Urban US Chinatowns wane as Asians head to suburbs

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by mhays

I'm happy to report that despite being in my early 40s, toilet humor is still amusing. At some point some people stop taking things so seriously. Though racial humor is still a no-no.

Well the fact that there are hordes of people who watch shit like "Dumb and Dumber" et al. is proof that older people like toilet humor.

And, the point of my post of those pictures was more of the fact that these business owners are out of touch with the general American population. Except the Kiki Bakery one. That would only make Filipinos laugh---and possibly other Malayo-Polynesian language speakers.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by Tony

There, fixed it for ya.

Not from my experience. This was used in Hawaii and the Philippines and by LA Asians WAY before it became general among black and white. I can remember when nobody on the East Coast had any idea what these word meant.

But I'm always curious about etymology if your experience is different.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by all of the trash

Let's pull our eyes back, feign buck teeth and go "Ching chong Ching chong" while we're at it.

Jesus some of you are stupid as hell

You have to get a little more subtle. Using Filipino or Chinese words or slang is no more racially insulting than saying derriere or chile con carne.

But it does sound like this thread is running down a bit.

[edluva]

theres too many asians in california. growing up i used to think it was special to be of chinese descent. nowadays, you can't escape asian people. even in what used to be the whitest suburbs of la there are a healthy minority of asians. and not only that, they've branched out of the roach-motel and nail salon business they've been known for in more "traditional" parts of the us (eg. east coast), and are now opening lots of trendy mainstream cafes, bars, retail etc throughout the happening parts of la, and annoying fad dessert and tea shops like pinkberry, 85 degrees, yogurtland, and most recently, the taiwanese shaved ice shops

asian immigrants in the west coast and canada tend to be more daring entrepreneurs - in contrast to asian immigrants in the east coast, they come flushed with cash, education, and business acumen. this is why i find it amusing every time some east coast newspaper declares a "new" trend towards asian flight to suburbia. in california and canada, asian immigrants have headed directly to suburbs like irvine, milpitas, and markham for decades, buying homes with cash only to raze them over with mcmansions, and within months, set up business catering to non-asians, some of which go on become billion dollar companies like vizio, youtube, and nvidia.

this phenomenon where confident and moneyed immigrants swoop in and unapologetically take over over wealthy caucasian city councils and school district boards is relatively new in north america, and the east coast is about three decades behind california in this regard.

gone are the days when virtually every asian immigrant resigned to settling in suburbs with their volvos and benz's, harboring quiet dreams of rearing stanford-bound piano prodigies with perfect sat scores to show off to relatives.

these suburbs aren't the chinatowns your mother took you to. ny/nj may have lots of big chinese enclaves, but they aren't the same

[glowrock]

edluva, how much were you drinking before that little diatribe???

Aaron (Glowrock)

[novawolverine]

Originally Posted by glowrock

edluva, how much were you drinking before that little diatribe???

Aaron (Glowrock)

No kidding. DC was a city mentioned in the article and it's been happening in the DC area for several decades. Lots of Chinese in areas like Rockville and Wheaton in Montgomery County, Maryland and lots of Koreans and Vietnamese in Virginia. And South Asians were never really big into the inner cities outside of a few places and they've been settling in the suburbs for a long time.

I'm sure California is different, but this story seems to pop up from time to time as if it's a new trend when it's not.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by edluva

theres too many asians in california.

Please ask them nicely to come to the midwest, then.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by glowrock

edluva, how much were you drinking before that little diatribe???

Aaron (Glowrock)

lol.

If you think there's too many Asian in California, you ought to try China! It's friggin' crazy there.

I guess if everywhere had the same ethnic/racial ratios the percentages would be (very roughly, don't flame me):

25: Chinese and other East Asian
15: Indian/Pakistani
10: Hispanic
20: White (European descent, incl. Russian,etc.)
15: Arab, middle east generally, etc.
15: black, Pacific, other, mixed

This implies California is too LOW in Chinese, Indian; too HIGH in white and Hispanic.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by glowrock

edluva, how much were you drinking before that little diatribe???

Aaron (Glowrock)

honestly, hes mostly right. it has been amazing to watch some of the cities transform in less than 10 years.

[novawolverine]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

honestly, hes mostly right

asian immigrants in the west coast and canada tend to be more daring entrepreneurs - in contrast to asian immigrants in the east coast, they come flushed with cash, education, and business acumen. this is why i find it amusing every time some east coast newspaper declares a "new" trend towards asian flight to suburbia. in california and canada, asian immigrants have headed directly to suburbs like irvine, milpitas, and markham for decades, buying homes with cash only to raze them over with mcmansions, and within months, set up business catering to non-asians, some of which go on become billion dollar companies like vizio, youtube, and nvidia.

This paragraph isn't.

[kool maudit]

dc feels west coasty in a weird way, decentralized. its not like newark, or even philadelphia.

[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by pip

I agree that the Asian population is growing fast in Chicago. But I disagree with two points.

The Argyle area is rapidly dying. The immediate zip code that includes that strip on Argyle lost 45% of it's Asian population from 2000-2010 and the surrounding zip codes lost 25%.

Koreatown is a joke. What are there, like 3 Koreans now. They all left to the suburbs. The area is vibrant, diverse, and there certainly are some yuppies like you said but aside from some Korean businesses that are still there, hold outs, the Korean population is basically gone.

Good to know that someone sees what I see every time I visit. Koreatown on Lawrence is now a joke. Back in the 1990's, it was definitely mostly Korean. Now it's heavily hispanic. Most of them have moved to the burbs, like I stated earlier.

Originally Posted by edluva

theres too many asians in california. growing up i used to think it was special to be of chinese descent. nowadays, you can't escape asian people. even in what used to be the whitest suburbs of la there are a healthy minority of asians. and not only that, they've branched out of the roach-motel and nail salon business they've been known for in more "traditional" parts of the us (eg. east coast), and are now opening lots of trendy mainstream cafes, bars, retail etc throughout the happening parts of la, and annoying fad dessert and tea shops like pinkberry, 85 degrees, yogurtland, and most recently, the taiwanese shaved ice shops

asian immigrants in the west coast and canada tend to be more daring entrepreneurs - in contrast to asian immigrants in the east coast, they come flushed with cash, education, and business acumen. this is why i find it amusing every time some east coast newspaper declares a "new" trend towards asian flight to suburbia. in california and canada, asian immigrants have headed directly to suburbs like irvine, milpitas, and markham for decades, buying homes with cash only to raze them over with mcmansions, and within months, set up business catering to non-asians, some of which go on become billion dollar companies like vizio, youtube, and nvidia.

this phenomenon where confident and moneyed immigrants swoop in and unapologetically take over over wealthy caucasian city councils and school district boards is relatively new in north america, and the east coast is about three decades behind california in this regard.

gone are the days when virtually every asian immigrant resigned to settling in suburbs with their volvos and benz's, harboring quiet dreams of rearing stanford-bound piano prodigies with perfect sat scores to show off to relatives.

these suburbs aren't the chinatowns your mother took you to. ny/nj may have lots of big chinese enclaves, but they aren't the same

I actually agree with most of what you said here. I don't know about the Northeast, but in the South (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta) that same crazy-entrepreneurial attitude prevails as well. Back in the 80's and 90's when Asians from Asia or California first started coming in droves, they ran the types of businesses you mentioned, and some of the more "FOB"y immigrants still do. But today? There's just mad money everywhere in parts of suburban Atlanta or Dallas. Asian immigrants from Asia or Asian-Americans from California or elsewhere are absolutely eager to get money, open up some trendy shop, and then make more money in some value-transference market like real estate. Heck, my family's been a part of the trend.

One of the things I do love about visiting California is what you described though. California is probably the largest concentration of English-speaking East-Asians outside of Singapore. It's very much like "What if Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Viets, etc. Decided to settle in another country, patronize each others' businesses, and speak English as the common language amongst each other."

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

One of the things I do love about visiting California is what you described though. California is probably the largest concentration of English-speaking East-Asians outside of Singapore. It's very much like "What if Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Viets, etc. Decided to settle in another country, patronize each others' businesses, and speak English as the common language amongst each other."

You are absolutely right in this regard. It's the closest thing to Pan-Asianism out there. It's probably more of phenomenon within the past 10-15 years though. I remember back in the day, any type of Asian restaurant you walked into, no matter if it was *your* Asian ethnicity or not, they would instantly talk to you in said language, assuming you were one of them. Of course, people not from that country would never be remotely interested in their cuisine, right?

Nowadays, with all the different ethnicities patronizing, the default language has indeed become English. It's not unusual to see a ramen shop packed with Filipinos, Viets going to the Taiwanese shaved ice place, Korean people at a boba shop, and HK folks at a Korean BBQ establishment.

This has also led to a change in demographics of the employees. Since English is pretty much standard, you will see less and less of the mature ladies from the old country, and more 2nd and 1.5 gens who can speak both the native tongue (since they still cater to said ethnicity as well) and fluent English.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Ronin

This has also led to a change in demographics of the employees. Since English is pretty much standard, you will see less and less of the mature ladies from the old country, and more 2nd and 1.5 gens who can speak both the native tongue (since they still cater to said ethnicity as well) and fluent English.

For the last 10-15 years, at least in SoCal, I've seen plenty of instances where the Asian proprietors of restaurants have also learned to speak Spanish (or at least use Spanish phrases) to some of their other employees like the bus boys and the people in the kitchen; I've even heard the Asian wait-staff speaking to bus boys and cooks in Spanish. It sometimes amuses me to hear Spanish being spoken in a fill-in-the-blank-Asian-ethnicity accent.

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

For the last 10-15 years, at least in SoCal, I've seen plenty of instances where the Asian proprietors of restaurants have also learned to speak Spanish (or at least use Spanish phrases) to some of their other employees like the bus boys and the people in the kitchen; I've even heard the Asian wait-staff speaking to bus boys and cooks in Spanish. It sometimes amuses me to hear Spanish being spoken in a fill-in-the-blank-Asian-ethnicity accent.

If remember right from living in LA and even much more so from San Diego with the Naval Base that a huge part of the Asian population was Filipino. At least compared to other places.

[Ronin]

Yeah, SD seems to be more Filipino than other Asians, with perhaps a few Viets sprinkled in. It has never been a magnet for C/J/K, which mostly head to LA or the Bay.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

If remember right from living in LA and even much more so from San Diego with the Naval Base that a huge part of the Asian population was Filipino. At least compared to other places.

Filipinos actually are the largest Asian ethnic group in California, Chinese being second. Filipinos just never developed extensive "Little Manilas," the one in West Covina being a fairly recent thing (and it's really just a collection of strip malls and shopping centers); most Filipinos came to the US after the Immigration Act of 1965, which basically ended racial quotas and allowed more Asians to come to the US; and most Filipinos coming here during that period pretty much integrated/assimilated fairly well; Filipinos tended to settle in a more dispersed fashion than other Asian groups, and were/are more likely than other Asian groups to intermarry outside their race. Of course there are the California cities where lots of Filipinos live, Daly City in the Bay Area coming to mind, and in the LA area, Walnut, Diamond Bar, West Covina, Cerritos, Carson, Glendale... just to name some. I know in the San Diego area, National City and Chula Vista have large populations of Filipinos.

I used to wonder why Naval Bases have large populations of Filipinos adjacent to them; it turns out, during the period that the Philippines was an American Commonwealth, even though Filipinos at the time were not American citizens, they were allowed to join the American Navy. Thus, populations of Filipinos grew around Naval Bases.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Filipinos actually are the largest Asian ethnic group in California, Chinese being second.

True. The diversity of California's Asian diaspora is amazing:

Filipino - 1,474,707
Chinese - 1,349,111
Vietnamese - 647,589
Indian - 590,445
Korean - 505,225
Japanese - 428,014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...sian_Americans

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

And i bet those numbers are undercounted

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I used to wonder why Naval Bases have large populations of Filipinos adjacent to them; it turns out, during the period that the Philippines was an American Commonwealth, even though Filipinos at the time were not American citizens, they were allowed to join the American Navy. Thus, populations of Filipinos grew around Naval Bases.

They still do. Or at least they did 10 years ago. They recruited the Philippines and El Salvador very heavy 10 years ago. Probably 80% of the cooks and 20% of the engineers in the Navy are from those two countries. They Navy offers them great programs to gain citizenship by serving, plus all the same educational opportunities in the US. The other part being that many sailors and marines marry Filipinos and bring them back to the states.

Anyway, your comment about how you notice so many Asian speaking Spanish reminded me of the Filipinos I used to know when I lived there. Most of them knew Spanish. I don't know why, but I always assumed it is from how Spain kind of played a big role in in making the Filipino culture. I don't know if there is much Spanish influence on the language or not, but I always kind of thought maybe there might be.