Trading centers populated predominantly by Chinese men and their native spouses have long existed throughout
Southeast Asia.
Emigration to other parts of the world from China accelerated in the 1860s with the signing of the
Treaty of Peking (1860), which opened China's borders to free movement. Early emigrants came primarily from the coastal
provinces of
Guangdong (Canton, Kwangtung) and
Fujian (Fukien, Hokkien) in
southeastern China – where the people generally speak
Toishanese,
Cantonese,
Hakka,
Teochew (Chiuchow), and
Hokkien. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a significant amount of
Chinese emigration to North America originated from four counties called
Sze Yup, located west of the
Pearl River Delta in
Guangdong province, making Toishanese a dominant
variety of the
Chinese language spoken in
Chinatowns in Canada and the United States. As conditions in China have improved in recent decades, many Chinatowns have lost their initial mission, which was to provide a transitional place into a new culture. As net migration has slowed in them, the smaller Chinatowns have slowly decayed, often to the point of becoming purely historical and no longer serving as
ethnic enclaves.
In Asia in
Manila is home to the world's oldest Chinatown. In the
Spanish Philippines, where the oldest surviving Chinatowns are located, the district where Chinese migrants (
sangleyes) were required to live is called a
parián, which were originally a marketplace for trade goods. Most of them were established in the late 16th century and became settlements of Chinese migrants due to the early Spanish colonial policy of ethnic segregation. There were numerous pariáns throughout the Philippines in various locations, the names of which still survive into modern district names. This include the
Parián de Arroceros of
Intramuros,
Manila (which was eventually moved several times, ending up in
Binondo). The term was also carried into
Latin America by Filipino migrants. The central market place of
Mexico City (now part of
Zócalo) selling imported goods from the
Manila galleons in the 18th and early 19th centuries was called "Parián de Manila" (or just "Parián"). Along the coastal areas of
Southeast Asia, several Chinese settlements existed as early as the 16th century according to
Zheng He and
Tomé Pires' travel accounts. Melaka during the Portuguese colonial period, for instance, had a large Chinese population in Campo China. They settled down at port towns under the authority's approval for trading. After the European colonial powers seized and ruled the port towns in the 16th century, Chinese supported European traders and colonists, and created autonomous settlements. Several Asian Chinatowns, although not yet called by that name, have a long history. Those in
Nagasaki,
Kobe, and
Yokohama, Japan,
Binondo in Manila,
Hoi An and Bao Vinh in central Vietnam all existed in 1600.
Glodok, the Chinese quarter of
Jakarta, Indonesia, dates to 1740. Chinese presence in India dates back to the 5th century CE, with the first recorded Chinese settler in
Calcutta named Young Atchew around 1780. Chinatowns first appeared in the Indian cities of
Kolkata,
Mumbai, and
Chennai. The
Chinatown centered on
Yaowarat Road in
Bangkok,
Thailand, was founded at the same time as the city itself, in 1782.
Outside of Asia is the longest continuous Chinese settlement in the
Western World and the oldest Chinatown in the
Southern Hemisphere. Many Chinese immigrants arrived in Liverpool in the late 1850s in the employ of the
Blue Funnel Shipping Line, a
cargo transport company established by
Alfred Holt. The
commercial shipping line created strong
trade links between the cities of
Shanghai,
Hong Kong, and Liverpool, mainly in the importation of silk, cotton, and
tea. They settled near the docks in south Liverpool, this area was heavily bombed during World War II, causing the Chinese community moving to the current location
Liverpool Chinatown on Nelson Street. The
Chinatown in San Francisco is one of the largest in North America and the oldest north of Mexico. It served as a port of entry for early Chinese immigrants from the 1850s to the 1900s. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the
Central Pacific on the
Transcontinental Railroad. Since it started in
Omaha, that city had a notable Chinatown for almost a century. Other cities in North America where Chinatowns were founded in the mid-nineteenth century include almost every major settlement along the West Coast from
San Diego to
Victoria. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849
Gold Rush. Economic opportunity drove the building of further Chinatowns in the United States. The initial Chinatowns were built in the
Western United States in states such as
California,
Oregon,
Washington,
Idaho,
Utah,
Colorado and
Arizona. As the
transcontinental railroad was built, more Chinatowns started to appear in railroad towns such as
St. Louis,
Chicago,
Cincinnati,
Pittsburgh and
Butte, Montana. Chinatowns then subsequently emerged in many
East Coast cities, including
New York City,
Boston,
Philadelphia,
Providence and
Baltimore. With the passage of the
Emancipation Proclamation, many
southern states such as
Arkansas,
Louisiana and
Georgia began to hire Chinese for work in place of slave labor. The history of Chinatowns was not always peaceful, especially when
labor disputes arose. Racial tensions flared when lower-paid Chinese workers replaced white miners in many mountain-area Chinatowns, such as in Wyoming with the
Rock Springs Massacre. Many of these frontier Chinatowns became extinct as American racism surged and the
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. In Australia, the
Victorian gold rush, which began in 1851, attracted Chinese prospectors from the
Guangdong area. A community began to form in the eastern end of
Little Bourke Street,
Melbourne by the mid-1850s; the area is still the center of the
Melbourne Chinatown, making it the oldest continuously occupied Chinatown in a western city (since the San Francisco one was destroyed and rebuilt). Gradually expanding, it reached a peak in the early 20th century, with Chinese business, mainly furniture workshops, occupying a block wide swath of the city, overlapping into the adjacent
'Little Lon' red light district. With restricted immigration it shrunk again, becoming a strip of Chinese restaurants by the late 1970s, when it was celebrated with decorative arches. However, with a recent huge influx of students from mainland China, it is now the center of a much larger area of noodle shops, travel agents, restaurants, and groceries. The
Australian gold rushes also saw the development of a Chinatown in
Sydney, at first around
The Rocks, near the docks, but it has moved twice, first in the 1890s to the east side of the Haymarket area, near the new markets, then in the 1920s concentrating on the west side. Nowadays,
Sydney's Chinatown is centered on Dixon Street. Other Chinatowns in European capitals, including
Paris and
London, were established at the turn of the 20th century. The first Chinatown in London was located in the
Limehouse area of the
East End of London at the start of the 20th century. The Chinese population engaged in business which catered to the Chinese sailors who frequented the
Docklands. The area acquired a bad reputation from exaggerated reports of
opium dens and
slum housing. France received a large settlement of Chinese immigrant laborers, mostly from the city of
Wenzhou in the
Zhejiang province of China, as well as an influx of ethnic Chinese refugees from its former
Indochina colony after the end of the
Vietnam War. Significant Chinatowns sprung up in
Belleville and the
13th arrondissement of Paris.
1970s to the present By the late 1970s, refugees and exiles from the
Vietnam War played a significant part in the redevelopment of Chinatowns in developed Western countries. As a result, many existing Chinatowns have become pan-Asian business districts and residential neighborhoods. By contrast, most Chinatowns in the past had been largely inhabited by Chinese from southeastern China. In 2001, the events of
September 11 resulted in a mass migration of about 14,000 Chinese workers from
Manhattan's Chinatown to
Montville, Connecticut, due to the fall of the garment industry. Chinese workers transitioned to
casino jobs fueled by the development of the
Mohegan Sun casino. In 2012,
Tijuana's Chinatown formed as a result of availability of direct flights to China. The
La Mesa District of Tijuana was formerly a small enclave, but has tripled in size as a result of direct flights to
Shanghai. It has an ethnic Chinese population rise from 5,000 in 2009 to roughly 15,000 in 2012, overtaking
Mexicali's Chinatown as the largest Chinese enclave in Mexico. The
New York metropolitan area, consisting of
New York City,
Long Island, and nearby areas within the states of
New York,
New Jersey,
Connecticut, and
Pennsylvania, is home to the largest Chinese-American population of any
metropolitan area within the United States and the largest Chinese population outside of China, enumerating an estimated 893,697 in 2017, and including at least 12 Chinatowns, including nine in New York City proper alone. and illegal, has fueled Chinese-American population growth in the New York metropolitan area. New York's status as an alpha global city, its extensive mass transit system, and the New York metropolitan area's enormous economic marketplace are among the many reasons it remains a major international immigration hub. The
Manhattan Chinatown contains the largest concentration of ethnic Chinese in the
Western Hemisphere, and the
Flushing Chinatown in
Queens has become one of the world's largest Chinatowns. The
COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected tourism and business in Chinatown, San Francisco and
Chinatown, Chicago, Illinois as well as others worldwide. ==Chinese settlements==