, chuck. Yeah, and this was one of America's
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: very first um immigration like restrictive immigration laws. Yeah. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it it basically said, if you are already here as
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a Chinese immigrant, you're not going to be able to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: become a naturalized citizen. You were not going to kick
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you out, but don't count on becoming an American. And
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: if you're not here already, stay out. We're not letting
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: any more Chinese people into the country. That was the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Chinese Exclusion Act of eighteen eighty two. And like I
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: was saying, it wasn't until World War Two that they
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: started to um relax those restrictions. So restrictions against Chinese
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: immigration were pretty tight for about sixty years at least. Yeah,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and there was a lot of you know, anti Chinese
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: journalism going on. I think they started to try and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: purposely spread the word and say that you know Chinatown,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: you don't want to go to Chinatown if you're a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: white person and do business with them. It's there's a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: lot of crime there. It's dirty and disease there. I
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: think during the Bubonic Plague pan to make of the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: earlier twentieth century, they actually um, I think the chinatown
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: in Honolulua was actually destroyed and the one in San
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Francisco was totally cordoned off. Yeah, and I mean as
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: as much of a target as chinatowns were, um, it
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: was even worse for people who lived outside of chinatowns.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Um Like they were even um I guess easier to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: get at. There was no safety in numbers or anything
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: like that. So over time, UM, I think like the violence,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the anti Asian violence of the early twentieth century subsided
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and there was um a kind of like enforced threatened
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: peace that kind of broke out, and chinatowns kind of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: went to being like, uh, they went back to being
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: like this exotic place, but a place where you could,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you know, as a white person or a non Asian
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: American could travel to and and go, you know, eat
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and the restaurants or used the business as that kind
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: of thing. By mid to century, Yeah, there are roughly
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: fifty chinatowns in the United States today, most major cities
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: have a chinatown. Atlanta doesn't have a Chinatown. Chinatown, but
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: there we have an area in Atlanta called Buford Highway
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and it's just this it's a street and this road
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: has uh is well known for just having a bunch
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of um groups of ethnicities sorted together. So there'll be
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: an area where there's a lot of Chinese business. There's
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a Chinese mall um So I just actually went over
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the other day to the North China eatery and got
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: like a hundred dumplings to go to freeze because you
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: can go home. They actually sell them. They sell buns
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and dumplings frozen, like not wholesale but just bulk, so
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: you know it's delicious stuff. And uh, but all kinds
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of ethnicities. There's a there's you know, Filipino area, there's
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Mexican area. Not Vietnamese food. Man, just do your favor. Yeah,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: if you ever go to Atlanta, just sort of ask
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: where Buford Highway is and go eat and shot down. Yeah,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: it's really like you're not going to go wrong. But
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: not a true true Chinatown like you would think of,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: unfortunately in Atlanta. But you know, Portland's d c Honolulu, Seattle, Chicago, Philly, Houston,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: New York. Obviously Houston, Texas as a chinatown. UH. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: now because of UM gentrifications, a lot of these chinatowns
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: are threatened. Obviously in cities like San Francisco where everything
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: is becoming gentrified. UH, chinatowns are starting to shift to
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the suburbs a little more. And the Monterey Park, California,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: was dubbed the first suburban chinatown and became majority Asian
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: American in the nineteen nineties. Yeah, which is you know,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I mean in for those residents who are staying UM,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: A lot of the second generation are like, I don't
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: really want to live in the middle of the city
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: any longer. I want to go have a bigger house
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Like you said, they're moving to the suburbs.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: But for the ones who are staying, like, the cost
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: of living in the city is sky hike compared to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the suburbs. I don't care what city you're in. UM.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: So that's a big problem. Gentrification. UM is forcing out
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the ones who do want to stay. And so there's
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: a push among UM, second and third and more generation
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Chinese Americans to say, hey, we need to make sure
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that these places are are protected culturally, you know, not
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: we need to keep the white people out or anything
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: like that, but we need to make sure that they
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: just don't get overdeveloped or anything like that, that they
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: maintain their original character to a large degree. Right at
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the very least, No tech Bros. No none. Which is
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: ironic that San Francisco's Chinatown is still the most vibrant
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and flourishing chinatown in the United States. It's the o
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: G and it's still going strong. Yeah. I think DC's
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Chinatown only has three hundred Chinese people living there now. Yeah,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: well actually that was so unless that's risen it maybe
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: even less. Yeah, it's like a ten of what it
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: was in Yeah, so visit a chinatown everyone. I go
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to Chinatown in New York City, and uh, bring cash.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: A lot of these places dim sum places will only
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: take cash. That's my little travel tip for you. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: eat some dim sum and some soup dumplings. Very nice.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Are you got anything else? I got nothing else? Well,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: we're gonna go eat some dim sums. So short stuff
• 13:24
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• 13:29
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