Free History of Chinatown in Los Angeles Essay Sample
Chinatown, in Los Angeles, was situated in the downtown area of the city constructed in 1938 and, the second to exist in Los Angeles. The first Chinatown came to be in the late 19th Century as to give way for the Union Station, the main rail depot in the city. This led to the resettlement of people and demolitions of businesses thus, the rebirth of the new Chinatown.
The Chinatown grew rapidly, and between 1890 and 1910 it had 15 streets containing 200 buildings. This led to the growth of Chinese Opera Theater, three temples, newspapers and telephone exchange. However, this did not last long as laws did not allow the Chinese to have legal citizenship of Los Angeles or even own property. This law contributed greatly to the decline in the growth of the district.
When the decline in growth started and caused corruption in the Los Angeles, it did erode the entire image of Chinatown and led to the introduction of gambling of houses and drug dealing areas. This affected the businesses in this district for over 30 years. Afterwards, the ruling of the Supreme Court approved the denunciation of this area, in order to allow the to rebuild the new capital rail terminal. This led to the current location of the Chinatown in Los Angeles.
In the early 20th Century, the new Chinatown in Los Angeles was where the Italian Migrants were living. They built many businesses some of which exist even today, like the San Antonio Winery. With time, these immigrants moved out of the town and the Chinese began relocating to this place.
Peter Soo Hoo Jr., the leader of the Chinese - American Community led growth of this town by the integration of the Chinese architecture into the American and operational concepts. It was a great step in the development of the town into a tourism, shopping destination, a creative art centre, and a business world of ideas. It gets services from the Gold Line of the Metro Rail of the city, which has the design of the improved traditional Chinese architecture.
As time passes, Chinatown has significantly influenced the development of Los Angeles as the world’s global city in many ways. The innovation and improvement of the existing arts and ideologies of the Americans that merge with the Chinese ideologies in their system has brought the development to the town. However, the significance of Chinatown for the development and growth of Los Angeles as a global world city is evident in many sectors.
The celebration fair that the Chinatown was celebrating on June 28, 2008 of the 70th anniversary gave Los Angeles a world recognition certificate. This has attracted many people from allover the world to visit the town, thus leading to the development in social amenities, infrastructures, superstructures, economy and trade.
The diverse Asian cuisines of Chinatown and the hospitality of Chinese, Teochew, Thai and Vietnamese and, Indonesians has caught the attention of many people. This has brought the attention of the Los Angeles Times, thus broadening the image of Los Angeles as a world global city.
Chinatown is popular for television production and, filmmaking with many famous actors and actresses known worldwide like Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker starring in the Rush Hour. The film action took place in Chinatown at Los Angeles. This caused many people to visit Los Angeles.
The rich culture of the Chinese has many cultural activities to celebrate like the Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker, Chinese Lunar New Year Festival, Chinese Golden Dragon New Year Parade and many more. Los Angeles is extremely rich in cultural diversity.