Through interviewing a few middle-aged Chinese born immigrants, some first-generation Chinese-American teenagers, and a pair who visited China for a few weeks, I gained some insight in both the diversity of Chinese culture in Chinatown and how well main land Chinese cultured is preserved. These seven interview events with eight people were a mix of me exploring Chinatown on my own, meeting up with a fellow team mate, Brandon, or over the phone. A bit of background: These were a bit of important information about the people I interviewed and attempted to in con: NLP- He is a street artist who immigrated to America at an older age. He lives in Sunset park, speaks broken English, and has the American dream. ???1- Random woman I asked about …show more content…
NLP really highlights the great points of Chinse culture—such as the food. It shows how some food staples which define traditional Chinese culture has been preserved in Chinatown. It is important to note that there is a difference in “traditional food” and Chinese-styled American food; one tends to be rooted in more steamed based dishes using more wholesome ingredients such as legumes (bok choy and cabbage for example) while the other tends to incorporate large amounts of fried foods and minced ingredients [1]. On one of my visits, I had lunch at a Canal Street spot, Shanghai café, which catered to a more American population while still keeping in touch with its Chinese roots. Besides selling American food such as lo mien, it sold traditional deserts such as pineapple bun, red bean dumpling and egg tart. I personally found that block an interesting cultural gradient; in consecutive order, it had: a fish market with workers who only spoke Chinese, followed by Shanghai café which sold both traditional dishes such as steamed dumplings and American-Chinese dishes like lo mein, followed by a Chinese-American take out
The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s. Chinese sailors visited New York City in the 1830s (“The Chinese Experience”); others came as servants to Europeans (“Chinese Americans”). However, these immigrants were few in number, and usually didn’t even st...
Nayan Shah is a leading expert in Asian American studies and serves as professor at the University of California. His work, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown explores how race, citizenship, and public health combined to illustrate the differences between the culture of Chinese immigrants and white norms in public-health knowledge and policy in San Francisco. Shah discusses how this knowledge impacted social lives, politics, and cultural expression. Contagious Divides investigates what it meant to be a citizen of Chinese race in nineteenth and twentieth-century San Francisco.
This nation was relatively stable in the eyes of immigrants though under constant political and economic change. Immigration soon became an outlet by which this nation could thrive yet there was difficulty in the task on conformity. Ethnic groups including Mexicans and Chinese were judged by notions of race, cultural adaptations and neighborhood. Mary Lui’s “The Chinatown Trunk Mystery” and Michael Innis-Jimenez’s “Steel Barrio”, provides a basis by which one may trace the importance of a neighborhood in the immigrant experience explaining the way in which neighborhoods were created, how these lines were crossed and notions of race factored into separating these
Chinatown is regarded by many as one of the best films ever created. In 2007, The American Film Institute named “Chinatown” as #21 on their list of 100 greatest films! Chinatown is a great film because it is able to show how far people are willing to go to obtain riches and how a detective is willing to go to great lengths to solve the mysteries in front of him. The movie has been talked about in abundance and has even been influenced by real life events from the water company in Los Angeles. It is closely related to corruption and the 1% which people still talk about till this day. In the movie “Chinatown” directed by Roman Polanski, a private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds that he is caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder. Somewhat relating to this is the article “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” written by Joseph E. Stiglitz. In the article Stiglitz writes about how democracy in America is a mirage and that the rich
Lin, J. (1998). Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
The Chinatown neighborhood has different restaurants, including a Korean and numerous Chinese restaurants. The Chinatown neighborhood has many gift stores, cosmetics stores, ice cream stores, and bakery. As Harry Kiang’s Chicago’s Chinatown points out, “Tourists shop for oriental gifts or groceries or enjoy Chinese food; along Wentworth Avenue between 22nd and 24th Streets there are at least 30 Chinese restaurants. Printers and bakeries are found in the commercial areas along Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road” (Encyclopedia of Chicago). Many visitors came to the Chinatown neighborhood to visit the neighborhood and try the Chinese foods because it has the authentic Chinese food in the Chinese restaurants. Since many people came to the Chinatown and consumed in the neighborhood’s shops, the consumption promoted the local commercial development and increasing the economic growth. Therefore, the residents are very happy to have the shops and appeal to the
Chinese immigrants to the United States of America have experienced both setbacks and triumphs in the quest to seek a better life from themselves and their families. First arriving in America in the mid-1800s to seek jobs and escape poor conditions in their home country, the Chinese found work as labors and settled in areas known as Chinatowns (Takaki 181-183). In the early years, these immigrants experienced vast legal racism and sexism as women were forbidden to enter the country and the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented laborers from entering the country for years (Takaki 184-192). Today, the modern Chinese-American experience has changed from the experience of early Chinese immigrants. Many immigrants enter the country seeking better education as well employment (Yung, Chang, and Lai 244). Immigrant women have made great strides in achieving equality to men. Despite advancements, many immigrants still experience discrimination on some level. One example of a modern Chinese immigrant is “Ruby”, a college student who, with her parents, immigrated from Hong Kong to a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, 7 years ago. Ruby’s story shares insight on the modern Chinese-American experience and the struggles this group still faces. Chinese immigrants have long maintained a presence in the United States, and despite many struggles, have eventually began to reap the benefits of this great nation.
The viewer sees a private eye and beautiful client. First thought, "It’s definitely another Hollywood crime drama." On the surface, Chinatown has all the elements of a film noir: the presence of a beautiful but dangerous woman, otherwise known as the femme fatale, a gritty urban setting, compositional tension (highly contrasting light and dark colors or oblique camera angles), and themes of moral ambiguity and alienation. Chinatown, however, is different. Polanski shot Chinatown with color film, and though his colors do appear especially vivid, color film precludes the contrast intensity that black and white film offers. In addition, Evelyn is not the classic femme fatale. Though Jake mistakes her for her husband’s killer at first, Mrs. Mulwray eventually emerges as the story’s most tragic victim. Yes, Chinatown for the most part conforms to the structure of film noir, but this film departs from the general genre, creating an entirely different element in which Roman Polanksi examines not only big-money corruption and its malignant obsession with money, but also larger, more human themes such as ignorance, authority, and the pervasiveness of evil.
In conclusion, Chinese cultures prohibition is seen, by observing the relationship expectations, education, and gender roles and jobs. The Chinese culture needs to be more cultivated as it constricts the newer generation’s capability in Canada. In Wayson Choy’s book The Jade of Peony, he describes the struggles of a immigrated Chinese family, as they try to follow two cultures to adjust in a new country like Canada, but still hang on to the old traditions of China, the kids of the family struggled as they tried to follow these two cultures. We have all been in a similar situation where we have immigrated to a new country to seek a better future where we have a better lifestyle and education, to help our family grow.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
She chooses to cite only academic publications, Canadian governmental documents, and local newspaper articles in her long list of sources, none of which provide perspective from the people around which the article is centered; the Chinese. This highlights the key issue within the article; whilst Anderson meticulously examines how Chinatown is simply a construction of white supremacists, she ignores what life was actually like for the area’s inhabitants, and how the notion of ‘Chinatown’ may have become a social reality for those living in it. By failing to include sources written by those who lived in Chinatown during the time or live there now, she misses the notion of Canadian-Chinese agency and its potential willingness to thrive and adapt in an environment she deems simply a hegemonic construction. Barman’s sources are all encompassing from varying perspectives. This may be due to the fact that she wrote the article 20 years after Anderson’s, during a time in which history was beginning to be viewed through a culturally-relativistic lens.
Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.
Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness.
Before I was five, I thought I was Chinese. However, I wondered why I couldn’t understand the Chinese patrons of Chinatown restaurants. Upon learning my true ethnicity, I pulled out a mammoth atlas we had under the bed. My father pointed to an “S”-shaped country bordering the ocean, below China. It was then that I learned my parents were refugees from Vietnam. “Boat people,” my mother, still struggling to grasp English back then, would hear kids whispering when she walked through the halls of her high school. Like many refugees, although my parents and their families weren’t wealthy when they came to America, they were willing to work hard, and like many Vietnamese parents, mine would tell me, “We want you to be success.”
Retrieved March 21, 2001, from the World Wide Web: http://english.peopledaily.com. Chinatown Online is a wonderful site with an abundance of information about China. http://www.chinatown-online.com/. Henslin, J. M. (1999). The Species of the Species. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach (4th ed.).