CHINATOWN, U.S.A.: a state of mind, a world within a world, a neighborhood that exists in more cities than you might imagine. Every day, Americans find "something different" in Chinatown's narrow lanes and overflowing markets, tasting exotic delicacies from a world apart or bartering for a trinket on the street -- all without ever leaving the country. It's a place that's foreign yet familiar, by now quite well known on the Western cultural radar, but splitting the difference still gives many visitors to Chinatown the sense, above all, that things are not what they seem -- something everyone in popular culture, from Charlie Chan to Jack Nicholson, has been telling us for decades. And it's true that few visitors realize just how much goes on beneath the surface of this vibrant microcosm, a place with its own deeply felt history and stories of national cultural significance. But Chinatown is not a place that needs solving; it's a place that needs a more specific telling. In American Chinatown, acclaimed travel writer Bonnie Tsui takes an affectionate and attentive look at the neighborhood that has bewitched her since childhood, when she eagerly awaited her grandfather's return from the fortune-cookie factory. Tsui visits the country's four most famous Chinatowns -- San Francisco (the oldest), New York (the biggest), Los Angeles (the film icon), Honolulu (the crossroads) -- and makes her final, fascinating stop in Las Vegas (the newest; this Chinatown began as a mall); in her explorations, she focuses on the remarkable experiences of ordinary people, everyone from first-to fifth-generation Chinese Americans. American Chinatown breaks down the enigma of Chinatown by offering narrative glimpses: intriguing characters who reveal the realities and the unexpected details of Chinatown life that American audiences haven't heard. There are beauty queens, celebrity chefs, immigrant garment workers; there are high school kids who are changing inner-city life in San Francisco, Chinese extras who played key roles in 1940s Hollywood, new arrivals who go straight to dealer school in Las Vegas hoping to find their fortunes in their own vision of "gold mountain." Tsui's investigations run everywhere, from mom-and-pop fortune-cookie factories to the mall, leaving no stone unturned. By interweaving her personal impressions with the experiences of those living in these unique communities, Tsui beautifully captures their vivid stories, giving readers a deeper look into what "Chinatown" means to its inhabitants, what each community takes on from its American home, and what their experience means to America at large. For anyone who has ever wandered through Chinatown and wondered what it was all about, and for Americans wanting to understand the changing face of their own country, American Chinatown is an all-access pass.

Chinatown Pretty features beautiful portraits and heartwarming stories of trend-setting seniors across six Chinatowns. Andria Lo and Valerie Luu have been interviewing and photographing Chinatown's most fashionable elders on their blog and Instagram, Chinatown Pretty, since 2014. Chinatown Pretty is a signature style worn by pòh pohs (grandmas) and gùng gungs (grandpas) everywhere—but it's also a life philosophy, mixing resourcefulness, creativity, and a knack for finding joy even in difficult circumstances. • Photos span Chinatowns in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Vancouver. • The style is a mix of modern and vintage, high and low, handmade and store bought clothing. • This is a celebration of Chinese American culture, active old-age, and creative style. Chinatown Pretty shares nuggets of philosophical wisdom and personal stories about immigration and Chinese-American culture. This book is great for anyone looking for advice on how to live to a ripe old age with grace and good humor—and, of course, on how to stay stylish. • This book will resonate with photography buffs, fashionistas, and Asian Americans of all ages. • Chinatown Pretty has been featured by Vogue.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Design Sponge, Rookie, Refinery29, and others. • With a textured cover and glossy bellyband, this beautiful volume makes a deluxe gift. • Add it to the shelf with books like Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen, and Fruits by Shoichi Aoki.

This book is a definitive history of Chinatowns in Canada. From instant Chinatowns in gold- and coal-mining communities to new Chinatowns which have sprung up in city neighbourhoods and suburbs since World War II, it portrays the changing landscapes and images of Chinatowns from the late nineteenth century to the present. It also includes a detailed case study of Victoria's Chinatown, the earliest such settlement in Canada. The culmination of twenty years of research, which has included detailed surveys of over fifty Chinatowns in North America and interviews with numerous community leaders and city planners in all major Chinatowns in Canada, this book explains why Historic Chinatowns are seen as important by Chinese today and why they may survive despite the competing attractions of New Chinatowns. It also sheds new light on the chracteristics of these communities and provides useful insights for geographers, historians, sociologists and anthropologists.

The phenomenon of “Chinatown” has been of great interest to the general public as well as scholars. Movies and story books have made Chinatown to be exotic, mysterious, gangster filled, and sometimes, a gilded ghetto, an ethnopolis, a cultural diaspora as well as a model community. The authors of Chinatowns around the World seek to expose the social reality of Chinatowns with empirical data. The authors also examine the changing nature and functions of Chinatowns around the world while scrutinizing how factors emanating from larger societies and other external factors have shaped Chinatown development and transformation. The activities of the recent Chinese transnational migrants are also critically appraised.

The authors of Chinatowns around the World: Gilded Ghetto, Ethnopolis, and Cultural Diaspora seek to expose the social reality of Chinatowns with empirical data while examining the changing nature and functions of Chinatowns in different countries around the world.

In the American popular imagination, Chinatown is a mysterious and dangerous place, clannish and dilapidated, filled with sweatshops, vice, and organizational crime. This volume presents a real-world picture of New York City's Chinatown, countering the "orientalist" view by looking at the human dimensions and the larger forces of globalization that make this neighbourhood both unique and broadly instructive.

This book explores the history, the reality, and the complex fantasy of American and European Chinatowns and traces the patterns of transnational travel and traffic between China, South East Asia, Europe, and the United States which informed the development of these urban sites. Despite obvious structural or architectural similarities and overlaps, Chinatowns differ markedly depending on their location. European versions of Chinatowns can certainly not be considered mere replications of the American model. Paying close attention to regional specificities and overarching similarities, Chinatowns thus discloses the important European backdrop to a phenomenon commonly associated with North America. It starts from the assumption that the historical and modern Chinatown needs to be seen as complicatedly involved in a web of cultural memory, public and private narratives, ideologies, and political imperatives. Most of the contributors to this volume have multidisciplinary and multilingual backgrounds and are familiar with several different instances of the Chinese diasporic experience. With its triangular approach to the developments between China and the urban Chinese diasporas of North America and Europe, Chinatowns reveals connections and interlinkages which have not been addressed before.