Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Chinatowns

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

If you live in a major city in the USA, you probably have a Chinatown. Listen in and learn all about these unique cultural staples today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is short stuff giddy up.

Let's go little sailor, sail on toward the short stuff now. Yeah, this is about Chinatowns and I found this to be very interesting because I love a good Chinatown or a good Japan town or I like ethnic groupings. Love Korea town. He's still living in Korea town in LA. Actually, I was in little Armenia technically was my neighborhood, but I like groupings of ethnicities. I think it's cool. I think it's something that people might naturally do. But in the case of Chinatowns, it's not only something that can help immigrants as they come into the country and did from the very beginning. But sadly, the dark side is they were a necessity because of racial exclusion and to protect themselves and seek

refuge among their own. Because for many, many years in this country, there was and some might say there's anti-Asian bias that continues today in the wake of COVID. And by some might say, I mean, it's fairly obvious because of what's going on very sadly. But for many, many years in this country, there was a very much anti-Chinese immigrant feeling going on. A lot of it had to do with good old fashioned Americans thought that Chinese immigrants were taking their jobs. And Chinese immigrants did come to this country en masse starting in the 1800s and 25,000 Chinese immigrants came in the 1850s alone. Yeah, that's quite a bit. They were drawn to the United States pretty understandably because all of a sudden, America was this land of opportunity and the

Western expansion was producing a lot of railroad jobs. There was a gold rush in California at the time. Apparently the lumber mills and the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest was really getting going. And so it attracted a tremendous amount of Chinese people. And at first, I get the impression, I think from this, is this a how stuff works article you got? Indeed. It basically makes the point that at first, the influx of Chinese immigrants in the mid 19th century was tolerated. If not welcome, it was fine. And then as they started to show up in greater and greater numbers faster and faster, then the xenophobia really kicked in. And like you said, they were basically like, you go over here and you stay together. And this is a really great example of

Chinese immigrants making lemon chicken out of lemons and creating these really vibrant, really interesting communities that almost is like, well, can we come eat over in your little enclave that we forced you guys to make? And that's where those Chinatowns came from. It's a pretty cool example of something good coming out of something bad, you know? Yeah, the first formally recognized Chinatown was in San Francisco. And this was in the 1850s. And it was called Little Canton at the time, because most of the immigrants in that area at the time were from what was known as Canton in southeastern China. Today it's known as, I would say Guangzhou, but I'm sure that's wrong. What is it? Guangzhou. I looked at it. Oh, really? Yes. It's a new day in stuff you should

know history. We're looking up pronunciations. In 1853, I think is when they first actually said the word Chinatown in the newspaper. And it was about a 12 block area, 22,000 Chinese immigrants. It has so many people. By the end of the 1880s. And at the time, because of the page law from 1875, that prevented Chinese men from bringing their wives and kids, it was there was a ratio of 20 men to every woman in Chinatown, because either single men only were coming over or men left their families behind to come over. Right. So, I mean, 20 to 1 in 22,000 people living in, I guess San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1880s in a 12 block district and only 2,200 of them were women. That's nuts, dude. Yeah. But the, as I guess America started to ease

its immigration laws, especially against the Chinese immigrants after World War II, it took quite a while. And so finally, women, wives, daughters, moms started coming over. And I get the impression that the character and the complexion of Chinatowns in the United States started to change. They became a little more family oriented. Yeah. And if you've ever been to a Chinatown, you have probably seen what's known as a pie fang, which is, you know, those beautiful, decorated gateway arches that sort of lead you into the district. The business districts are usually defined by a few different, a few, I mean, well, there's tons of Chinese owned businesses, obviously. They very early on were involved in shoemaking, laundry service, cigar production,

and they serve Chinese people. They serve white people. And in those days, the organizations that serve the actual immigrants in Chinatown were broken down into social organizations, district and family organizations, which were further broken down into like what region basically you came from. And then what's known as Tongs, these are brotherhoods that they would provide housing and jobs or legal services for people just arriving into the community. Yeah. Because I mean, that was one of the greatest functions and first functions of Chinatown in the United States was to, it was a place where if you were a Chinese immigrant, that's where you went and the community would help take care of you. Right. Which is a, it's a, that's a pretty

great thing to have when you're newly arrived in a new country, you know? I think so too. Should we take a break and go to the dark side? Yeah, exactly. Let's do that. All right. We'll be right back. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man.

And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking.

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iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So like I was saying, Chuck, at first, the American sentiment toward newly arriving Chinese immigrants was at least tolerant. And then it quickly turned to xenophobia. And one of the problems with having a lot of people of the same ethnicity all living in one place is it's an easy target for outraged xenophobic white mobs to attack and burn down and beat people up in there. And that's what happened a lot in the late 19th and early 20th century in Chinatowns around the United States. Anytime there was a problem and it was blamed on Chinese people, there was probably a violent attack on Chinatowns. It just seemed to be par for the course. Yeah, there was one in

1871 in Los Angeles where a white mob lynched 17 Chinese men and boys. And the governor at the time, John Bigler, said, you know, we need more restrictions on these Chinese immigrants coming in. So it was the local government wasn't doing them any favors at all. I think in 1882 is when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act for God's sake, Chuck. Yeah. And this is one of America's very first immigration, like restrictive immigration laws. Yeah. And it basically said, if you are already here as a Chinese immigrant, you're not going to be able to become a naturalized citizen. We're not going to kick you out, but don't count on becoming an American. And if you're not here already, stay out. We're not letting any more

Chinese people into the country. That was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. And like I was saying, it wasn't until World War II that they started to relax those restrictions. So restrictions against Chinese immigration were pretty tight for about 60 years at least. Yeah. And there was a lot of, you know, anti-Chinese journalism going on. I think they started to try and purposely spread the word and say that, you know, Chinatown, you don't want to go to Chinatown if you're a white person and do business with them. There's a lot of crime there. It's dirty and disease there. I think during the bubonic plague pandemic of the early 20th century, they actually, I think the Chinatown in Honolulu that was actually destroyed and the one in San Francisco

was totally cordoned off. Yeah. And I mean, as much of a target as Chinatowns were, it was even worse for people who lived outside of Chinatowns. Like they were even, I guess, easier to get at. There was no safety in numbers or anything like that. Right. So over time, I think like the violence, the anti-Asian violence of the early 20th century subsided. And there was a kind of like enforced, threatened peace that kind of broke out. And Chinatowns kind of went to being like, they went back to being like this exotic place, but a place where you could, you know, as a white person or a non-Asian American, could travel to and go, you know, eat in the restaurants or use the businesses,

that kind of thing by mid to late 20th century. Yeah. There are roughly 50 Chinatowns in the United States today. Most major cities have a Chinatown. Atlanta doesn't have a Chinatown, Chinatown, but there we have an area in Atlanta called Buford Highway. And it's just this, it's a street. And this road has, is well known for just having a bunch of groups of ethnicities sorted together. So there'll be an area where there's a lot of Chinese business. There's a Chinese mall. Some, I just actually went over the other day to the North China eatery and got like 100 dumplings to go to freeze. Nice. You can go home. They actually sell them, they sell buns and dumplings frozen, like not wholesale, but just bulk. Sure. So,

you know, it's delicious stuff. Yeah. And, but all kinds of ethnicities. There's, you know, a Filipino area. There's Mexican area. Top notch, Vietnamese food. Oh, man. It's just do yourself a favor. Yeah. If you ever go to Atlanta, just sort of ask where Buford Highway is and go eat and shop. Yeah. Just drive down it. Yeah. It's really, you're not going to go wrong. But not a true, true Chinatown, like you would think of, unfortunately, in Atlanta, but, you know, Portland, DC, Honolulu, Seattle, Chicago, Philly, Houston, New York, obviously, Houston, Texas as a Chinatown. And now because of gentrification, a lot of these Chinatowns are threatened, obviously, in cities like San Francisco where

everything is becoming gentrified. Chinatowns are starting to shift to the suburbs a little more. And Monterey Park, California was dubbed the first suburban Chinatown and became majority Asian American in the 1990s. Yeah. Which is, you know, I mean, for those residents who are staying, a lot of the second generation are like, I don't really want to live in the middle of the city any longer. I want to go have a bigger house or whatever. Like you said, they're moving to the suburbs. But for the ones who are staying, like the cost of living in the city is sky-high compared to the suburbs. I don't care what city you're in. So that's a big problem. Gentrification is forcing out the ones who do want to stay. And so there's a push among second and third and

more generation Chinese Americans to say, hey, we need to make sure that these places are protected culturally. We need to keep the white people out or anything like that, but we need to make sure that they just don't get overdeveloped or anything like that. They maintain their original character to a large degree. Right. At the very least, no tech bros. No, none. Which is ironic that San Francisco's Chinatown is still the most vibrant and flourishing Chinatown in the United States. It's the OG and it's still going strong. Yeah. I think DC's Chinatown only has 300 Chinese people living there now. Yeah. Well, actually that was in 2015. So unless that's risen, it may be even less. Yeah. That's like a tenth of what it was in 1970. Yeah. So visit a Chinatown, everyone.

I go to Chinatown in New York City and bring cash. A lot of these places, dim sum places, will only take cash. And that's my little travel tip for you. And eat some dim sum and some soup dumplings. Very nice. You got anything else? I got nothing else. Well, we're going to go eat some dim sum. So short stuff is that. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts on iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.