Chinatowns in Europe
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This article discusses Chinatowns in Europe. Several urban Chinatowns exist in major European capital cities. There is Chinatown, London, England, and two Chinatowns in Paris, France: One where many Vietnamese have settled in the Quartier chinois in the 13th (13ème) arrondissement of Paris, and the other in Belleville in the northwest of Paris. In 2002 and 2003, Berlin, Germany was considering establishing a Chinatown.
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Colonialism and European Chinatowns
Some European Chinatowns have extraordinary histories while others are still new developments. Many early Chinese traders settled in several European port cities and established several communities. There are other Chinese who "jumped ship" to Europe after working as hired hands on European ships.
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As a legacy of European colonialism in Asia, many Asian subjects of British and Continental European empires immigrated to the so-called "mother country" after various independence movements took hold. For example, Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Surinamers have settled in the Netherlands (Indonesia was formerly a part of the Dutch East Indies). In 1998, many more Chinese Indonesian immigrants arrived to escape the violent pogroms in Indonesia towards ethnic Chinese (mainly as a result of the Asian financial crisis of 1997). Chinese from South Africa also settled The Netherlands after its Dutch departure. As part of the British Commonwealth, Singaporeans and Malaysians of Chinese heritage and Hong Kong Chinese have migrated to the United Kingdom. The former British Malaya was composed of Malaysia and Singapore. Burmese, including some ethnic Chinese, settled in the United Kingdom after the independence of Myanmar, then Burma. Another group of Chinese from South Africa also settled United Kingdom after its independence. When New Zealand succeeded independence, many Chinese also settled United Kingdom. Some Chinese from the former Portuguese colony of Macau have resettled in Portugal.
French Indochina consisted of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. After the defeat of the French in the Indochina War in 1954, in which France lost its last vestiges of its colonial empire, many Vietnamese political exiles and refugees came to Paris. And again, after the fall of Saigon, at the close of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese "boat people" came to France and Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s and began settling extensively in Paris's Chinatown and immensely revitalising the area during that time. The Chinese Vietnamese refugees also ended up in Hong Kong, then a British-administered territory. These Vietnamese were resettled in the United Kingdom, and settled in several of its Chinatowns (there are several Vietnamese businesses in London's Chinatown).
Although Mainland China was carved into several Western spheres of influence, the country as a whole was not a colony of a foreign maritime power. Nevertheless, many mainland Chinese, legal and undocumented immigrants, have especially contributed to the development of Chinese communities in Europe. There has been new immigration from the poor Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, many of whom are first-generation immigrants who work in the unskilled service industries–especially in restaurants and garment sweatshops—of Europe.
A few Chinese Filipinos settled Spain after Spanish-American War in 1898. As a result of Spanish influence in Latin America, many ethnic Chinese went to Spain after independence. Chinese Mexicans settled Spain after its independence in 1821, while some Chinese Cubans and Chinese Puerto Ricans settled after Spanish-American War. Their countries were settled by Chinese during Spanish territorial period. Many Chinese, whose ancestors settled Latin America several years after independence from Spain, also came to Spain because of excessive poverty or political problems. For example, Chinese Peruvians settled Spain because of the messy rule of General Juan Velasco Alvarado. Chinese Argentines settled Spain caused by the dictatorship of Juan Peron. Many Chinese Brazilians settled in Portugal because of poverty. In contrast, however, there are also many well-educated new immigrants from Mainland China who work in many professional positions in Spain.
Immigration trends to Europe
The European Union countries of France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom has consistently attracted the most ethnic Chinese immigrants. Several cities in these countries now have vibrant and bustling Chinatowns. From the 1950s, immigration from the former French Indochina increased, with immigration reaching its peak during the Vietnam War. Since the 1980s, the major source of emigrants has been the People's Republic of China, with smaller number of migrants coming from Hong Kong - with exception to the United Kingdom - and Taiwan. Most emigrants from these latter two areas have headed to Australia and North America.
Specific European Chinatowns
Belgium
The small Chinatown (Walloon: Quartier chinoise) of Brussels in Belgium consists of two streets, rue Saint Géry and rue Antoine Dansaert. The area reflects more of a pan-Asian spirit, with various Asian ethnicities represented in the area businesses.
In Flanders, The city of Antwerp has a growing Chinatown on Van Wesenbekestraat near the Coninckplein.
France
Paris boasts of le plus grand quartier chinois (the largest Chinatown) in Europe. Located in the 13th arrondissement, the area contains many Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian merchants and other inhabitants, living in high concrete towers and blocks. The residents also include Chinese from French Polynesia and French Guiana; and ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Indonesians from New Caledonia. Roughly speaking, the area extends between and around the avenue d'Ivry and avenue de Choisy streets, east of the rue de Tolbiac. One major point of attraction is the Tang Frères (owned by a Chinese Laotian) and Paristore supermarkets, selling Asian products, located close to each other. . On the Chinese New Year, there is a great parade through the streets, with lion and dragon dances. [1] (http://www.mostang.com/mw/iss12/french/chinatown.html)
There are smaller areas elsewhere in Paris such as in Belleville on rue Rebeval. This area contains a larger population of ethnic Chinese from the former French Indochina. Other ethnic Chinese are also concentrated in Marne-la-Vallée.
Lyon also has a Chinatown, located around the Condorcet neighbourhood, in the 7th arrondissement. It is much smaller than that of Paris, consisting mainly of a couple of blocks around rue Passet and rue Pasteur.
Germany
A German Chinatown is found in the city of Düsseldorf. The English term Chinatown is used in the German language.
Hamburg had a historic Chinatown that existed in the St. Pauli red light district from the 1920s to the 1940s. It was destroyed by the Gestapo under the Nazis, and there are only a few remnants left behind. During and after World War II, Germany's ethnic Chinese left for the United Kingdom.
After liberalising its immigration laws, the former West Germany saw an increase in Asian immigration in the late 1970s and 1980s. The ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese make up a large proportion of the Asian population of Germany. There are plans to develop a Chinatown or pan-Asian area in Berlin.
Hungary
An area with a semblance of Chinatown was developed in the rundown Józsefváros neighboruhood of Budapest. Many immigrants come from the costal province of Fujian(福建) and Zhejiang(浙江) in Mainland China since the late 1980s and ealy 1990s. The major problems is that in Chinatown, low-priced and low quality mechandize are being offered there. Compounding to this problem is the fact they are generally popular with the Hungarian consumers. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cds/pany1.htm
Ireland
The city of Dublin holds an annual Chinatown Festival [2] (http://www.dublin.ie/chinatown/) to mark the Chinese New Year. Plans to establish a Chinatown on Capel Street on the city's northside have been criticized by anonymous anti-immigration leaflets in the area [3] (http://www.p45blogs.net/pquarantecinq/archives/001569.html).
Italy
Italy has a rapidly-growing Chinese population. The country has had a very small Chinese population since World War II, but most of the current population has arrived since the 1980s. Between 60,000 to 100,000 Chinese are thought to be living in Italy.
Rome has several small Chinatown districts, called Las Chinatowns. The fastest-growing Roman Chinatown is in Esquilino.
The Chinatown of Milan is around Via Paolo Sarpi.
There is another Chinatown in the city of Prato, with the largest Mainland Chinese immigrant population in Italy. Many first-generation immigrants work in the garment industries.
The Italian term for Chinatown is quartiere cinese but Chinatown is also used.
Netherlands
Holland's major Chinatown is located in the famed De Wallen red light district of Amsterdam. The Chinatown, with its location on Zeedijk Street, has expanded beyond the area. About 80 kilometers to the southwest, the city of Rotterdam also has a Chinatown, on West Kruiskade. The third Chinatown worth to be mentioned is in the city of The Hague (25 kilometers northwest of Rotterdam). The term "Chinatown" is used in the Dutch language. Indonesian Dutch of Chinese descent are included in the residents.
Chinese Indonesian restaurants were common in the Netherlands until new immigrants from Mainland China began arriving and opening "authentic Chinese cuisine" restaurants. Many Chinese from independent Surinam and Dutch territory of Netherlands Antilles also settled Chinatown. In general, most Chinatown businesses tend to speak and use English rather than Dutch on their signage.
Portugal
Portugal's major Chinatown is located in Lisbon, mostly in the form of shopping centres.
Porto Alto has a Chinatown as well.
Most Chinese immigrants to Portugal came from the former Portuguese territory of Macau, when it was returned to Mainland Chinese control in 1999, while others from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Many Chinese also came from Brazil to Portugal. Besides Portuguese Chinese speaking Mandarin, Cantonese, and Portuguese, some of them speak a mixed Cantonese-Portuguese creole, Patuá.
In the North of Portugal there is a rapidly growing Chinatown in the Industrial Area of Vila do Conde in Porto.
Russia
A new proposed Chinatown is in the planning and development stages for the Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg, Russia with massive funding from mainland Chinese investors. Proposed plans call for restaurants, markets, a Buddhist temple, and housing developments on more than 2 km² that is to begin construction before 2010. [4] (http://www.petersburgcity.com/news/city/2004/12/20/baltic2/) [5] (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/12/21/047.html)
In keeping in line with its post-Soviet melting pot ideology, there is no established "Chinatown" in Moscow. Moscow currently has a small Chinese population.
- See also: Chinatowns in Asia#Russia
Serbia
Serbia's biggest Chinatown is located in the newer part of Belgrade. There are many Chinese stores all over the country. They sell many products at low prices, especially in Novi Pazar. Serbian Chinatowns don't have any special name; the term used is kinezi, which refers to Chinese people. Most of these immigrants tend to Mainlander Chinese. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/685566.stm supplies more information.
Spain
While there has been Chinese immigration to Spain, it has not been as much as in other European countries, such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. There are about 100,000 Chinese in Spain. Most Chinese-Spanish residents are people whose ancestors were coolies from mainland China. Others are refugees from other places in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and especially the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, while still others are economic immigrants from Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries. In Spain, Chinese immigrants tend not to form separate neighbourhoods (the quintessential image of a Chinatown) but live in areas mixed with other immigrants. However, in some places, Chinese immigration is enough to give a Chinese color to some streets.
The most important example of a Spanish Chinatown is the Lavapiés neighbourhood in Madrid, inhabited by mixed immigrants and Bohemian Spaniards. Barcelona, however, has had an area named Barrio Chino since the 1920s, in the old city between the Ramblas and the Parallel. The residents have been poor Spaniards and the area is marked by its prostitution, to the extent that any prostitution district of any Spanish city may be known as barrio chino, regardless of any Chinese presence, though the term doesn't imply a population of Chinese residents. The term came from an article whose author compared the state of the area with the popular image of foreign Chinatowns.
After the Spanish Miracle, Spain started receiving more Chinese immigrants, some of whom may have settled in the cheap Barrio Chino. As a result of the gentrification policy exemplified by the 1992 Olympic Games, the areas is being rebuilt as a chic neighbourhood and the more neutral name of El Raval is preferred. Recent Chinese immigrants have established wholesale clothes business at La Ribera, Ronda San Pedro or Trafalgar street. Barrios Chinos are also pan-Asian areas. Many Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Thais settled Barrio Chino.
United Kingdom
Main articles: Chinatown, London and Chinatown, Birmingham
Other UK Chinatowns are found in the English cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, and in the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
England
London
The United Kingdom has several Chinatowns, and the most Chinatowns to be found in any single European country, including the older one in London, located in the Soho area, and it was established in the 1950s. A new Chinese gate on Shaftesbury Avenue and Leicester Square is planned as well. London's Chinatown is undergoing the politics of gentrification, with a £50 million planned regeneration.
There are plans to revive London's original Chinese district in Limehouse as part of the wider regeneration of East London. This area was bombed out, as with much of London, during the Battle of Britain of the Second World War causing a relocation of ethnic Chinese to the seedy Soho. The BBC, British-born Chinese, have since moved out of the area and Chinatown has been re-settled by poorer immigrants.
Satellite Chinese communities have been founded on the outskirts of London, particularly in suburban Croydon. At present, it is mainly a shopping centre with the major Chinese British supermarket chain as the anchor. One such centre in Croydon is called China Town Mall and has been built complete with Chinese-style architecture and gateway.
Manchester
Manchester's Chinatown on Faulkner Street is the largest in Britain. The Chinese British population, many of whom are immigrants from former British-ruled Hong Kong, has especially settled in the Greater Manchester area. However, Hong Kong immigration to the United Kingdom has leveled off over the years and there has been a rise in Mainland Chinese immigration to the country.
Newcastle
According to the BBC, Newcastle's Chinatown is also undergoing regeneration. A gateway costing £160,000 (€240,000) is being constructed by Mainland Chinese engineers as part of the plans.
Liverpool
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The Chinatown in Liverpool in the Merseyside area is on Duke Street. It has been under regeneration.
Northern Ireland
Belfast
Belfast in Northern Ireland has a large Chinese immigrant population. Although there is no formal Chinatown, the area on the street of Donegall Pass and Dublin Road exhibits the properties of many Chinatowns.
Scotland
Glasgow contains a Chinatown.
In 2003, the city council of Aberdeen approved plans for a new Chinatown in the northern part of the city.
External links
- The Emergence of a Chinatown as a Tourist Site in Antwerp?" (http://www.international.metropolis.net/events/Rotterdam/papers/53_Pang.htm) - Article on the touristification of Chinatown in Antwerp, Belgiumja:ヨーロッパのチャイナタウン