ABSTRACT
The Chinatown in Philadelphia, as other Chinatowns throughout the United States, is an area populated with mostly ethnic Chinese, marked with definite boundaries and located near central business districts in a metropolitan city. It was formed during the later nineteenth century and has struggled through the expansion of downtown Philadelphia, under the city’s urban renewal and development projects, since the 1960s. Over the years, Philadelphia Chinatown has been pressurized and threatened; however, it has fought and survived. In the process, it has grown into a cohesive ethnic enclave, gained political and ethnic consciousness, and revitalized its distinctive culture.
