Chinatown Research Paper

Words: 651
Pages: 3

Chinatown was and still today is a major part of Chinese American history, both bringing negative and a positive phenomenon to the Chinese people. Many of them embrace Chinatown as part of their culture and a history of how far they came. However, others feel that Chinatown is a major disgrace to them and their people. I think Ronald Takaki views Chinatown as a negative phenomenon for Chinese. The Chinatowns were a shelter for the Chinese bachelor society, tourist centers and Chinese economic dominions. The Chinese had been confined to live within Chinatown for a long period. An 1885 investigation showed that an estimated of 14,500 bunks for bachelors within ten blocks of Chinatown. Then after 1900,as more and more families progressively settled single room units in Chinatown, complications of overpopulation became much more worse. Takaki mentioned a College student Esther Wong who said that American house owners didn’t want any Chinese occupant, forcing them to dwell in tight quarters. The buildings were dark, gloomy, without any bathrooms, and confidentiality. During the Great Depression, overpopulation in Chinatown heightened as jobless and relief-seeking Chinese from agrarian regions migrated to San Francisco. …show more content…
About 80 percent of Chinese living in Chinatown was substandard compared to the 20 percent of the city’s population. Of all the residential areas in San Francisco, Chinatown’s Tuberculosis rate was three times higher. Because there weren’t any parks in Chinatown, many of the children were compelled to play in the streets. Chinatown was a ghetto and it proved the Americans perspective that the Chinese as detrimental, unassailable, and abominable foreigners. Even if the Chinese were able to find employment in Chinatown, many of young Chinese faced more and more diminished employment