Chinatown is an ethnic enclave which defined as an area in a city with a high concentration of Chinese people. In fact, Chinatown has been home to many immigrant families, and people who reside in Chinatown rely on networks of relatives and friends and on affordable goods, food as well as housing within the neighborhood. New York City 's Chinatown is considered the largest Chinatown in the United States (Waxman, n.d.), and it is located on the lower east side of Manhattan. According to National Park Service website, “Chinatown Historic District in New York was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 2010, due to its national significance stemming from its association with United States immigration from 1800-1965.”
…show more content…
The government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in order to get rid of Chinese and prevent Chinese from immigrating to the United States. (History.com , 2009) Due to this exclusion act, the Chinese population in the United States was reduced significantly. The Chinese people were driven out of the farms, woolen mills, mines and factories and forced to cluster in urban enclaves for self-protection. These enclaves later on developed into Chinatowns. Facing with increasing racial hostility, a huge number of Chinese were forced to return to their native country permanently, and others began to move out of the west and into other parts of the country. Also, those Chinese who refused to leave the United States migrated to New York, hoping to avoid the harsh treatment they had encountered in California and other western states. The 1869 completion of the transcontinental railroad, up to twenty thousand Chinese found themselves unemployed. (Doolittle, 1999) In order to get themselves a job for living, those Chinese workers started to move to the Midwest or East Coast cities. The tickets for the transcontinental train were expensive, so those people who could not afford to purchase a train ticket walked eastward from Promontory Point. The fact that Chinese immigrants got treated better on the East Coast than in West Coast which drive many Chinese immigrants to depart for the East, especially New York City. According to Xinyang Wang, “New York City could arguably claim relatively more racial tolerance toward Chinese immigrants than other areas, and no large-scale anti-Chinese movements took place
The government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in order to get rid of Chinese and prevent Chinese from immigrating to the United States. (History.com , 2009) Due to this exclusion act, the Chinese population in the United States was reduced significantly. The Chinese people were driven out of the farms, woolen mills, mines and factories and forced to cluster in urban enclaves for self-protection. These enclaves later on developed into Chinatowns. Facing with increasing racial hostility, a huge number of Chinese were forced to return to their native country permanently, and others began to move out of the west and into other parts of the country. Also, those Chinese who refused to leave the United States migrated to New York, hoping to avoid the harsh treatment they had encountered in California and other western states. The 1869 completion of the transcontinental railroad, up to twenty thousand Chinese found themselves unemployed. (Doolittle, 1999) In order to get themselves a job for living, those Chinese workers started to move to the Midwest or East Coast cities. The tickets for the transcontinental train were expensive, so those people who could not afford to purchase a train ticket walked eastward from Promontory Point. The fact that Chinese immigrants got treated better on the East Coast than in West Coast which drive many Chinese immigrants to depart for the East, especially New York City. According to Xinyang Wang, “New York City could arguably claim relatively more racial tolerance toward Chinese immigrants than other areas, and no large-scale anti-Chinese movements took place