Chinatown, Boston

Did You Know?

• The Kwong Kow Chinese School, established in 1916, originally taught Taishanese but later switched to Cantonese due to an influx of Hong Kong immigrants.
• The Asian population in Chinatown dropped to 46% in 2010, reflecting gentrification concerns.

History

Part of Chinatown was built on land created by filling a tidal flat, first settled by Anglo-Bostonians. After railway development made residential properties less desirable, the area was settled by a succession of Irish, Jewish, Italian, Lebanese, and Chinese immigrants. Garment manufacturing plants moved in during the late nineteenth century, creating a historic garment district that remained active until the 1990s. In 1870, Chinese workers were brought from San Francisco to break a strike at the Sampson Shoe Factory in North Adams, Massachusetts, and their arrival met with hostility.

Before that, Boston's Chinese population consisted mainly of tea merchants or servants. In 1874, many of these immigrants moved to the Boston area, settling on what became Ping On Alley. The first laundries opened on Harrison Avenue, and in 1875 the first restaurant, Hong Far Low, opened. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted immigration, leaving the population mostly male.

Attempts to drive out the Chinese included widening Harrison Avenue, which instead spurred further development. In 1903, the murder of Wong Yak Chong led to a raid in which police arrested 234 people and deported 45.

Community organizations

The Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) serves the immigrant Chinese community, providing child care, bilingual education, and youth recreation programs. Its mission is to help children, youth, and families achieve economic success and social well-being while preserving cultural heritage. Most of those served are immigrant Chinese with low incomes and limited English ability. In 2014, the Boston Foundation donated nearly $500,000 to support summer programs, including funding for BCNC.

BCNC operates at three sites: 885 Washington Street in the Josiah Quincy School building, a permanent five-story community center at 38 Ash Street (the first certified green building in Chinatown, meeting LEED standards), and the Pao Arts Center at 99 Albany Street, opened in 2017 in partnership with Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC). BHCC, connected to Chinatown by the MBTA Orange Line, teaches introductory courses at the Pao Arts Center in subjects such as accounting, food service, business, writing, psychology, statistics, and acting.

BCNC also holds an annual Oak Street Fair each autumn to celebrate Chinese culture. The Chinatown Lantern Cultural and Educational Center, formed by the Chinatown Cultural Center Committee, opened a Reading Room in April 2012 to address the lack of a public library after the Chinatown branch of the Boston Public Library was demolished in 1956. The Reading Room held about 8,000 books in English and Chinese and ran a small art gallery; it closed on February 25, 2013.

Urban policies

Gentrification is a major challenge for Chinatown. New housing construction and repairs can raise rental and purchase prices, displacing existing residents and changing the area's demographics, with more non-Asian and white residents moving in. Other issues include upkeep of houses, trash removal, and keeping the neighborhood updated. According to Kairos Shen, a planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the fact that roughly 5,000 Asian residents (mostly Chinese) still live in Chinatown results from decades of city efforts to balance affordable housing with development projects.

The goal is to provide more affordable housing to reduce gentrification, and several projects are underway or completed. Longtime residents fear losing their homes to construction. Urban policy also aims to create and sustain local businesses. In 2010, the Barr Foundation granted Sustainable Chinatown $100,000 for a community-led effort to green local businesses, in partnership with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city, and the Asian American Civic Association.

The project helped businesses reduce energy, water, and solid waste costs while building long-term sustainable business expertise.

Community events and celebrations

Major annual events in Chinatown include the New Year celebration, the Lion Dance Festival, and the August Moon Festival. The August Moon Festival, held in mid-August for a full day, features vendor booths selling handmade and traditional Chinese items and food, Chinese dough art lessons, performances by the Chinese Opera, children's folk dancing, martial arts, and lion dancers from Chinatown and around the world. The Chinese New Year Parade, also called the Lion Dance Festival, is the biggest annual celebration; each year honors a new animal of the Chinese zodiac.

Participants wear lion or dragon costumes, and the dance is part of the parade. In China the celebration begins on the first day of the first lunar month, but in Boston's Chinatown it is based on when spring begins. Fall Cleaning Day brings the community together to clean up trash and litter, similar to an Earth Day. The annual Lantern Festival, a major tourist attraction, includes lion dances, Asian folk dances, martial arts performances, and traditional Chinese singing.