Among the earliest documented arrivals ofChinese immigrants in New York City were of "sailors andpeddlers" in the 1830s. These arrivals were followed in 1847 by three students who came to continue their education in the United States. One of these scholars, Yung Wing, soon became the first Chinese American to graduate from a U.S. college in 1854, when Wing graduated fromYale University.
Many more Chinese immigrants arrived and settled inLower Manhattan throughout the 1800s, including an 1870s wave of Chinese immigrants searching for "gold.[13]" By 1880, the enclave aroundFive Points was estimated to have from 200 to as many as 1,100 members.[13] However, theChinese Exclusion Act, which went into effect in 1882, caused an abrupt decline in the number of Chinese who emigrated to New York and the rest of the United States.[13] Later, in 1943, the Chinese were given a small quota, theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1965 caused a revival in Chinese immigration,[14] and the community's population gradually increased until 1968, when the quota was lifted and the Chinese American population skyrocketed.[13]
New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia[19] and within the U.S. with an estimated population of 573,388 in 2014,[20] and continues to be a primary destination fornew Chinese immigrants.[21] New York City is subdivided into official municipalboroughs, which themselves are home to significant Chinese populations, withBrooklyn andQueens, adjacently located onLong Island, leading the fastest growth.[22][23] After the City of New York itself, the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn encompass the largest Chinese populations, respectively, of all municipalities in the United States.
In 2013, 19,645 Chinese legally immigrated to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA core based statistical area fromMainland China, greater than the combined totals forLos Angeles andSan Francisco, the next two largest Chinese American gateways;[25] in 2012, this number was 24,763;[26] 28,390 in 2011;[27] and 19,811 in 2010.[28] These numbers do not include the remainder of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, nor do they include the smaller numbers of legal immigrants fromTaiwan and Hong Kong. There has additionally been a consequential component ofChinese emigration of illegal origin, most notablyFuzhou people fromFujian andWenzhounese fromZhejiang in mainland China, specifically destined for New York City,[29] beginning in the 1980s.
Within the Chinese population, New York City is also home to between 150,000 and 200,000Fuzhounese Americans, who have exerted a large influence upon theChinese restaurant industry across the United States; the vast majority of the growing population of Fuzhounese Americans have settled in New York.
The Chinese immigrant population in New York City grew from 261,500foreign-born individuals in 2000 to 350,000 in 2011.[32] Chinese immigrants represented 12,000 of the country'sasylum requests in fiscal year 2013, of which 4,000 applied for asylum to the New York-area asylum office.
Manhattan's Chinatown holds the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.[40][41] Manhattan'sChinatown is also one of the oldestChineseethnic enclaves.[42] The Manhattan Chinatown is one ofnine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City,[8] 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.[43]Manhattan's Chinatown is actually divided into two different portions. The western portion is the older and original part of Manhattan's Chinatown, primarily dominated byCantonese populations and known colloquially as the Cantonese Chinatown. Cantonese were the earlier settlers of Manhattan's Chinatown, originating mostly from Hong Kong and fromTaishan in Guangdong Province, as well as from Shanghai.[44] They form most of the Chinese population of the area surrounded byMott andCanal Streets.[44]
However, within Manhattan's Chinatown liesLittle Fuzhou or The Fuzhou Chinatown onEast Broadway and surrounding streets, occupied predominantly by immigrants from the province ofFujian in mainland China. They are the later settlers, fromFuzhou, Fujian, forming the majority of the Chinese population in the vicinity of East Broadway.[44] This eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown developed much later, primarily after the Fuzhou immigrants began moving in.
Areas surrounding "Little Fuzhou" consist of Cantonese immigrants from theGuangdong of China; however, the main concentration of people speaking theCantonese language is in the older western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown. Despite the fact that the Mandarin speaking communities were becoming established in Flushing and Elmhurst areas ofQueens during the 1980s–1990s and even though the Fuzhou immigrants spoke Mandarin often as well, however, due to their socioeconomic status, they could not afford the housing prices in Mandarin speaking enclaves in Queens, which were more middle class and the job opportunities were limited. They instead chose to settle in Manhattan's Chinatown for affordable housing and as well as the job opportunities that were available such as the seamstress factories and restaurants, despite the traditional Cantonese dominance until the 1990s. Eventually this pattern was repeated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park Chinatown, but on a much more immense scale.
The Cantonese dialect that has dominated Chinatown for decades is being rapidly swept aside byMandarin, the national language of China, which is becoming thelingua franca. This can be attributed to the influx of immigrants from Fuzhou who often speak Mandarin, as well as the increase in Mandarin-speaking visitors coming to visit the neighborhood.[45]
The modern borders of Manhattan's Chinatown are roughlyDelancey Street on the north,Chambers Street on the south, East Broadway on the east, andBroadway on the west.[46]
The Flushing Chinatown, in theFlushing area of the borough of Queens in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside Asia, as well as within New York City itself.Main Street and the area to its west, particularly alongRoosevelt Avenue, have become the primary nexus of Flushing Chinatown. However, Flushing Chinatown continues to expand southeastward alongKissena Boulevard and northward beyondNorthern Boulevard. In the 1970s, a Chinese community established a foothold in the neighborhood of Flushing, whose demographic constituency had been predominantly non-Hispanic white.Taiwanese began the surge of immigration. It originally started off asLittle Taipei orLittle Taiwan due to the large Taiwanese population. Due to the then dominance of working class Cantonese immigrants of Manhattan's Chinatown including its poor housing conditions, they could not relate to them and settled in Flushing.
Later on, when other groups of Non-Cantonese Chinese, mostly speaking Mandarin started arriving into NYC, like the Taiwanese, they could not relate to Manhattan's then dominant Cantonese Chinatown, as a result they mainly settled with Taiwanese to be around Mandarin speakers. Later, Flushing's Chinatown would become the main center of different Chinese regional groups and cultures in NYC. By 1990, Asians constituted 41% of the population of the core area of Flushing, with Chinese in turn representing 41% of the Asian population.[55] However, ethnic Chinese are constituting an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population as well as of the overall population in Flushing and its Chinatown. A 1986 estimate by the Flushing Chinese Business Association approximated 60,000 Chinese in Flushing alone.[56]Mandarin Chinese[57] (includingNortheastern Mandarin),Fuzhou dialect,Min NanFujianese,Wu Chinese,Beijing dialect,Wenzhounese,Shanghainese,Suzhou dialect,Hangzhou dialect,Changzhou dialect,Cantonese,Hokkien, and English are all prevalently spoken in Flushing Chinatown, while theMongolian language is now emerging. Even the relatively obscureDongbei style of cuisine indigenous to Northeast China is now available there.[58] Given its rapidly growing status, the Flushing Chinatown has surpassed the original New York City Chinatown in the Borough of Manhattan in size and population, while Queens and Brooklyn vie for the largest Chinese population of any municipality in the United States other than New York City as a whole.
Elmhurst, another neighborhood in Queens, also has a large and growing Chinese community.[59] Previously a small area with Chinese shops on Broadway between 81st Street and Cornish Avenue, this new Chinatown has now expanded to 45th Avenue and Whitney Avenue. Since 2000, thousands of Chinese Americans have migrated intoWhitestone, Queens (白石), given the sizeable presence of the neighboring Flushing Chinatown, and have continued their expansion eastward in Queens and into neighboring, highly educatedNassau County (拿騷縣) onLong Island (長島), which has become the most popularsuburban destination in the U.S. for Chinese.[60][61][62]
By 1988, 90% of the storefronts on Eighth Avenue inSunset Park, Brooklyn, were abandoned. Chinese immigrants then moved into this area, consisting of not only new arrivals from China, but also members of Manhattan's Chinatown seeking refuge from high rents, who flocked to the relatively less expensive property costs and rents of Sunset Park and formed the originalBrooklyn Chinatown,[67] which now extends for 20 blocks along 8th Avenue, from 42nd to 62nd Streets. This relatively new but rapidly growing Chinatown located in Sunset Park was originally settled by Cantonese immigrants like Manhattan's Chinatown in the past. However, in the recent decade, an influx of Fuzhou immigrants has been pouring into Brooklyn's Chinatown and supplanting the Cantonese at a higher rate than in Manhattan's Chinatown, and Brooklyn's Chinatown is now home to mostly Fuzhou immigrants.
In the past, during the 1980s and 1990s, the majority of newly arriving Fuzhou immigrants settled within Manhattan's Chinatown, and the firstLittle Fuzhou community emerged within Manhattan's Chinatown; by the first decade of the 21st century, however, the epicenter of the massive Fuzhou influx had shifted to Brooklyn's Chinatown, which is now home to the fastest-growing and perhaps largest Fuzhou population in New York City. Unlike the Little Fuzhou in Manhattan's Chinatown, which remains surrounded by areas which continue to house populations of Cantonese, all of Brooklyn's Chinatown is swiftly consolidating into New York City's new Little Fuzhou. However, a growing community ofWenzhounese immigrants from China'sZhejiang is now also arriving in Brooklyn's Chinatown.[68][69] Also in contrast to Manhattan's Chinatown, which still successfully continues to carry a large Cantonese population and retain the large Cantonese community established decades ago in its western section, where Cantonese residents have a communal venue to shop, work, and socialize, Brooklyn's Chinatown has seen a change from its primarily Cantonese community identity to a more diverse Chinese melange.[70]
Like Manhattan's Chinatown during the 1980s and 1990s (pre-gentrification), Brooklyn's Chinatown became the main affordable housing center for Fuzhou immigrants – and for job opportunities ranging from seamstress factories and restaurants – despite its domination by Cantonese immigrants in the earlier years.
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as well asAvenue U inHomecrest, Brooklyn, in addition toBay Ridge,Borough Park,Coney Island,Dyker Heights,Gravesend, andMarine Park, have given rise to the development of Brooklyn's newer satellite Chinatowns, as evidenced by the growing number of Chinese-run fruit markets, restaurants, beauty andnail salons, small offices, and computer andconsumer electronics dealers. While theforeign-born Chinese population in New York City jumped 35 percent between 2000 and 2013, to 353,000 from about 262,000, the foreign-born Chinese population in Brooklyn increased 49 percent during the same period, to 128,000 from 86,000, according toThe New York Times. The emergence of multiple Chinatowns in Brooklyn is due to the overcrowding and highproperty values in Brooklyn's main Chinatown in Sunset Park, and many Cantonese immigrants have moved out of Sunset Park into these new areas. As a result, the newer emerging, but smaller Brooklyn's Chinatowns are primarily Cantonese dominated while the main Brooklyn Chinatown is increasingly dominated by Fuzhou emigres.[38][71]
Long Island comprisesBrooklyn,Queens, as well asNassau andSuffolk counties. Heavy Chinese migration is occurring from Brooklyn and Queens eastward, most notably settling intosuburban Nassau County, often in search of numerous public schools considered among the topmost in the U.S.
For much of the overall history of the Chinese community in New York City,Taishanese was the dominantChinese variety.[72] After 1965, an influx of immigrants fromHong Kong madeCantonese the dominant dialect for the next three decades.
Later on, during the 1970s–80s, Mandarin andFuzhou-speaking immigrants began to arrive into New York City.Taiwanese were settling into Flushing, Queens when it was still predominantly European American, whileFuzhou immigrants were settling in Manhattan's then very Cantonese-dominated Chinatown. The Taiwanese and Fuzhou people were the earliest significant numbers of Chinese immigrants to arrive into New York who spoke Mandarin but not Cantonese, although many spoke theirregional Chinese dialects as well.
Since the mid-1990s, an influx of immigrants from various parts of mainland China has resulted in the increased influence of Mandarin in the Chinese-speaking world, with Chinese parents often having their children learn it regardless of their own linguistic background, and Mandarin has been in the process of becoming the dominantlingua franca among the Chinese population of New York City. In the Manhattan Chinatown, many newer immigrants who speak Mandarin live aroundEast Broadway, while Chinatowns in Brooklyn and Queens have also witnessed influxes of Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants, as well asMin Chinese andSouthern Min speakers.[72]
Unique demographics of New York City Chinese enclaves
In Queens, the Chinatowns are very diverse, composed of different Chinese regional groups mainly speaking Mandarin, and who are more often middle- or upper-middle class. As a result, the Mandarin dialect is primarily concentrated in Queens. Flushing's Chinatown is the largest Chinese cultural center of New York City, and the most diverse, with populations from various regions of China and Taiwan. Since the 2000s and 2010s,Northeastern Chinese immigrant population has grown in Flushing.
However, since Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's Chinese enclaves still hold large Cantonese-speaking populations, who were the earlier Chinese immigrants to arrive into New York City and with the popularity of Hong KongCantonese cuisine and entertainment being widely available, the Cantonese dialect and culture still hold a large influence, and Cantonese is still a dialect in those enclaves.
Even though there are very large Fuzhou populations in Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's Chinese enclaves, many of whom speak Mandarin as well, Mandarin serves as only one of the dialects used in those enclaves in addition to Cantonese, rather than being the dominant one. In contrast, Mandarin serves as the predominant dialect in Queens, alongside various Chinese regional languages in Queens.
In Brooklyn,Fuzhou speakers predominate in the large Chinatown inSunset Park, while the several smaller emerging Chinatowns in various sections ofBensonhurst and in a section ofSheepshead Bay contain primarilyCantonese speakers, unlike in Manhattan's Chinatown, where theCantonese enclave andFuzhou enclave are directly adjacent to each other. Therefore, usage of Mandarin and Cantonese dialects significantly varies between the different Chinatowns of Sunset Park, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay. Cantonese is the main variety of Chinese spoken in Bensonhurst's and Sheepshead Bay's Chinatowns, since they are mostly Cantonese-populated; Mandarin is another, but less dominant variety. Since Sunset Park's Chinatown is now mostly Fuzhou populated, Mandarin is more dominant there. In Manhattan's Chinatown, Cantonese is dominant in the western portion and Fuzhounese in the eastern portion. Cantonese and Mandarin are equally spoken there due to the high number of mainland Chinese visitors and Cantonese residents from other neighborhoods.[73][74][75][76][77][78]
The Cantonese and Fuzhou populations are often more working class. However, because of the gentrification in Manhattan's Chinatown, Sunset Park in Brooklyn is increasingly becoming the main target for newly arrived Fuzhou immigrants while Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn are increasingly becoming the main targets for the newly arrived Cantonese immigrants. This shift has now resulted in Brooklyn's Chinatowns rapidly replacing Manhattan's Chinatown as the largest primary gathering cultural centers for the Cantonese and Fuzhou populations of New York City.[79][80][81]
Cooks at a Manhattan Chinatown restaurant taking a break
Kosher preparation of Chinese food is widely available in New York City, serving the metropolitan area's largeJewish and particularlyOrthodox Jewish populations. Many American Jews eat at Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day,[85][86][87] a tradition that may have arisen from the lack of other open restaurants on Christmas Day, as well as the close proximity of Jewish and Chinese immigrants to each other in New York City. Kosher Chinese food is usually prepared in New York City, as well as in other large cities with Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, under strictrabbinical supervision as a prerequisite for Kosher certification.
The China Press is headquartered inMidtown Manhattan.[90]The Epoch Times, an international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with theFalun Gong new religious movement, is also headquartered in Manhattan.[91][92][93][94] The Hong Kong-based, multinational Chinese-language newspaperSing Tao Daily maintains its overseas headquarters in Chinatown, Manhattan. The Beijing-based, English-language newspaperChina Daily publishes a U.S. edition, which is based in the1500 Broadway skyscraper inTimes Square.[95]Sino Monthly andGlobal Chinese Times are published inEdison,Middlesex County, New Jersey,[96][97] to serve a growing global readership and New Jersey's growing Chinese population.[98]
Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated annually throughout New York City's Chinatowns. Chinese New Year was signed into law as an allowable school holiday in theState of New York byGovernor Andrew Cuomo in December 2014, as absentee rates had run as high as 60% in some New York City schools on this day.[99] In June 2015, New York City MayorBill de Blasio declared that the Lunar New Year would be made a public school holiday;[100] and in September 2023, New York State made Lunar New Year a mandatory public school holiday.[101]
The New York City metropolitan area contains several extracurricular Chinese schools for children and adults in the Chinese community, offering lessons in Chinese language and culture. TheHuaxia Chinese School system, which teaches Simplified Chinese, operates in several locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.
The Long Island Chinese American Association (LICAA) serves those onLong Island. As of 2020[update], Gordon Zhang is the president. Other associations include Chinese American Association ofNorth Hempstead and theHerricks Chinese Association.[118]
In 1933, the leftistChinese Hand Laundry Alliance formed to advocate for thousands of Chinese laundry workers when New York City passed a heavy tax targeting Chinese.[120]
The political stature of Chinese Americans in New York City has become prominent.
As of 2017,Guo Wengui, a self claimed Chinese billionaire turned political activist, has been in self-imposed exile in New York City, where he owns an apartment worth $68million on theUpper East Side of Manhattan, overlookingCentral Park. He has continued to conduct apolitical agenda to bring attention to alleged corruption in the Chinese political system from his New York home.[121] In July 2024, Guo was convicted of fraud in New York.[122]
The economic influence of Chinese in New York City is growing as well. The majority ofcash purchases of New York City real estate in the first half of 2015 were transacted by Chinese as a combination of overseas Chinese and Chinese Americans.[126] The top three surnames of cash purchasers of Manhattan real estate during that time period were Chen, Liu, and Wong.[126] Chinese have also invested billions of dollars into New Yorkcommercial real estate since 2013.[127] According toChina Daily, theferris wheel under construction onStaten Island, slated to be among the world's tallest and most expensive with an estimated cost of $500million, has received $170million in funding from approximately 300 Chinese investors through theU.S. EB-5 immigrant investor program, which grantspermanent residency to foreign investors in exchange for job-creating investments in the United States, with Chinese immigrating to New York City dominating this list.[128] Chinese billionaires have been buying New York property to be used aspied-à-terres, often priced in the tens of millions of U.S. dollars each,[129][130] and as of 2016, middle-class Chinese investors were purchasing real estate in New York.[131] Chinese companies have also been raising billions of dollars onstock exchanges in New York viainitial public offerings.[132] The majorChinese banks maintain operational offices in New York City.
Wenliang Wang – honorary chairman,NYU Center on U.S.-China relations[143]
Peter Yew – Chinese Americans first protestedpolice brutality with high-profile activism outsideNew York City Hall in May 1975, after the beating of this 27-year-old Chinese-American engineer who was a bystander at the scene of a traffic dispute in Chinatown in Manhattan.[1]
Yuh-Line Niou – former member of the New York State Assembly, representing the 65th District in Lower Manhattan, elected in November 2016, serving through 2022, and succeeded byGrace Lee, above
Zhang Yesui – Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations from 2008 to 2010
Chinese people have emerged prominently in the New York City journalism sphere. Thismedia subsection has been created to acknowledge this professional prominence.
^abcdVivian Yee (February 22, 2015)."Indictment of New York Officer Divides Chinese-Americans".The New York Times. RetrievedFebruary 23, 2015.Now they are reaching out to the Chinese-language press, contacting lawyers to advise Officer Liang and planning a protest march in New York, a city with the largest Chinese population outside of Asia.
^"Dragon Springs – Located in beautiful Deerpark, NY". Dragon Springs. RetrievedNovember 2, 2015.There is no other place in the world like Dragon Springs. It combines the natural beauty of New York State with ancient Chinese architecture, performing arts, academic learning, and spiritual meditation.
^Eileen Sullivan (November 24, 2023)."Growing Numbers of Chinese Migrants Are Crossing the Southern Border".The New York Times. RetrievedNovember 24, 2023.Most who have come to the United States in the past year were middle-class adults who have headed to New York after being released from custody. New York has been a prime destination for migrants from other nations as well, particularly Venezuelans, who rely on the city's resources, including its shelters. But few of the Chinese migrants are staying in the shelters. Instead, they are going where Chinese citizens have gone for generations: Flushing, Queens. Or to some, the Chinese Manhattan..."New York is a self-sufficient Chinese immigrants community," said the Rev. Mike Chan, the executive director of the Chinese Christian Herald Crusade, a faith-based group in the neighborhood.
^"Chinatown New York". Civitatis New York. RetrievedAugust 18, 2022.As its name suggests, Chinatown is where the largest population of Chinese people live in the Western Hemisphere.
^"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.
^Sarah Ngu (January 29, 2021)."'Not what it used to be': in New York, Flushing's Asian residents brace against gentrification".The Guardian US. RetrievedAugust 13, 2020.The three developers have stressed in public hearings that they are not outsiders to Flushing, which is 69% Asian. 'They've been here, they live here, they work here, they've invested here,' said Ross Moskowitz, an attorney for the developers at a different public hearing in February... Tangram Tower, a luxury mixed-use development built by F&T. Last year, prices for two-bedroom apartments started at $1.15million... The influx of transnational capital and rise of luxury developments in Flushing has displaced longtime immigrant residents and small business owners, as well as disrupted its cultural and culinary landscape. These changes follow the familiar script of gentrification, but with a change of actors: it is Chinese American developers and wealthy Chinese immigrants who are gentrifying this working-class neighborhood, which is majority Chinese.
^Michael Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson (May 30, 2017)."The Billionaire Gadfly in Exile Who Stared Down Beijing".The New York Times. RetrievedJune 14, 2017.The biggest political story in China this year isn't in Beijing. It isn't even in China. It's centered at a $68million apartment overlooking Central Park in Manhattan.
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