The
New York metropolitan area contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of
Asia, comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017, including at least 12 Chinatowns – six (or nine, including the emerging Chinatowns in
Corona and
Whitestone,
Queens, and
East Harlem, Manhattan) in
New York City proper, and one each in
Nassau County,
Long Island;
Cherry Hill,
Edison,
New Jersey; By 1880, the enclave around
Five Points was estimated to have from 200 to as many as 1,100 members.
Early history In the earlier part of the 20th century,
Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park was primarily home to
Norwegian immigrants, and it was known as "Little Norway", or "
Lapskaus Boulevard", as the Norwegians termed it. Later on, as Norwegians left, the neighborhood increasingly became abandoned by the 1950s. In 1983, the first Chinese American grocery store in Brooklyn (Store name: Choi Yung Grocery) was opened on 5517 Fort Hamilton Parkway. Selling both Asian and American products and in 1985. The first Cantonese style seafood restaurant opened on 8th Avenue in between 55 and 56 Street (Store name: Canton House Restaurant). In 1986, Winley Supermarket was opened on the corner of 8th Avenue (5523 8th Avenue). Those unprecedented supermarkets and the first Chinese seafood restaurant served the predominantly local residents of the area and attracted Chinese immigrants from all areas of Brooklyn. In 1988, the first Chinese Community nonprofit organization opened on Eighth Avenue to serving Sunset Park area Chinese immigrants, the organization's name calls Brooklyn Chinese America Association (BCA). Before 1984, there were only about thirty small shops on the entire Eighth Avenue and 90% of the original storefronts on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park were abandoned. From 1984 to the present, Eighth Avenue has developed from a declining commercial area to an unlimited economic development potential with a thousand small businesses hub. By 1988, 90% of the original storefronts on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park were abandoned, but Winley Supermarket prevailed and continued to draw in more Asian visitors. Chinese immigrants then moved into this area – not only new arrivals from
China, but also residents escaping the higher rents of the Manhattan Chinatown, fleeing to the lower property costs and rents of Sunset Park and forming the Brooklyn Chinatown.
Emergence The relatively new but rapidly growing Chinatown located in Sunset Park was originally settled by
Cantonese immigrants as had been Manhattan's Chinatown. In the past, Sunset Park had the highest Cantonese population in Brooklyn and strongly resembled
Mott Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, the heart of the entrenched Cantonese community that continues to thrive in the western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown. Although large numbers of non-Cantonese Chinese immigrants, often speaking Mandarin arrived in New York City, they could not relate to the Cantonese populations, which largely do not speak Mandarin or use it only to communicate with other non-Cantonese Chinese people. As a result, the non-Cantonese Chinese populations created their own
Mandarin-speaking Chinatowns in Queens, or "Mandarin Town" () in
Flushing, and a smaller one in
Elmhurst as well. This allowed Manhattan's and Brooklyn's Chinatowns to continue retaining its almost exclusive Cantonese-speaking society and nearly were successful at keeping its Cantonese dominance. In the 1980s and 1990s, an influx of
Fuzhou immigrants, who largely speak Fuzhounese, a Chinese topolect not mutually intelligible with other Chinese immigrants, arrived and settled in
Lower Manhattan, around East Broadway and Eldridge Street. However, in the 2000s, due to gentrification and housing shortages, the Fuzhou influx shifted to Brooklyn's Chinatown in much greater numbers, supplanting the Cantonese at a significantly higher rate than in Manhattan. Sunset Park's Chinatown, Brooklyn's largest, now mostly populated by Fuzhou immigrants has been far surpassing the eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown as NYC's primary Fuzhou cultural center. As a result, Brooklyn's Sunset Park Chinatown is now increasingly becoming the main attraction for newly arrived Fuzhou immigrants into New York City. Hakka has also emerged as another rapidly emerging language in the neighborhood.
Citywide demographics As the city proper with the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia by a wide margin, estimated at 628,763 as of 2017, and as the primary destination for
new Chinese immigrants, New York City is subdivided into official municipal
boroughs, which themselves are home to significant Chinese populations, with
Brooklyn and
Queens, adjacently located on
Long Island, leading the fastest growth. 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 the 2020 census data by
NYC Dept. Of City Planning, the Asian populations in these other southern Brooklyn neighborhoods all together have overwhelmingly outnumbered the Asian population in Sunset Park. Bensonhurst alone already surpassed Sunset Park as having the largest concentration of Asian residents of Brooklyn. Bensonhurst has 46,000 Asian residents along with the nearby neighborhoods of western Gravesend having 26,700 Asian Residents and Dyker Heights having between 20,000 and 29,999 Asian residents, meanwhile Sunset Park has 31,400 Asian Residents. The Asian Residents in southern Brooklyn neighborhoods are still overwhelmingly Chinese residents. == Fuzhou Town, Brooklyn ==