Manhattan Chinatown is one ofnine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City,[4] as well as one of twelve in theNew York metropolitan area, which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017.[5] Starting in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, the neighborhood became a prime destination forimmigrants fromFuzhou, the capital ofFujian province in southeastern China.
Manhattan's Little Fuzhou is centered onEast Broadway. However, since the 2000s,Brooklyn Chinatown in the neighborhood ofSunset Park became New York City's new primary destination for Fuzhou immigrants, surpassing the original enclave in Manhattan.[6]
East Broadway was once a main street of a largeJewish community on the Lower East Side. Over the years,Puerto Ricans[7][8] andAfrican-Americans[9] settled on the street. During the 1960s, an influx of immigrants fromHong Kong[10] andVietnam[11] found homes on East Broadway and the areas surrounding it. Slowly, the Puerto Ricans, Jews, and African-Americans moved from the area.[12]
The earliestFuzhou immigrants came illegally as early as the 1970s, starting mostly with men who later brought their families over.[13][14][15][16][17] During the 1980s, an influx of illegal immigrants from Fuzhou—especiallyChangle,Fuqing, andLianjiang—established the Little Fuzhou enclave on East Broadway. These immigrants could often speak Mandarin in addition to their nativeFuzhou dialect. However, Manhattan's Chinatown had been traditionally dominated by Cantonese speakers; other Mandarin speakers settled inFlushing andElmhurst, Queens.[18]
During the influx of the 1980–90s, many Fuzhou immigrants were undocumented and unable to speak Cantonese; as such, many of them were denied jobs and resorted to criminal activities to make a living.[19] In the late 20th century, Manhattan's Chinatown was unwelcoming toward non-Cantonese Chinese speakers, and immigrants from Fuzhou were largely forced to take low-wage, low-skilled jobs.[20][21][22][23][24] During the 1980s, housing prices had dropped in Manhattan's Chinatown, but property values increased when Fuzhounese arrived in large numbers during the 1990s.[25][26] An INS intelligence report estimates that in 1999, between 12,000 and 24,000 illegal Chinese entered the United States, of which more than 80 percent came from Fujian province.[27]
Over time, Fuzhou immigrants created their own Chinatown east of theBowery, separate from the Cantonese-dominated Chinatown west of the Bowery.[28][29] By the early 21st century, Fujianese residents had spread from East Broadway out to Eldridge Street. With the development of Little Fuzhou, East Broadway gained prominence as a Chinese business district.[24][30][31][32][33] In 2007, the NYCMA reported that Chinese landlords were illegally subdividing apartments into small spaces to rent to immigrants; this overcrowding was especially common on East Broadway.[34]
With a large Fuzhou population, the East Broadway neighborhood is often referred to asLittle Fuzhou by Fuzhou immigrants.[35] A considerable number of Fujianese clan associations can be found in and around the street.[35][36][37] A statue of the historical Fuzhounese politicianLin Zexu was erected inChatham Square in 1997.[38]
Despite the large Fuzhou population, the Cantonese still have a large presence on the Lower East Side. This influenced many Fuzhounese in Manhattan's Chinatown to learn the Cantonese language.[39]
In the 2000s, the growth of newly arriving Fuzhounese immigrants to Manhattan's Chinatown began to slow down, with more Fuzhounese moving to Brooklyn.[40] Some Chinese landlords were also accused of bias against the Fuzhou immigrants due to crime concerns.[41][42] Subdivision of apartments is also a frequent concern.[43] During the 2010s, additional Fuzhounese immigrants moved out due to gentrification;[44] in a July 2018 report fromVoices of NY, Fuzhounese-owned businesses have been declining on East Broadway due to high rents, and are being replaced by non-Asians. In addition, Fuzhounese consumers started traveling for commerce toFlushing's Chinatown in Queens, andSunset Park's Chinatown in Brooklyn.[45][46] Since theCOVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, storefront vacancies have accelerated.[47][48]
The increasing Fuzhounese influx to New York City has shifted to theBrooklyn Chinatown (布鲁克林華埠) located in Brooklyn'sSunset Park neighborhood. This newer Chinatown had become the most affordable large Chinese enclave of New York City. In addition, the area supposedly had less housing discrimination than Manhattan's Chinatown. Brooklyn's Chinatown has surpassed Manhattan's Chinatown as the city's primary Fuzhou culture center.[as of?][citation needed] Property values have risen substantially as a result.
Onto East Broadway areCathay Bank (formerly the Golden City Bank),[55]East West Bank (formerly the Hang Seng Bank),[56] a second Chinatown branch ofFirst American International Bank (formerly named Glory China Tower, in the former spot of the Pagoda theater), andHSBC bank.[57][58][59] A Cantonese newspaper company named Wah May Press was also located on 9 East Broadway.[60]
In 1973, Nei Wong, leader of the Ghost Shadows, was killed along with a Hong Kong police officer's girlfriend in the Chinese Quarter Nightclub near the Manhattan Bridge on East Broadway when the officer witnessed them together and shot them. With Nei Wong gone, Nicky Louie took over his spot in the Ghost Shadows gang.[61][failed verification][62]
On December 23, 1982, eleven members of theChinese Freemasons, or Kam Lun association, were injured, with three of them killed, in a shootout in East Broadway while trying to expand their territory. This likely stemmed from a dispute that Freemasons leader Herbert Liu had with Benny Ong, leader of theHip Sing (who were suspected of perpetuating the attack) and mentor of the Flying Dragons' leader. In particular, Liu's starting of a rivaltong violated the oaths of loyalty he made when he had previously joined the Hip Sing, and he recruited Flying Dragons members who were expelled for unauthorized shakedowns. Despite this connection, police were unable to implicate Ong in the shootout, and the previously growing Freemasons gang disappeared afterwards.[10][23][63]
In May 1985, there was a gang-related shooting outside of 30 East Broadway, which at the time was aSichuan cuisine restaurant. The shooting eventually spilled over into the restaurant, injuring a 37-year-old non-Asian customer named Brian Monahan who was at the time anAT&T executive and had been dining with friends. A 4-year-old boy named Lee Young Kwai was strolling down the street with his uncle when they were caught in the crossfire, injuring Lee's skull. He eventually recovered after the bullet was surgically removed at Bellevue Hospital, while the uncle was not injured. A total of seven victims were injured in the crossfire of the shooting. Two males, who were 15 and 16 years old and were members of a Chinese street gang, were arrested and convicted. It was widely believed that Eastern Peace Gang and the Burmese Gang were the culprits, as many local residents reported that they were fighting over the surrounding territory.[64][65][66][67][68]
Fuzhou gangs dominated the emerging Fuzhou community in the 1990s, akin to how thetong gangs dominated the long-established Cantonese community in western Chinatown. Although the Fuzhou Gangs gained prevalence much later than the Cantonese gangs in Chinatown, they had been around as early as the 1980s. Their prevalence grew after the Freemasons' 1982 shootout and subsequent falling apart. Since the 2000s, Fuzhou gang activity has been dramatically shifting to Brooklyn's Chinatown, which is now the largest Fuzhou enclave of New York City.
Gang activity made Manhattan's Chinatown expand past its original borderline, further east onto the Lower East Side. A man named Alan Man Sin Lau, the leader of the Fukien American Association, gained a status like Benny Ong did with the Cantonese.
Known Fuzhou gangs include Fuk Ching, Tung On, andSnakehead. The Tung On gang was established in the 1980s–90s on East Broadway, where they ran a gambling parlor. Snakehead is known to smuggle illegal immigrants from Fuzhou to the United States and other countries. Fuk Ching gang members often worked for Snakehead, collecting money from illegal Fuzhou immigrants who borrowed from the Snakeheads to help them come to the United States. Sometimes, Fuk Ching gang members would hold immigrants hostage and even violently beat them until they paid up the loans they owed.[69][70][71][66][67][68]
^"Chinatown New York". Civitatis New York. RetrievedNovember 30, 2020.As its name suggests, Chinatown is where the largest population of Chinese people live in the Western Hemisphere.
Sarah Waxman."The History of New York's Chinatown". Mediabridge Infosystems, Inc. RetrievedApril 11, 2016.Manhattan's Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States and the site of the largest concentration of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere, is located on the Lower East Side.
^abDaly, Michael (February 14, 1983)."The War for Chinatown".New York Magazine. New York City: New York Media. pp. 36–38.ISSN0028-7369. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2012.
^Zhuang Guo-tu, "From sailors of jumping ship to the main actors of East Broadway: Studies on Fuzhou immigrants into U.S. A. in last 20 years", Overseas Chinese History Study, 2003, No. 3, pp 30
^Jian-Cuo, World Journal, 9 May 2007, then translated from Chinese by Connie Kong (May 17, 2007)."High demand for illegal Chinatown apartments". New York Community Media Alliance. Archived fromthe original on August 2, 2012. RetrievedOctober 1, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Kwong 1996, p. 52. "In fact, East Broadway is now known as the 'Wall Street of Chinatown': five new banks have opened on the street since the factories closed."
Sun Sing Theater in color - a color photo of the Sun Sing Theater under the Manhattan Bridge on East Broadway.
The Beautiful Butterflies performance - a photo of the performance "The Beautiful Butterflies" at The New Canton Theater (later renamed to Sun Sing Theater) from 1950.
Pagoda Theater – a photo of the Pagoda Theater on East Broadway and Catherine Street.
Newspaper on Pagoda Theater – a photo of a newspaper article published by Sam Zolotow on May 29, 1964, on the opening of the Pagoda Theater.
