ABSTRACT
Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley (SGV) is home to one of the most prolific agglomerations of Chinese restaurants in the Americas. This chapter utilizes photographs and text to explore the spatial connections between the restaurants and the banal, seemingly forgotten infrastructures of dwelling in the SGV. It deals with a general observation about the architectural banality of suburban housing in the largest Chinatown in the United States. Using the camera’s eye to expose the backs of commercially successful restaurants on major SGV streets—and the alleyways that bridge them to dense suburban housing just steps away—reminds viewers that the multi-nodal ethnic enclave is a Southern California conurbation. The other line of research is methodological, namely to deepen how a visual, photographic approach can contribute to geographical understanding of the meaning and formation of landscapes. One remarkable geographical observation about Chinese settlements in the SGV is the retention and repurposing of the quintessentially American city plan.
