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Community Preservation: Chinatown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
The Chinatown Community
Philadelphia's Chinatown was founded in 1871. However, the first Chinese people probably
arrived in Philadelphia and established some small businesses there by the mid-1800s. Like
Chinatowns and other communities of immigrants in many U.S. cities, Philadelphia's Chinatown
provided people with a secure base for establishing roots in America and the opportunity to
imporve their economic status.
Chinatown, however, functions as much more than a cultural icon: it furnishes essential services
for new immigrants from China and Southeast Asia and provides a cultural identity for many
American Chinese. Philadelphia's Chinatown has relatively few residents compared with the
Chinese population of the Delaware Valley or metropolitan Philadelphia, but it is still considered
vital by those who live in the region and desire to maintain close ties with their cultural
heritage. According to a 1970 Drexel University study of Philadelphia's Chinatown, "the true
essence of Chinatown is found in the sense of identity and belonging they impart to the Chinese
living beyond as well as within their borders" (see references).
Until the advent of the Vine Street Expressway, leadership in Chinatown was almost entirely
in the hands of the Chinese Benevolent Association, a group consisting of the elders of the major
families in the community. In China, the term "family" has a much broader meaning than it does
in America. The family is more a kinship group or clan. In China, many generations and their
offspring live under one roof, under the guidance of one patriarch or matriarch. Families come
together in Philadelphia's Chinatown to protect and assist their members, particularly the recent
immigrants. They tend to form their own associations to provide a form of quasi-government that
sets rules and regulations, resolved differences, cares for the needy, and acts as a liaison
with the world outside Chinatown.
Because of their cultural commitment to education, family life within the strictly Chinese
family is focused on raising the children. It is not surprising, then, that one of the most
important institutions in Philadelphia's Chinatown was (and remains) Holy Redeemer Church and
School, located on Vine Street at the northern edge of the community. Holy Redeemer was built
in 1941 expressly for Chinese Roman Catholics, and the church and adjacent school serve as the
focal point for community activity. In the early 1970s, the Holy Redeemer School has 140
children enrolled. All were Chinese, some 40 of whom were very recent immigrants. Initial plans
for the Vine Street Expressway called for the demolition of both Holy Redeemer Church and its
school.
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After the mid-1960s and the relaxation of U.S. immigration laws with regard to Asians, the demand for housing in Chinatown became intense as large numbers of Chinese chose to immigrate to Philadelphia. This was one of the major precipitating factors behind the struggle by Chinatown residents to preserve their community in the face of downtown revitalization and highway projects. While Chinatowns up and down the East Coast expanded rapidly in response to changes in immigration laws during the 1960s, Philadelphia's Chinatown was constrained by surrounding redevelopment and transportation projects. Because of the small physical size of the Chinatown community, no new construction had taken place there for years. A 1975 planning report on Philadelphia's Chinatown (known as the "Chadbourne Report") that commissioned by the Philadelphia City Planning Commissions counted approximately 500 Chinese, 50 small-scare Chinese businesses, and 20 associations as forming the social fabric of Chinatown. |
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