WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Chinatowns 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.240 Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:08.800 there's Chuck and it's just short stuff. Getty up, let's 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:15.160 go a little sailor salon towards short stuff. Now, yeah, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:17.959 this is about chinatowns. And uh, I found this to 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.759 be very interesting because I love a good Chinatown or 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:28.000 a good japan town, or I like town. I like 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.160 ethnic groupings, love Koreatown. He so live in your Koreatown 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.360 in l A. Actually I was in Little Armenia technically 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:40.440 was my neighborhood. But I like groupings of ethnicities. I 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.400 think it's cool. I think it's something that people might 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.599 naturally do. But in the case of Chinatowns, it's not 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.920 only something that can help immigrants as they come into 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.800 the country and did from the very beginning. But sadly, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.560 the dark side is they were a necessity because of 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:01.560 racial exclusion and and to protect themselves sin seek refuge 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.319 among their own because for many, many years in this 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.480 country there was, and some might say there's anti Asian 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.080 bias that continues today in the wake of covid Um. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.400 And by some might say, I mean it's fairly obvious 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.360 because what's going on very sadly, but for many many 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.640 years in this country there was a very much anti 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:26.039 Chinese immigrant feeling going on. Um. A lot of it 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.440 had to do with, you know, good old fashioned Americans 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.840 thought that Chinese immigrants were taking their jobs. And Chinese 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.840 immigrants did come to this country on mass starting in 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:40.440 the eighteen hundreds of Chinese immigrants came in the eighteen 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.000 fifties alone. Yeah, that's quite a bit. UM. And they 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.679 were drawn to the United States pretty understandably because all 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.720 of a sudden America was this land of opportunity, UM, 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.880 and the westward expansion was producing a lot of railroad jobs. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.279 There was a gold rush in California at the time. 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.240 Apparently the um lumber mills and the lumber industy stream 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.760 the Pacific Northwest was really getting going. UM. And so 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.400 it attracted a tremendous amount of Chinese people. And at 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.880 first I get the impression I think from this is 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.520 this a how stuff works article? You got? Um. It 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.080 basically makes the point that you know, at first, UM, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.400 the influx of Chinese immigrants in the mid nineteenth century 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.880 where was tolerated, if not just you know, if not welcome, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.000 they were it was fine. And then UM, as they 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.120 started to show up in greater and greater numbers, faster 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.359 and faster than the xenophobia really kicked in. And like 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.840 you said, um, they were they were basically like you 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.880 go over here and and you stay together. And this 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.280 is a really great example of um Chinese immigrants making 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:47.079 lemon chicken out of lemons um and creating these really vibrant, 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.960 really interesting communities that almost as like, well, can we come, 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.360 can we come eat over? And your and your little 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:56.959 enclave that we forced you guys to make um And 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.160 that's where those China towns came from. It's a pretty 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.960 cool example of of of of something good coming out 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:07.960 of something bad. You know. Yeah, the first formally recognized 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.800 Chinatown was in San Francisco, and this was in the 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.720 eighteen fifties, and it was called Little Canton at the 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.240 time because most of the immigrants in that area at 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.200 the time were from what was known as Canton in 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.280 southeastern China. Today it's known as I would say Guangso, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:29.239 but I'm sure that's wrong. What is it guang joe? Really? Yes, 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:35.839 a new day and stuff you should know history pronunciation. Uh. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.000 In the eighteen fifty three, I think is where when 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.560 they first actually said the word Chinatown in the newspaper, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.480 and it was about a twelve block area, twenty two 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.440 thousand Chinese immigrants, so many people by the end of 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.600 the eighteen eighties, and at the time, because of the 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.119 Page Law from eighteen seventy five that prevented Chinese men 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.880 from bringing their wives and kids, it was there was 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:03.360 a ratio of twenty men to every woman in Chinatown 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.320 because either single men only were coming over or men 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.440 left their families behind to come over. Right, So, I 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:15.000 mean twenty one in twenty two thousand people living in 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:20.120 uh in in I guess San Francisco's Chinatown in the 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.920 eighteen eighties and a twelve black district, and um, only 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.719 hundred of them were women. That's nuts, dude, but them 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.880 as I guess, America started to ease its immigration laws, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.760 especially against the Chinese immigrants after World War Two. It 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.240 took quite a while, and so finally women, um, wives, daughters, 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.880 moms started coming over. And I get the impression that 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:49.240 the character and the complexion of um chinatowns or in 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.600 the United States started to change. They became a little 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.600 more family oriented. Yeah, And if you've ever been to 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.800 a chinatown, you uh have probably seen what's known as 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.320 a a pi fang, which is, you know those beautiful 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:09.200 decorated gateway arches that sort of lead you into the district. UM. 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.960 The business districts are usually defined by a few different 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.720 uh A few. I mean, well, there's there's tons of 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:21.040 Chinese owned businesses. Obviously, they very early on were involved 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:26.560 in shoemaking, laundry service, cigar production, and they serve Chinese people, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.719 they serve white people. And in those days, the organizations 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.840 that serve the actual immigrants in Chinatown were broken down 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.480 into social organizations uh, district and family organizations, which were 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.280 further broken down into like what region basically you came from, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.880 and then what's known as tongs uh. These are brotherhoods 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:49.120 that they would provide housing and jobs or legal services 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.560 for people just arriving into the community. Yeah, because, I 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.680 mean that was one of the greatest functions and first 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.480 functions of Chinatown. UM in the United States was too too. 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.000 It was a place where if you were a Chinese immigrant, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.080 that's where you went and the community would help take 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.320 care of you. UM, which is a it's a that's 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.400 a pretty great thing to have when you're newly arrived 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.440 in a new country. You know, I think so too. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:15.960 Should we take a break, I think, go to the 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.120 dark side. Yeah, exactly, let's do that. We'll be right 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:45.640 back alright. So, like I was saying, chuck. At first, Um, 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.440 the American sentiment towards newly arriving Chinese immigrants was at 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.880 least tolerant, and then um, it quickly turned to xenophobia. 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.880 And one of the problems with having a lot of people, um, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.560 of the same ethnics of the all living in one places, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:06.720 it's an easy target for outraged, um, xenophobic white mobs 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.280 to attack and burn down and beat people up in there. 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.760 And um, that's what happened a lot in the late 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.440 nineteenth and early twentieth century in chinatowns around the United States. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.400 Anytime there was a problem and it was blamed on 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.680 Chinese people, there was probably a violent attack on chinatowns. 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.480 It just seemed to be par for the course. Yeah. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.080 There was one in eighteen seventy one in Los Angeles 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:36.400 where a white mob lynched seventeen Chinese men and boys. Uh, 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.640 And the governor at the time, John Bigler said, you know, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.600 we that we need more restrictions on these Chinese immigrants. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.680 Coming in, so uh, it was you know, the local 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.800 government wasn't doing them any favors at all. I think 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.960 in eighteen eighty two is when the Chinese Exclusion Act 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:57.320 was passed. It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act for 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.520 God's sake, chuck. Yeah, and this was one of America's 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:06.360 very first um immigration like restrictive immigration laws. Yeah. And 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.240 it it basically said, if you are already here as 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.240 a Chinese immigrant, you're not going to be able to 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.800 become a naturalized citizen. You were not going to kick 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.000 you out, but don't count on becoming an American. And 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.240 if you're not here already, stay out. We're not letting 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.160 any more Chinese people into the country. That was the 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.080 Chinese Exclusion Act of eighteen eighty two. And like I 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.080 was saying, it wasn't until World War Two that they 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.840 started to um relax those restrictions. So restrictions against Chinese 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:39.320 immigration were pretty tight for about sixty years at least. Yeah, 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.920 and there was a lot of you know, anti Chinese 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.840 journalism going on. I think they started to try and 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.920 purposely spread the word and say that you know Chinatown, 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:51.440 you don't want to go to Chinatown if you're a 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.880 white person and do business with them. It's there's a 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.280 lot of crime there. It's dirty and disease there. I 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.360 think during the Bubonic Plague pan to make of the 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.400 earlier twentieth century, they actually um, I think the chinatown 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.400 in Honolulua was actually destroyed and the one in San 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.640 Francisco was totally cordoned off. Yeah, and I mean as 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.120 as much of a target as chinatowns were, um, it 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.160 was even worse for people who lived outside of chinatowns. 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.640 Um Like they were even um I guess easier to 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.800 get at. There was no safety in numbers or anything 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:28.320 like that. So over time, UM, I think like the violence, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.480 the anti Asian violence of the early twentieth century subsided 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:38.640 and there was um a kind of like enforced threatened 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.880 peace that kind of broke out, and chinatowns kind of 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.520 went to being like, uh, they went back to being 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.800 like this exotic place, but a place where you could, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.880 you know, as a white person or a non Asian 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.480 American could travel to and and go, you know, eat 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.120 and the restaurants or used the business as that kind 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:03.280 of thing. By mid to century, Yeah, there are roughly 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.920 fifty chinatowns in the United States today, most major cities 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:13.080 have a chinatown. Atlanta doesn't have a Chinatown. Chinatown, but 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.280 there we have an area in Atlanta called Buford Highway 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.400 and it's just this it's a street and this road 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.720 has uh is well known for just having a bunch 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:27.240 of um groups of ethnicities sorted together. So there'll be 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.880 an area where there's a lot of Chinese business. There's 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.200 a Chinese mall um So I just actually went over 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.280 the other day to the North China eatery and got 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.959 like a hundred dumplings to go to freeze because you 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.560 can go home. They actually sell them. They sell buns 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:50.080 and dumplings frozen, like not wholesale but just bulk, so 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.480 you know it's delicious stuff. And uh, but all kinds 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.160 of ethnicities. There's a there's you know, Filipino area, there's 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:02.320 Mexican area. Not Vietnamese food. Man, just do your favor. Yeah, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.160 if you ever go to Atlanta, just sort of ask 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.640 where Buford Highway is and go eat and shot down. Yeah, 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.720 it's really like you're not going to go wrong. But 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.120 not a true true Chinatown like you would think of, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:21.280 unfortunately in Atlanta. But you know, Portland's d c Honolulu, Seattle, Chicago, Philly, Houston, 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:26.200 New York. Obviously Houston, Texas as a chinatown. UH. And 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:31.120 now because of UM gentrifications, a lot of these chinatowns 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.640 are threatened. Obviously in cities like San Francisco where everything 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:39.680 is becoming gentrified. UH, chinatowns are starting to shift to 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.360 the suburbs a little more. And the Monterey Park, California, 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.280 was dubbed the first suburban chinatown and became majority Asian 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.040 American in the nineteen nineties. Yeah, which is you know, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.559 I mean in for those residents who are staying UM, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.000 A lot of the second generation are like, I don't 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:57.760 really want to live in the middle of the city 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.000 any longer. I want to go have a bigger house 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.120 or whatever. Like you said, they're moving to the suburbs. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.880 But for the ones who are staying, like, the cost 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.240 of living in the city is sky hike compared to 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.959 the suburbs. I don't care what city you're in. UM. 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.200 So that's a big problem. Gentrification. UM is forcing out 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.440 the ones who do want to stay. And so there's 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.679 a push among UM, second and third and more generation 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.640 Chinese Americans to say, hey, we need to make sure 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.400 that these places are are protected culturally, you know, not 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:29.640 we need to keep the white people out or anything 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.240 like that, but we need to make sure that they 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.960 just don't get overdeveloped or anything like that, that they 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.160 maintain their original character to a large degree. Right at 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.920 the very least, No tech Bros. No none. Which is 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.320 ironic that San Francisco's Chinatown is still the most vibrant 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.000 and flourishing chinatown in the United States. It's the o 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.280 G and it's still going strong. Yeah. I think DC's 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.800 Chinatown only has three hundred Chinese people living there now. Yeah, 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.600 well actually that was so unless that's risen it maybe 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.440 even less. Yeah, it's like a ten of what it 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:05.560 was in Yeah, so visit a chinatown everyone. I go 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.720 to Chinatown in New York City, and uh, bring cash. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.080 A lot of these places dim sum places will only 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.360 take cash. That's my little travel tip for you. And 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.800 eat some dim sum and some soup dumplings. Very nice. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.320 Are you got anything else? I got nothing else? Well, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.680 we're gonna go eat some dim sums. So short stuff 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:29.920 is apt. Stuff you should know is a production of 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.280 I Heart Radio. 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