ABSTRACT
The largest Chinese community outside of Asia … Chinatown is also the most densely populated of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. Chinese laborers began coming to San Francisco in the mid-19th century as refugees from the Opium Wars, and were put to work constructing the railroads of the West. Racism swelled after the tracks had been laid and Gold Rush prosperity declined. In the 1880s, white Californians secured a law against further Chinese immigration to prevent the so-called “Yellow Peril”. Stranded in San Francisco, Chinese-Americans banded together to protect themselves in this small section of downtown … Today tourists are drawn to its alleyways and markets, which pulse with the sights and smells of Chinese-American culture … today’s Chinatown is one that celebrates Chinese-American culture. Chinatown residents caution against mistaking Chinatown for a re-creation of China (if anything, Chinatown is more of a snapshot of Chinese life forty years ago, preserved by immigrants who remember that China).
