Rant: What Do You Know About Chinatown?

Over 50 years ago, Boston's Chinatown was described as the “oldest, but least known community” in Boston. The Sunday Herald Advertiser, February 24, 1974, stated, “Mention Chinatown and most Bostonians will tell you where their favorite restaurant is. But they couldn’t tell you much more.” 

Today, I think these statements remain true. Chinatown remains a place where most people think only of its restaurants, and would be hard pressed to say much more about it. How much do you know about Chinatown beyond its restaurants?

We should learn more about Chinatown, its history and its current status. It's an important community, one which extends at least back to the 1880s. It's also a community which has long been threatened by both external and internal issues, but has been resilient over all these years. The story of Chinatown is inspiring and fascinating, providing many lessons for other communities. Thinking of Chinatown only because of its restaurants is a disservice, as it has so much more to offer.

One place to start is my lengthy history of Boston's Chinatown and its Restaurants, which starts with the first Chinese, a teenager, who lived in Boston back in 1796. The series of articles then detail the history of Boston's Chinatown, relating many fascinating stories about the Chinese who came to Boston and the eventual establishment of Chinatown. There's plenty of information about the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but there's also plenty of non-restaurant information as well. The history series currently ends in the 1960s, but I'm working on a new article that will deal with the 1970s. 

For more current events about Chinatown, you should check out the Sampan, a bilingual Chinese-English newspaper, which is based in Chinatown but reaches all over New England. This is one of the best sources about the problems and achievements of the Chinese community in Boston. I have previously written for the Sampan, and you can find links to my 40+ articles HERE.  

In the last five years, with the advent of COVID, Chinatown hit a low point. Businesses took a hard economic hit, especially some of their restaurants even when they were permitted to reopen. Some restaurants lost as much as 90% of their business, and some even had to close. During this period, racism against the Chinese became even more prominent than usual, which caused numerous problems, including physical assaults on the Chinese. The Chinese have had to deal with racism throughout their entire history in the U.S. and it's terrible that this racism still exists. Chinatown needs your support and more than just your patronage of their restaurants. 

So, educate yourself about Chinatown, and all of its aspects, and not just the places where you can eat.