Chinatowns in Asia
Encyclopedia
Chinatown
s in Asia are widespread with a large concentration of overseas Chinese
in East Asia
and Southeast Asia
and ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China - particularly the provinces of Guangdong
, Fujian
, and Hainan
- and settled in countries such as Brunei
, Cambodia
, Indonesia
, Laos
, Malaysia, Myanmar
, Singapore
, the Philippines
, Thailand
, Vietnam
, Japan
and Korea
centuries ago—starting as early as the Tang Dynasty
, but mostly notably in the 17th through the 19th centuries (during the reign of the Qing Dynasty
), and well into the 20th century.
During the years of European colonialism
in Southeast Asia, many Chinese arrived in these countries to find work, often causing ethnic tension between them and the native population; in particular, between ethnic Malaysian Chinese
Buddhists and Malay Malaysian
Muslim
s in the 1960s. These ethnic Chinese arrived from southern mainland China and were mainly Chinese people of Cantonese
(Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar), Hakka
(Indonesia, India), Hainanese (Vietnam), Hokkien (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar), and Teochew
/Chaozhou (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand) stock.
The largest Chinatown in Asia is located in Yokohama
, Japan
. (See Yokohama Chinatown
). These early groups did not identify as hailing from Mainland China, but from their subregion of origin; for example, the Cantonese did not relate to the Hakka people.
Binondo, located in Manila, Philippines is considered by many to be the oldest existing Chinatown in the world, having been officially established in 1594 by the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines that set off the area as a permanent settlement for Chinese who had converted to Christianity. (A separate area, then called the Parian, was alloted for uncoverted Chinese.)
The ethnic Chinese represent a large minority population in most of these countries—with Singapore being the exception where Chinese-origin Singaporeans form the majority of the population. Of all overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, however, the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam tend to retain the strongest ties to the Chinese culture and language and, hence, remain relatively isolated from the ethnic Vietnamese
majority. Chinese Indonesian
s and Chinese Filipino
s have adopted to Indonesia
n and Filipino
ways, respectively. Thai Chinese
have generally assimilated into the larger Thai
population.
's Chinatown is on Street 136.
Cambodia experienced ethnic Chinese settlement beginning in the 15th century. In recent decades, a large number of new and more recent Mainland Chinese immigrants have immigrated to Cambodia. Several Cambodian cities are known or suspected to have started out as Chinese settlements.
live in or near is a Chinatown in Calcutta
. Many Hakkas live in a community known as Tangra, which is dominated by leather tanneries (the Hindu
majority will not touch cattle) and Chinese restaurants. Another Chinatown
is in Byculla, Mumbai
; however it has diminished in population as many of its Indian-born Chinese ethnic residents have migrated, mainly to major immigrant destinations such as Australia
, Canada
,the United Kingdom and the United States
. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/31/2003181147
district of Jakarta
on Jalan Gajah Mada (Gajah Mada main street), the Pancoran streets, Jatinegara
in East Jakarta
and Krendang
in West Jakarta
has a large ethnic Chinese population. In 1998, many Chinatown businesses were burned by indigenous Indonesians and the area suffered from arson during race riots, known as Jakarta Riots of May 1998
. Many Chinese left Indonesia when their fellow countrymen persecuted them, but there are still large numbers of Chinese Indonesians remain. Two century before, Dutch East India Company
in 1740 also massacred them.
Other Indonesian Chinatowns include Gang Semawis and Jalan Pekojan in Semarang
. There are also numerous Chinese Indonesians in Surabaya
- East Java, Bangka Belitung - Pangkal Pinang
, Sungailiat, Toboali
and Muntok
(with Hakka majority) , Medan - North Sumatra (with Hokkien majority), Pontianak
- West Kalimantan (TeoChew majority) and Singkawang
- West Kalimantan (Hakka majority, almost 70% of city population).
A Chinatown in Indonesian
is also known as Pecinan.
In Japan, ethnic Chinese immigrants are called kakyō
. The largest Chinatown in Asia and one of the largest in the world is located in Yokohama
. (See Yokohama Chinatown
) (Japanese: Chūkagai). The city of Kobe has a growing Chinatown (See Kobe Chinatown
) (Japanese: Nankinmachi). In Nagasaki, its Chinatown (See Nagasaki Chinatown
) (Japanese: Shinchimachi) was founded in 1698 AD. Most Chinese immigrants in Japan were from Taiwan who arrived during the Japanese colonial period
.
and Seoul
. Seoul's Chinatown is unofficial. A newly planned Chinatown was built in suburban Goyang
(Ilsan
) in 2005.
Incheon's Chinatown
is Korea's only official Chinatown
. It is in Jung-gu
and was formed in 1884. It used to be the largest such Chinatown in South Korea before the exodus of Chinese from the county. In 2002, to capitalize on the large number of Mainland Chinese visitors who were visiting South Korea, the Inchon city council planned to revive its moribund Chinatown at a cost of US $6.2 million (worth about 6.5 billion South Korean won). It claims to be the largest Chinatown in South Korea, and features an 11-metre high Chinese-style gateway.
Busan
is also considering reviving its Chinatown.
Due to institutionalized anti-Chinese discrimination during the Park Chung Hee administration and lack of economic opportunities, many ethnic Chinese
left South Korea during the 1960 and 1970s for Taiwan
or the United States. Since then the actual Chinese populations of many Chinatowns in South Korea
declined. Many business in these Chinatowns are actually owned by ethnic Koreans.
With around a quarter of the Malaysian population of Chinese origin, urban districts with a large concentration of ethnic Chinese are to be found across the country. The term Chinatown is rarely used to refer to such places locally except for tourism purposes, particularly in reference to Petaling Street
- the centre of Kuala Lumpur
's Chinese business district, and is predominantly Cantonese-speaking.
In the north of the country, the population of Georgetown on the island of Penang
is largely Hokkien
-speaking, and close to 90% of the population is of Chinese origin. Other urban areas with high proportion of Chinese population in the city centre include Kuching
(90%), Ipoh
(82%), Kota Kinabalu
(78%) and Malacca
(62%).
With such high concentration of urban
Chinese, Malaysian cities rank among the largest Chinatowns in the world.
and DHA in Karachi
have many Chinese restaurants and businesses and are sometimes dubbed as Chinatown.
. Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world, having been established in 1594, when the Spanish colonial government of the Philippine islands restricted the residence of Chinese who had converted to Christianity to this area. Uncoverted Christians were alloted a different enclave, then called the Parian (no longer in existence as a Chinatown).
Many prominent Chinese Filipino
families have roots in this district. Among the attractions of Binondo is Divisoria, a shopping area popular with people engaging in bargain shopping.
Chinese settlement—who were predominantly Hokkien—in the Philippines pre-dates the coming of the Spanish in 1521. Chinese merchants have been trading with the indigenous tribes of the islands since the 8th century. During the Spanish occupation, the Chinese held an intermediate place in Filipino society as middlemen between the Spanish upper-class and the native Filipinos or indíos, a derogatory term also used by the Spanish to refer to Native Americans.
During the rule of Ferdinand Marcos
, bitterness against Chinese Filipinos grew, starting in 1972. Many of the community went to Venezuela
, or to North America
— especially United States
— Australia
, or any other countries. In the first ever visit to Manila's Chinatown by a Filipino president, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
, who is of part Chinese descent herself, recognized the efforts and contributions of Chinese Filipinos.
As of 2006, plans have been drawn up to construct a newer, but synthetic, Chinatown in shopping mall form along Diosdado Macapagal Avenida in Manila Bay
area of Manila, which will rival the nearly 400-year-old original Chinatown in the Binondo district. It is dubbed the “Neo Chinatown” to be designed in traditional Chinese architecture and it is joint venture of local Chinese Filipino
and Mainland Chinese
investors. Neo Chinatown will also attempt to replicate the vibrant nightmarket scene found on the streets of Hong Kong
and Taipei
.
were from the provinces of Hebei
, Shandong
, Shaanxi
and Shanxi
in Mainland China. The earliest of immigrants come in the 1860s and 1870s, mainly to the Siberia
. They helped build the Trans-Siberian Railroad. An early Chinatown in Vladivostok
was established in 1860s. Nearly all ethnic Chinese in Russia returned to Mainland China after the Alexander Kerensky
and his liberal supporters took power in Russia in 1917.
A Chinatown district has cropped up in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg. http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2004/04-11-18.rferl.html#11
The Chinatown of Ussuriysk
, north of the city of Vladivostok
and near the Heilongjiang
province of mainland China. It is known in Russian as kitaiskii gorodok (Китайский Городок). Most ethnic Chinese living in this easternmost portion of Russia are from Mainland China. (photo)
Singapore, a multi-racial, but predominantly Chinese, country has a relatively large Chinatown in a district to the south of the river originally designated for Chinese settlement by Sir Stamford Raffles. It remains known as Chinatown
in English. The local Chinese name for the area is Niú chē shuǐ (牛车水, lit. 'ox cart water') on Telok Ayer Street and is also the name of the MRT (heavy rail) station that serves it. The station is located on the major Eu Tong Sen street. Although the area around the station, a shopping street, mainly serves as a tourist destination selling souvenirs, not far from this are a number of locally frequented areas including a number of restaurants, vegetable and meat markets, the Smith Street night market, traditional medicine outlets, several malls, apartment complexes, and Chinese temples including the recently completed Buddha Tooth Relic temple
, and the Thian Hock Keng
Temple.
Perhaps as an indication of the multi-racial mix in Singapore, a Muslim mosque and the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple can also be found off the main street.
In 1989, several areas in the Singapore Chinatown district were earmarked by the Urban Redevelopment Authority as conservation areas. Under that programme, the historic sub-districts of Kreta Ayer, Tanjong Pagar
, Telok Ayer
, Ann Siang Hill
and Bukit Pasoh were restored to add variety to the modern landscape, and more importantly, serve as reminders of the past. Many of the buildings restored in Singapore Chinatown were shophouse
s and they now house many small-medium businesses including upmarket boutiques, cafes and bakeries, advertising agencies, architectural and law firms, internet start-ups, boutique hotels, spas and fitness schools. Many decades-old traditional entities like medicine outlets, old-style coffee stalls, and clan association make unlikely neighbours with the newer businesses.
Since Singapore's population is largely of Chinese heritage, the Chinatown of Singapore is not much of an immigration centre as it is in other countries, but more of a shopping and eating district and in many cases more upscale than outside it. It is also perceived as more of a major building preservation project than a real Chinatown per se.
(Chaozhou) descent are the dominant group of ethnic Chinese, with smaller numbers of those of Cantonese and Hakka origin as well. The Thai Royal Family is of Chinese descent in the paternal line.
Bangkok
The Chinatown (Thai: Yaowarat) of Bangkok
is located on Yaowarat Road
and Sampeng Lane.
Phuket
The city of Phuket is home to Thailand
's second Chinatown, which are on Phang Nga Road, Thalang Road, Krabi Road, Phuket Road, Ratsada Road, Yaowarat Road, Deebook Road and Thepkrasattree Road Phuket was founded by early Chinese settlers.
Mae Salong
There is a Chinese community in northern Thailand, in a town called Mae Salong near Myanmar
. After the defeat and exile of Kuomintang
from Mainland China by forces led by Mao Zedong
, several Kuomintang army divisions in the Yunnan
province fled into neighboring Myanmar. After being expelled from that country, the Mainland Chinese veterans fought Thai communists on behalf of the Thai government and were granted citizenship. Mae Salong was established by veterans of the Kuomintang army 93rd Division. Many of Thai-born Chinese generations have relocated to Taiwan
, though their fathers and grandfathers, refuse because of an owed apology from the KMT for refusing them in the 1950s and 1960s. They have since made a retirement home-styled town, called "the home to the glorious people" (榮民之家) Today, Mae Salong is a spot for tourists from Taiwan and Mainland China.
, United Arab Emirates
which upon completion may be the world's largest Chinatown.
Ethnic Chinese have been moving to Vietnam for centuries. During the transition of power from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty in China, many anti-Qing elements fled prosecution and came to Vietnam. To avoid angering the Qing government, Vietnam government decided to send them south to populate the scarcely populated area. They pioneered many settlements in the south of the country including Saigon (Sài Gòn - Vietnamese polyphonic version of the Cambodian name), or as it is known today, Ho Chi Minh City
(Hồ Chí Minh). Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown is the Cholon
district which has been a stronghold for the Chinese-Vietnamese community since the late 1770s, when many Cantonese and Teochew Chinese arrived during French imperialism. Its main thoroughfares are Nguyen Trai Street (Nguyễn Trãi) and Tran Hung Dao Street (Trần Hưng Đạo). The Cholon area was the bastion of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese free enterprise
until the Vietnamese communist government confiscated private property in the area.
Prior to Sino-Vietnamese War
the Vietnamese government decided to expel the Sino-Vietnamese from the Northern part of the country hence the second wave of boat people many of whom went to China.
After the period of the Vietnam War
and Sino-Vietnamese War
(the late 1970s and early 1980s), many Chinese Vietnamese (called in Vietnamese the Viet Hoa) along with their ethnic Vietnamese, or the Viet Kinh, compatriots fled the country as "boat people
". However, this third wave were mostly ethnic Vietnamese. As a result, there are many overseas Chinese Vietnamese communities in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Nevertheless, Vietnam still has a remnant ethnic Chinese community.
for the economic problems, many Indonesians took to the streets and blamed Chinese Indonesians
who dominated the Indonesian economy for their economic woes. Angry Indonesian rioters destroyed Jakarta's Chinatown area, businesses run by ethnic Chinese, and homes throughout in the country.
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
s in Asia are widespread with a large concentration of overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
in East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China - particularly the provinces of Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, and Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
- and settled in countries such as Brunei
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Malaysia, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
centuries ago—starting as early as the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, but mostly notably in the 17th through the 19th centuries (during the reign of the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
), and well into the 20th century.
During the years of European colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
in Southeast Asia, many Chinese arrived in these countries to find work, often causing ethnic tension between them and the native population; in particular, between ethnic Malaysian Chinese
Malaysian Chinese
Malaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" in all languages. The term Chinese Malaysian is also sometimes used to refer to...
Buddhists and Malay Malaysian
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...
Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s in the 1960s. These ethnic Chinese arrived from southern mainland China and were mainly Chinese people of Cantonese
Cantonese people
The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...
(Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar), Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
(Indonesia, India), Hainanese (Vietnam), Hokkien (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar), and Teochew
Teochew people
The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...
/Chaozhou (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand) stock.
The largest Chinatown in Asia is located in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. (See Yokohama Chinatown
Yokohama Chinatown
Yokohama Chinatown is located in Yokohama, Japan, which is located just south of Tokyo. Its history is about 150 years long...
). These early groups did not identify as hailing from Mainland China, but from their subregion of origin; for example, the Cantonese did not relate to the Hakka people.
Binondo, located in Manila, Philippines is considered by many to be the oldest existing Chinatown in the world, having been officially established in 1594 by the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines that set off the area as a permanent settlement for Chinese who had converted to Christianity. (A separate area, then called the Parian, was alloted for uncoverted Chinese.)
The ethnic Chinese represent a large minority population in most of these countries—with Singapore being the exception where Chinese-origin Singaporeans form the majority of the population. Of all overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, however, the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam tend to retain the strongest ties to the Chinese culture and language and, hence, remain relatively isolated from the ethnic Vietnamese
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
majority. Chinese Indonesian
Chinese Indonesian
Chinese Indonesians, also called the Indonesian Chinese, are an overseas Chinese group whose ancestors emigrated from China to Indonesia, formerly a colony of the Netherlands known as the Dutch East Indies...
s and Chinese Filipino
Chinese Filipino
A Chinese Filipino derived from two words: "Tsino" and "Pinoy" ) is a Philippine national of Chinese ethnicity but born/raised in the Philippines....
s have adopted to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n and Filipino
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
ways, respectively. Thai Chinese
Thai Chinese
The Thai Chinese are an overseas Chinese community who live in Thailand. Thailand is home to the largest, oldest, most prominent, and most integrated overseas Chinese community in the world with a population of approximately 9.5 million people...
have generally assimilated into the larger Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
population.
Cambodia
Phnom PenhPhnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
's Chinatown is on Street 136.
Cambodia experienced ethnic Chinese settlement beginning in the 15th century. In recent decades, a large number of new and more recent Mainland Chinese immigrants have immigrated to Cambodia. Several Cambodian cities are known or suspected to have started out as Chinese settlements.
India
Most of the Chinese of CalcuttaChinese of Calcutta
The Chinese community in India are a community of immigrants and their descendants that emigrated from China starting in the late 18th century to work at the Calcutta port...
live in or near is a Chinatown in Calcutta
Chinatown, Kolkata
Chinatown in the eastern part of the city of Kolkata is the only Chinatown in India. The locality was once home to 20,000 ethnic Chinese, now the population has dropped to 2,000 or so. The traditional occupation of the Chinese community here had been working in the nearby tanning industry and the...
. Many Hakkas live in a community known as Tangra, which is dominated by leather tanneries (the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
majority will not touch cattle) and Chinese restaurants. Another Chinatown
Chinatown, Mumbai
Up to the 1960s Mumbai had a small Chinatown in Mazagaon. After the 1962 Sino-Indian War, most Chinese were viewed as traitors, and left the town. Currently, Mumbai has a small ethnic Chinese population of 400 families. The Chinese temple and cemetery are both located at Mazagaon....
is in Byculla, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
; however it has diminished in population as many of its Indian-born Chinese ethnic residents have migrated, mainly to major immigrant destinations such as Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,the United Kingdom and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/31/2003181147
Indonesia
GlodokGlodok
Glodok is a part of the Jakarta, Indonesia. The area is also known as Pecinan or Chinatown since the Dutch colonial era, and is considered the biggest in Indonesia, as a majority of the traders in Glodok are of Chinese descent...
district of Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
on Jalan Gajah Mada (Gajah Mada main street), the Pancoran streets, Jatinegara
Jatinegara
Jatinegara is a subdistrict of East Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. The boundaries of Jatinegara are Bekasi Barat Raya - Bekasi Timur Raya - I...
in East Jakarta
East Jakarta
East Jakarta is a city within Jakarta Special District, Indonesia. It had a population of 2,687,027 at the 2010, making it the most populous of the five cities within Jakarta....
and Krendang
Krendang
Krendang is an administrative village in Tambora, West Jakarta. It has a lot of West Kalimantan Chinese people and so makes its name become Kampung orang-orang Kalimantan.-History:...
in West Jakarta
West Jakarta
West Jakarta is a city within Jakarta Special District, Indonesia. It had a p[opulation of 2,278,825 at the 2010 Census; the administrative centre is at Puri Kembangan....
has a large ethnic Chinese population. In 1998, many Chinatown businesses were burned by indigenous Indonesians and the area suffered from arson during race riots, known as Jakarta Riots of May 1998
Jakarta Riots of May 1998
The May 1998 Riots of Indonesia were incidents of mass violence that occurred throughout Indonesia, mainly in Medan in the province of North Sumatra , the capital city of Jakarta , and Surakarta in the province of Central Java...
. Many Chinese left Indonesia when their fellow countrymen persecuted them, but there are still large numbers of Chinese Indonesians remain. Two century before, Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
in 1740 also massacred them.
Other Indonesian Chinatowns include Gang Semawis and Jalan Pekojan in Semarang
Semarang
- Economy :The western part of the city is home to many industrial parks and factories. The port of Semarang is located on the north coast and it is the main shipping port for the province of Central Java. Many small manufacturers are located in Semarang, producing goods such as textiles,...
. There are also numerous Chinese Indonesians in Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
- East Java, Bangka Belitung - Pangkal Pinang
Pangkal Pinang
Pangkal Pinang is the largest town on the Indonesian island of Bangka and the capital of the province of Bangka-Belitung. It is located on Bangka's eastern coast at .Landmarks in the city include the Timah Museum, a Chinese temple, and the Pasir Padi beach....
, Sungailiat, Toboali
Toboali
Toboali is a town in the Indonesian province of Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia. Toboali is the capital of the South Bangka Regency.-Demographics:The majority of the people in Toboali are Hakka Chinese and Malay. Majority of Chinese are Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant....
and Muntok
Muntok
Muntok or, more commonly, Mentok is a town in the Indonesian province of Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia. Muntok is the capital of the West Bangka Regency...
(with Hakka majority) , Medan - North Sumatra (with Hokkien majority), Pontianak
Pontianak, Indonesia
Pontianak is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. It is a medium-size industrial city on the island of Borneo. Pontianak occupies an area of 107.82 km² in the delta of the Kapuas River...
- West Kalimantan (TeoChew majority) and Singkawang
Singkawang
Singkawang is located at the province of West Kalimantan or Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia. It is located at about 145 km north of Pontianak, the provincial capital, and is surrounded by the Pasi, Poteng, and Sakok mountain...
- West Kalimantan (Hakka majority, almost 70% of city population).
A Chinatown in Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
is also known as Pecinan.
Japan
Chinese people in Japan
Chinese people in Japan consist of migrants from China to Japan and their descendants. They have a history going back for centuries.- Population and distribution :...
. The largest Chinatown in Asia and one of the largest in the world is located in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
. (See Yokohama Chinatown
Yokohama Chinatown
Yokohama Chinatown is located in Yokohama, Japan, which is located just south of Tokyo. Its history is about 150 years long...
) (Japanese: Chūkagai). The city of Kobe has a growing Chinatown (See Kobe Chinatown
Kobe Chinatown
Kobe Chinatown is located in Kobe, Japan. One of only 3 designated Chinatowns in Japan, Nankinmachi is situated south of Motomachi station adjacent to the elegant Daimaru Department Store. This small, yet lively enclave is home to not only one of the few remaining Chinese communities in the...
) (Japanese: Nankinmachi). In Nagasaki, its Chinatown (See Nagasaki Chinatown
Nagasaki Chinatown
Nagasaki Chinatown is located in Nagasaki, Japan. This area today is a big shopping strip that covers many blocks.-History:...
) (Japanese: Shinchimachi) was founded in 1698 AD. Most Chinese immigrants in Japan were from Taiwan who arrived during the Japanese colonial period
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
.
Korea, South
South Korea's Chinatowns are located in IncheonIncheon
The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...
and Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. Seoul's Chinatown is unofficial. A newly planned Chinatown was built in suburban Goyang
Goyang
Goyang is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Goyang includes the new city of Ilsan, which is connected to Seoul via Seoul Subway Line 3. Goyang is bordered by Seoul to the south; walls of the Bukhan Mountain Fortress lie along a small portion of this border.Several institutions of higher...
(Ilsan
Ilsan
Ilsan is the name of two districts or wards in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea...
) in 2005.
Incheon's Chinatown
Incheon Chinatown
Incheon's Chinatown is Korea's only official Chinatown. It is in Jung-gu ward and was formed in 1884. It used to be the largest such Chinatown in South Korea before the exodus of Chinese from the country....
is Korea's only official Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
. It is in Jung-gu
Jung-gu, Incheon
Jung-gu is a ward of Incheon, South Korea. It contains Yeongjong Island and Yongyu Island.Inha University Hospital is located in Shinheung-dong.-Administrative Divisions of Incheon Jung-gu:...
and was formed in 1884. It used to be the largest such Chinatown in South Korea before the exodus of Chinese from the county. In 2002, to capitalize on the large number of Mainland Chinese visitors who were visiting South Korea, the Inchon city council planned to revive its moribund Chinatown at a cost of US $6.2 million (worth about 6.5 billion South Korean won). It claims to be the largest Chinatown in South Korea, and features an 11-metre high Chinese-style gateway.
Busan
Busan
Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
is also considering reviving its Chinatown.
Due to institutionalized anti-Chinese discrimination during the Park Chung Hee administration and lack of economic opportunities, many ethnic Chinese
Ethnic Chinese in Korea
There has been a recognisable community of Chinese people in Korea since the 1880s. Most early migrants came from Shandong province on the east coast of China; many of them and their descendants have emigrated...
left South Korea during the 1960 and 1970s for Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
or the United States. Since then the actual Chinese populations of many Chinatowns in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
declined. Many business in these Chinatowns are actually owned by ethnic Koreans.
Malaysia
Petaling Street
Petaling Street is a Chinatown located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is infamous for pirated clothes and accessories along with bootleg DVDs and CDs. Petaling Street however does not exclusively offer pirated products...
- the centre of Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
's Chinese business district, and is predominantly Cantonese-speaking.
In the north of the country, the population of Georgetown on the island of Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
is largely Hokkien
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
-speaking, and close to 90% of the population is of Chinese origin. Other urban areas with high proportion of Chinese population in the city centre include Kuching
Kuching
Kuching , officially the City of Kuching, and formerly the City of Sarawak, is the capital and most populous city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is the largest city on the island of Borneo, and the fourth largest city in Malaysia....
(90%), Ipoh
Ipoh
Ipoh is the capital city of Perak state, Malaysia. It is approximately 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur on the North-South Expressway....
(82%), Kota Kinabalu
Kota Kinabalu
Kota Kinabalu , formerly known as Jesselton, is the capital of Sabah state in East Malaysia. It is also the capital of the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on the northwest coast of Borneo facing the South China Sea. The Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park lies on one side and Mount...
(78%) and Malacca
Malacca Town
Most tourist attractions are concentrated in its small city centre which encompasses Jonker Walk which houses Malacca's traditional Chinatown that exhibits Peranakan architecture. A Famosa Fort, St. Paul Hill are among the tourist attractions located in the Bandar Hilir, old city area. There are...
(62%).
With such high concentration of urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
Chinese, Malaysian cities rank among the largest Chinatowns in the world.
Pakistan
There is a sizeable community of Chinese people in Pakistan, based largely in urban centres. The areas of CliftonClifton, Karachi
Clifton is one of the neighbourhoods of Saddar Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.-Demographics:There are several ethnic groups in Clifton including Pakhtuns, Muhajirs, Sindhis, Punjabis, Kashmiris, Seraikis, Balochs, Memons, Tanolis, etc. Over 99% of the population is Muslim...
and DHA in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
have many Chinese restaurants and businesses and are sometimes dubbed as Chinatown.
Philippines
The best-known Chinatown in the Philippines is the district of Binondo in ManilaManila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
. Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world, having been established in 1594, when the Spanish colonial government of the Philippine islands restricted the residence of Chinese who had converted to Christianity to this area. Uncoverted Christians were alloted a different enclave, then called the Parian (no longer in existence as a Chinatown).
Many prominent Chinese Filipino
Chinese Filipino
A Chinese Filipino derived from two words: "Tsino" and "Pinoy" ) is a Philippine national of Chinese ethnicity but born/raised in the Philippines....
families have roots in this district. Among the attractions of Binondo is Divisoria, a shopping area popular with people engaging in bargain shopping.
Chinese settlement—who were predominantly Hokkien—in the Philippines pre-dates the coming of the Spanish in 1521. Chinese merchants have been trading with the indigenous tribes of the islands since the 8th century. During the Spanish occupation, the Chinese held an intermediate place in Filipino society as middlemen between the Spanish upper-class and the native Filipinos or indíos, a derogatory term also used by the Spanish to refer to Native Americans.
During the rule of Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
, bitterness against Chinese Filipinos grew, starting in 1972. Many of the community went to Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, or to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
— especially United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
— Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, or any other countries. In the first ever visit to Manila's Chinatown by a Filipino president, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a Filipino politician who served as the 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, as the 12th Vice President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, and is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Pampanga...
, who is of part Chinese descent herself, recognized the efforts and contributions of Chinese Filipinos.
As of 2006, plans have been drawn up to construct a newer, but synthetic, Chinatown in shopping mall form along Diosdado Macapagal Avenida in Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...
area of Manila, which will rival the nearly 400-year-old original Chinatown in the Binondo district. It is dubbed the “Neo Chinatown” to be designed in traditional Chinese architecture and it is joint venture of local Chinese Filipino
Chinese Filipino
A Chinese Filipino derived from two words: "Tsino" and "Pinoy" ) is a Philippine national of Chinese ethnicity but born/raised in the Philippines....
and Mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in a region considered a "mainland". It is frequently used in the context of areas ruled by the People's Republic of China, referring to people from Mainland China as opposed to other areas controlled by the state such as Hong Kong or...
investors. Neo Chinatown will also attempt to replicate the vibrant nightmarket scene found on the streets of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
.
Russia
Many early immigrants to RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
were from the provinces of Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
, Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
, Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
and Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
in Mainland China. The earliest of immigrants come in the 1860s and 1870s, mainly to the Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. They helped build the Trans-Siberian Railroad. An early Chinatown in Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
was established in 1860s. Nearly all ethnic Chinese in Russia returned to Mainland China after the Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
and his liberal supporters took power in Russia in 1917.
A Chinatown district has cropped up in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg. http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2004/04-11-18.rferl.html#11
The Chinatown of Ussuriysk
Ussuriysk
Ussuriysk is a city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok and about from both the Chinese border and the Pacific Ocean. Population: -Medieval history:...
, north of the city of Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
and near the Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
province of mainland China. It is known in Russian as kitaiskii gorodok (Китайский Городок). Most ethnic Chinese living in this easternmost portion of Russia are from Mainland China. (photo)
- See also: Chinatowns in Europe#Russia
Singapore
Singapore, a multi-racial, but predominantly Chinese, country has a relatively large Chinatown in a district to the south of the river originally designated for Chinese settlement by Sir Stamford Raffles. It remains known as Chinatown
Chinatown, Singapore
Singapore's Chinatown is an ethnic neighbourhood featuring distinctly Chinese cultural elements and a historically concentrated ethnic Chinese population. Chinatown is located within the larger district of Outram....
in English. The local Chinese name for the area is Niú chē shuǐ (牛车水, lit. 'ox cart water') on Telok Ayer Street and is also the name of the MRT (heavy rail) station that serves it. The station is located on the major Eu Tong Sen street. Although the area around the station, a shopping street, mainly serves as a tourist destination selling souvenirs, not far from this are a number of locally frequented areas including a number of restaurants, vegetable and meat markets, the Smith Street night market, traditional medicine outlets, several malls, apartment complexes, and Chinese temples including the recently completed Buddha Tooth Relic temple
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a Buddhist temple and museum complex located in the Chinatown district of Singapore."The temple is based on the Tang dynasty architectural style and built to house the tooth relic of the historical Buddha. The ground breaking ceremony was conducted on 13...
, and the Thian Hock Keng
Thian Hock Keng
Thian Hock Keng Temple is the oldest and most important Fukien, or Hoklo temple in Singapore. The main temple is dedicated to Mazu, the Taoist goddess of the sea and protector of all seamen, while a second temple at the back is a Buddhist one dedicated to Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of...
Temple.
Perhaps as an indication of the multi-racial mix in Singapore, a Muslim mosque and the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple can also be found off the main street.
In 1989, several areas in the Singapore Chinatown district were earmarked by the Urban Redevelopment Authority as conservation areas. Under that programme, the historic sub-districts of Kreta Ayer, Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones....
, Telok Ayer
Telok Ayer
Telok Ayer is a historic district located in Singapore's Chinatown within the Central Business District, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones.-Etymology:...
, Ann Siang Hill
Ann Siang Hill
Ann Siang Hill is a small hill, and the name of a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore...
and Bukit Pasoh were restored to add variety to the modern landscape, and more importantly, serve as reminders of the past. Many of the buildings restored in Singapore Chinatown were shophouse
Shophouse
A shophouse is a vernacular architectural building type that is commonly seen in areas such as urban Southeast Asia. This hybrid building form characterises the historical centres of most towns and cities in the region.- Design and features :...
s and they now house many small-medium businesses including upmarket boutiques, cafes and bakeries, advertising agencies, architectural and law firms, internet start-ups, boutique hotels, spas and fitness schools. Many decades-old traditional entities like medicine outlets, old-style coffee stalls, and clan association make unlikely neighbours with the newer businesses.
Since Singapore's population is largely of Chinese heritage, the Chinatown of Singapore is not much of an immigration centre as it is in other countries, but more of a shopping and eating district and in many cases more upscale than outside it. It is also perceived as more of a major building preservation project than a real Chinatown per se.
- See also: Chinatown.SG
Thailand
Chinese Thais of TeochewTeochew people
The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...
(Chaozhou) descent are the dominant group of ethnic Chinese, with smaller numbers of those of Cantonese and Hakka origin as well. The Thai Royal Family is of Chinese descent in the paternal line.
Bangkok
The Chinatown (Thai: Yaowarat) of Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
is located on Yaowarat Road
Yaowarat Road
Bangkok's Chinatown is centered on Yaowarat Road in Samphanthawong district.The Chinatown is an old business center covering a large area around Yaowarat and Charoen Krung Road. There are many small streets and alleys full of shops and vendors selling all types of goods...
and Sampeng Lane.
Phuket
The city of Phuket is home to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
's second Chinatown, which are on Phang Nga Road, Thalang Road, Krabi Road, Phuket Road, Ratsada Road, Yaowarat Road, Deebook Road and Thepkrasattree Road Phuket was founded by early Chinese settlers.
Mae Salong
There is a Chinese community in northern Thailand, in a town called Mae Salong near Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
. After the defeat and exile of Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
from Mainland China by forces led by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, several Kuomintang army divisions in the Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
province fled into neighboring Myanmar. After being expelled from that country, the Mainland Chinese veterans fought Thai communists on behalf of the Thai government and were granted citizenship. Mae Salong was established by veterans of the Kuomintang army 93rd Division. Many of Thai-born Chinese generations have relocated to Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, though their fathers and grandfathers, refuse because of an owed apology from the KMT for refusing them in the 1950s and 1960s. They have since made a retirement home-styled town, called "the home to the glorious people" (榮民之家) Today, Mae Salong is a spot for tourists from Taiwan and Mainland China.
United Arab Emirates
There is a Dubai Chinatown being constructed in DubaiDubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
which upon completion may be the world's largest Chinatown.
Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
(Hồ Chí Minh). Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown is the Cholon
Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City
Chợ Lớn is a Chinese-influenced section of Ho Chi Minh City . It is the largest Chinatown in Vietnam. It lies on the west bank of the Saigon River, having Binh Tay Market as its central market. Cholon consists of the western half of District 5 as well as several adjoining neighborhoods in District...
district which has been a stronghold for the Chinese-Vietnamese community since the late 1770s, when many Cantonese and Teochew Chinese arrived during French imperialism. Its main thoroughfares are Nguyen Trai Street (Nguyễn Trãi) and Tran Hung Dao Street (Trần Hưng Đạo). The Cholon area was the bastion of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese free enterprise
Free enterprise
-Transport:* Free Enterprise I, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1962 and 1980.* Free Enterprise II, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1965 and 1982....
until the Vietnamese communist government confiscated private property in the area.
Prior to Sino-Vietnamese War
Sino-Vietnamese War
The Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, known in the PRC as and in Vietnam as Chiến tranh chống bành trướng Trung Hoa , was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam...
the Vietnamese government decided to expel the Sino-Vietnamese from the Northern part of the country hence the second wave of boat people many of whom went to China.
After the period of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and Sino-Vietnamese War
Sino-Vietnamese War
The Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, known in the PRC as and in Vietnam as Chiến tranh chống bành trướng Trung Hoa , was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam...
(the late 1970s and early 1980s), many Chinese Vietnamese (called in Vietnamese the Viet Hoa) along with their ethnic Vietnamese, or the Viet Kinh, compatriots fled the country as "boat people
Boat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
". However, this third wave were mostly ethnic Vietnamese. As a result, there are many overseas Chinese Vietnamese communities in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Nevertheless, Vietnam still has a remnant ethnic Chinese community.
Discrimination and anti-Chinese sentiment
In 1997, the Asian financial crisis loomed over Asia and caused political turmoil, especially in Indonesia. Although several Southeast Asian leaders such as Malaysia's Prime Minister blamed the Western-dominated International Monetary FundInternational Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
for the economic problems, many Indonesians took to the streets and blamed Chinese Indonesians
Discrimination against Chinese Indonesians
Discrimination against people of Chinese descent in Indonesia has been recorded since at least 1740, when the Dutch Colonial Government killed up to 10,000 people of Chinese descent during the Chinezenmoord. In the period since then, discrimination and violence have been recorded both foreign and...
who dominated the Indonesian economy for their economic woes. Angry Indonesian rioters destroyed Jakarta's Chinatown area, businesses run by ethnic Chinese, and homes throughout in the country.
External links
- Chinatown.SG - Singapore Chinatown's official website
- http://www.chinatownology.com Singapore Chinatown
- Welcome to Hakka Community - Twilight descends on Calcutta's Chinatown
- Singapore's Chinatown
- The Chinatown of Malacca, Malaysia