Talk:Chinatowns in the United States

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Yeilingma.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:59, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

List by...
Is it possible to get a table which is sortable by population, square miles/km, and date established? Most "list of" pages have that sort of thing, and that's half the point of this page. --zandperl (talk) 03:29, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Recent edits
Can we have a talk here about the recent edits to the article? I'm sure that many are just fine, but what are they all about? Thank you. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:47, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * All of the Chinatowns in California are real places; I have been in some of them. Also, the Washington, D.C., Chinatown has an article about it. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:51, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * We can talk about the changes, beginning with the first one (below). BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 05:32, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Removal of paragraph beginning 'The day-to-day importance'
See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatowns_in_the_United_States&diff=654445224&oldid=654260165. That paragraph was sourced to http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-commre-chinatown-20131013-story.html, and there was no copyright problem. Why was it deleted? BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 05:32, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Arizona and several locations in California
See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatowns_in_the_United_States&diff=654445224&oldid=654260165. Many of these places have references and many do not. The Edit summary stated "(removing material that I think was original research and speculation - the remaining chinatowns are notable from being officially designated locations or have sufficient sources to keep). I would return them all and simply mark the unreferenced paragraphs as { { citation needed} }. It would be a better use of our time to find the sources rather than just remove them. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 06:32, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Rhode Island
See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatowns_in_the_United_States&diff=654445939&oldid=654445726 Just about all of them have links to Wikipedia articles. The Edit summary stated: "(while these chinatowns do have some sourcing, they are not generally notable - so they are removed)." That is a matter of opinion and should be discussed here. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 06:32, 1 April 2015 (UTC)


 * I created this article, or one similar to it that is now a redirect with the content migrated here. I would like to take issue with this edit made by User:Patebrims.  In this edit, he deleted between one-quarter and one-third of the article's content, including the majority of content about Chinatowns in California.  While some of the Chinatowns he deleted may have deserved to be deleted, I believe that sections relating to Locke, the Gold Country and the San Gabriel Valley should be re-constituted in some form.  p  b  p  13:04, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Restoring deleted material
Some of the deleted material has already been restored, so I suppose we should just keep on putting back the good stuff until we are satisfied with the piece. What do other editors say to this? BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 00:15, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * The older sections and paragraphs can be found here. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 00:32, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I concur. The deletions were based on little more than assumptions and biases, IMO. I am re-adding Houston as it has had plenty of coverage from various national publications (I'll add a few). Its original Chinatown began in the 1930s and the new one is one of the biggest Chinatowns in the US and most recognized by national connoisseurs of food. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Agsftw (talk • contribs) 17:19, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * At least the mass deletions brought some life back to this article. I think it will be better as we move forward. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 06:36, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Houston Chinatown
I would like to discuss why Houston should be included. Many people don't understand the significance of the Chinatown there. Someone just removed the section again stating that it is not an ethnic enclave because it's just shopping centers. It is not just shopping centers. Many of the surrounding apartment complexes and houses are occupied by Asian people. If you look at a detailed demographic map of Houston, the areas considered Houston's Chinatown are clearly settled by Asians (as well as Hispanics). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Agsftw (talk • contribs) 18:13, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Do we have any sources that call this section a "Chinatown"? If so, it should be included in the article. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 03:36, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, there are several sources written into the section. They include local sources like the Houston Chronicle, to national ones like NPR and USA Today. They all refer to the same area in Southwest Houston as Chinatown. If you go to the official Houston, Texas website (http://www.houstontx.gov/) and type "China Town" in the search section you will find plenty of information about Houston's Chinatown. If that still doesn't qualify the area as Chinatown, then we need to clearly define what makes a Chinatown a Chinatown for the purposes of this article. If, for this particular article, Chinatowns are places that were established within a certain time period and/or region of the United States, then the title of the article should be changed to something clearly reflecting that. But, I noticed that the Flushing and Brooklyn Chinatowns in New York have their own sections and they were developed at roughly the same time as the new Chinatown in Houston. I can understand that they are notable and/or have been designated as Chinatowns. The fact that the city of Houston designated the area in question Chinatown, the large size of it (there are more than 6 square miles of area dedicated to Chinese/Vietnamese/Asian storefronts [there are references]), the significance to Houston's Chinese community that this Chinatown has, and the fact that it literally functions as a place where Chinese people (and people of other Asian ethnicities) use to congregate, live, do business, eat, bank, etc. in significant numbers, makes it notable to me. However, even in the face of multiple reliable sources defining and stating the significance of this Chinatown, mention of it still gets deleted. If anyone wants to omit this Chinatown, please explain why here.Agsftw (talk) 00:57, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Need for a more inclusive article?
Hi: It is not clear to me why some Chinatowns are “notable” and others are not. In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, there were many smaller Chinatowns, especially in California and the western United States, that were identified as Chinatowns both by the Chinese residents and those who were not Chinese. The fact that most of these Chinatowns do not survive today does not negate the fact that they once existed, were home to, in some cases, thousands of people, and continue to be an important part of the history of the state or larger community. It seems to me that their disappearance only adds to the urgency of the need for documentation. Their stories should be told.Doungleung (talk) 17:02, 16 July 2015 (UTC)


 * I agree that there is important history that should not be neglected. You are most welcome to add this information, if you can cite WP:RS. If there is sufficient material, a separate article could eventually be spun off. Reify-tech (talk) 17:50, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 10 one external links on Chinatowns in the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://www.sanjoaquinhistory.org/documents/HistorianNS14-3.pdf
 * Corrected formatting/usage for https://japantownatlas.com/share/Stockton%20Atlas%20legal%201.1.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110124162256/http://www.acadetroit.org/main.php?p=home to http://www.acadetroit.org/main.php?p=home
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121029075400/http://geographyplanning.buffalostate.edu/MSG%202002/13_McGlinn.pdf to http://geographyplanning.buffalostate.edu/MSG%202002/13_McGlinn.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121029075400/http://geographyplanning.buffalostate.edu/MSG%202002/13_McGlinn.pdf to http://geographyplanning.buffalostate.edu/MSG%202002/13_McGlinn.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120516223514/http://old.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20031209chinatown1209p1.asp to http://old.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20031209chinatown1209p1.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111607/https://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/tbanks/chinatown/ to https://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/tbanks/chinatown/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080511064800/http://www.sdsmt.edu:80/wwwsarc/projects/deadwood/ to http://www.sdsmt.edu/wwwsarc/projects/deadwood/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080407193018/http://www.sumei.org:80/newarkchinatown/index.html to http://www.sumei.org/newarkchinatown/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120712044604/http://www.aquapulse.net/knowledge/chinatown to http://www.aquapulse.net/knowledge/chinatown

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 10:54, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Asia District - Oklahoma City
I would like to discuss Oklahoma City's Chinatown/Little Saigon area, Asia District (locally called Asian District). There originally was a section for it but appears to have been removed without notice nor explanation.

For those not in the know, Oklahoma City HAS an Asian area known as such as it represents the Asian diversity of the city. The area may have begun as a Little Saigon but over time the city intended it to be all-encompassing as a little saigon and chinatown together (like Seattle's); the area now has restaurants and shoppes catoring predominantly to Vietnamese admittedly (examples: numerous Pho/vietnamese restaurant, Lee's Sandwiches/ban mi shops etc, Super Cao Nguyen, Thrang Supermarket etc) but also to Chinese and Taiwanese (examples include: Fung's Kitchen/Dim Sum, Grand House, Lang Bakery, Golden Phoenix, Cafe De Taipei, Boba Tea, Kung Fu Tea, Teapioca Lounge, Chinatown Supermarket, First Commercial Bank - even has Chinatown theme) and other Asian/Asian American nationalities. In addition, you may not realize that Oklahoma City also HAD an historic Chinatown in its downtown area (complete with underground tunnels, opium dens, residential, restaurant, and shops) that was removed with the construction of the Myriad Convention Center (now called Cox Convention Center, which itself ironically is slated to be torn down and returned to downtown grid after the new cc is built in a few years).

All of this Oklahoma City chinatown vis a vis. little saigon history was documented in the short article that was once included in this list and in the US Chinatowns template - Why was it removed? How could this little known information be available in without OKC having a Chinatown section/listing?

I would LOVE to hear reasons why Oklahoma City Asia District should not have a listing as a Chinatown; given (while OKC is smaller) it isn't different than Houston "chinatown" or Seattle's all-encompassing International District (Chinatown, Little Saigon) in function/intent. Finally, I would strongly recommend a visit to Oklahoma City, its web resources, Google earth/maps, or at least a 'talk' session here on wikipedia before removal of otherwise accurate informational content for which I assumed this website is supposed to be known for - and not what otherwise appears to be a popularity contest of the largest cities (my gripe since it seems OKC was removed for not being 'large enough' or 'chinese enough'). .... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.103.10 (talk) 21:38, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Recent city demographical changes as it relates to the Definition of Chinatown
After seeing some recent edits adding cities that have had a recent influx of Chinese immigrants, I'm curious as to how exactly this page is being defined. According to the intro sentence: "either officially designated neighborhoods or historically important in the United States". The first part seems pretty self-explanatory, if the locale has officially recognized a Chinatown in their city. But the second part seems more subjective in that history is being made every day in the demographic changes that cities make. Does this kind of thing bear significance in the determination? (I would argue against, as that is not my understanding of the definition)

ZaceTalk 22:00, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 7 external links on Chinatowns in the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140424193956/http://m.citypaper.com/eat/little-ethiopia-1.1496693 to http://m.citypaper.com/eat/little-ethiopia-1.1496693
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110312105908/http://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/tbanks/chinatown/history.htm to http://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/tbanks/chinatown/history.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130315155041/http://visitmt.com/history/Montana_the_Magazine_of_Western_History/spring_summer04/buttechinatown.htm to http://visitmt.com/history/Montana_the_Magazine_of_Western_History/spring_summer04/buttechinatown.htm
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.sdsmt.edu/wwwsarc/projects/deadwood/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100609165853/http://asianweek.com/052496/LittleTaipei.html to http://www.asianweek.com/052496/LittleTaipei.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.sumei.org/newarkchinatown/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100127102916/http://www.chinatownhi.com/ to http://www.chinatownhi.com/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 05:31, 5 August 2017 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Chinatowns in the United States
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Chinatowns in the United States's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "fact-sheet": From Chinatown, Manhattan: * From Chinatown: From Chinese Americans: * From Chinese people in New York City: * From Little Fuzhou: * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>
 * </li>

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 05:51, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

"Chinatown, Tampa" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatown,_Tampa&redirect=no Chinatown, Tampa] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 18:11, 14 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also bundled Chinatown, Staten Island, Chinatown, Kansas City, Chinatown, Charlotte, and Chinatown, Raleigh with it. Jay  💬 18:17, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

"Chinatowns in Florida" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatowns_in_Florida&redirect=no Chinatowns in Florida] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 18:00, 16 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also bundled Chinatowns in North Carolina with it. Jay  💬 18:05, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

"Chinatown, Richmond" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinatown,_Richmond&redirect=no Chinatown, Richmond] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 18:24, 16 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also bundled Richmond Chinatown with it. Jay  💬 18:27, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

"Citation Needed" First Graf
I can't find a source about Chinese American immigration patterns related to the economic downturn, but census data here shows that since 2010 the population has increased. This article, "Chinese Immigrant Wealth: Heterogeneity in Adaptation" proposed "that both the context of emigration—the conditions under which migrants leave the home country—and the context of immigration—the more commonly-studied conditions encountered upon arrival in the host country will condition the ultimate incorporation of Chinese immigrants." Spunkypredictor (talk) 04:29, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

"many Chinese returned to China in the 2010s"
I've removed this because the cited reference doesn't appear to support it: "In the 2010s, the downturn of the U.S. economy and rise of China's economy caused reverse migration and the decay of Chinatowns. " PRRfan (talk) 15:36, 4 March 2024 (UTC) PRRfan (talk) 15:36, 4 March 2024 (UTC)