The history behind Chinatown

Summary

There is a reason why chinatowns are very similar, across the world. This was a strategy invented in the early 1900s at the first chinatown in San Francisco.

In the mid 1800's there was a massive wave of immigrants that came to the US. Many of them through the port of San Francisco. They came for economical opportunities - to works as Gold miners, factory workers or on the rail road. But during the great depression, the Chinese population were blamed for taking jobs away from white American Citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in to law, which prevented more Chinese people from migrating to America. For those who were already in America, it made it impossible in America to become citizens. This triggered waves of violence and hate across America. The Chinese populations began to flee cities for their safety. They gathered to an area in San Francisco, which would come to be known as Chinatown.

At that time Chinatown didn't look like anything special. It was just like the rest of the neighborhoods. Lanterns and other decorations differentiated it enough so it got the label of mysterious and forbidden to outsiders. When the 1906 earthquake destroyed half of San Francisco and all of Chinatown, they took it as an opportunity to rebuild their image. They wanted something that was clean, inviting but different. They looked at it like a theme-park. American architects built the outlandish look of China, based on their impressions. The result was a uniquely Chinese and American culture that became the new economical model of Chinatown.

Word Match

・blame・depression・economical・exclusion・immigrant・invent・
・lantern・opportunity・port・prevent・strategy・

Comprehension Questions

1. Why did Chinese people migrate to America?

2. Did American's welcome the Chinese population?

3. Where was the first Chinatown?

4. What triggered the new design of Chinatown?

Conversation Questions

1. Have you visited a China town before? Is it a tourist attraction?

2. Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do? What happened?

3. Has your country been in a depression? How did it effect you?

4. Do you think immigration should be controlled?

5. What do you think the Chinese Exclusion act did?

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