Should Chinatowns in America be torn down?
Last edited Sun Jan 18, 2015, 05:44 PM - Edit history (1)
There is a debate going on youtube. Seems like many Right wingers think that America having Chinatowns are bad. They say they allow people to speak Chinese among themselves when they should be speaking English. All signs should be in English they say. No one should come to America and set up their own nitch where they all live together. Many Rightwingers are saying that Chinatowns should be torn down and people should be forced to live among the regular communities. That having a cultural center in Chinatown is unfair, because other communities can't have their culture on display. Rightwingers are saying that Chinatowns can harbor "illegal aliens" who can come to America and hide out there for many years. They are also saying that the food there is tainted, and many have lived there for years without having to speak English. That they are really a slum, where there is back room crimes, like opium dens, drugs, and gambling. They say the Chinatowns allow the Tongs to set up and operate there.
Many of these arguments are stupid to me. I love shopping in Chinatown, and really, the Chinese had no recourse, but to have their own communities, because Historically, after building the Railroads they were thrown out of many towns. The one in Santa Barbara, had been burned down by people who wanted them to get out, and go elsewhere. So many Chinese set up their own area. The Chinese in San Francisco have contributed much to the tapestry of culture in the City, the festivals and parades are rich in traditions that make many proud to be apart of that community.
| 35 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Time expired | |
| NO! Absolutely not, they are cultural heritage areas, with great shopping. | |
27 (77%) |
|
| YES! Chinatowns should be torn down, and the people should be made to assimilate | |
0 (0%) |
|
| Rightwingers are stupid and Racist, they have no clue what they are talking about! | |
8 (23%) |
|
| Other | |
0 (0%) |
|
| 0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
| Show usernames
Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll |
|
= new reply since forum marked as read
I avoid Chinatown during peak tourism periods and go to Clement St or the outer Sunset area. I also like Oakland's because it's closer to where I live.
And people all around me are speaking some funny languages!!11!! The restaurants have weird food !!111!!
In the stores, the packages have funny writing on them !!111!! It's as if I'm not even in America !!
Japantown has very nice shopping.
I can't wait for the Parade!!
The Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram this year.. my son's Chinese animal sign.. I'll have to tell him. 
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/goat.asp
Oh, of course Ethnic Peoples in America should have their own towns if they want.. it's none of the rwingers' business even though they try to stick their collective nose into everyone else's business.
You are in Hawaii, Do they have some Asian ethnic areas there? Shopping places? Tourist places. I have heard there are Shinto Shrines in Hawaii.. I would love to visit there some day.
idea what Honolulu on Oahu has.. I'll google..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Honolulu
Just Chinatown.. Japantown doesn't have a Wikipedia page.. just talks about restaurants..
https://www.google.com/#q=japantown+in+honolulu
Where you live sounds like so much fun for you, yuiyoshida!
I love California too... lived all over San Diego for 15 years.. my daughter was born there. 
Fuck the xenophobic reichwing assholes with an iron stick. 
Some times it makes you want to 
And I've often sensed a sort of jealously some people have toward people who are bilingual. Those "some people" are usually stupid
Opium dens?
That's soooo 1880's.
Damn!
And I so wanted a "6 Demon Bag". 
ETA... Is there a YouTube link for this debate?
This sounds more like typical trolling than anything.
for both your video and probably one of the best movies ever made by John Carpenter (other than Dark Star)
Chinatown Brooklyn is also a vibrant, growing area.
A bag of Japanese rice at Safeway costs around 15 dollars. In Chinatown I can get Rice, the same item, in the same bag, for 7 dollars. Chinatown is always cheaper in price for most food items and even the Restaurants have great prices.
Especially with my fried rice!
Yummy! I am hungry now, I may go have some Shrimp Chow Mein!
Yummy! 
She invited me to her wedding, and I had never been to a Chinese wedding before. It was spectacular. But the best part was the huge feast they throw for the wedding. (Guests there received those red packets with a 20 dollar bill in one.) It had to be a 10 course meal. You had to sample everything, and eat the things you liked! It was amazing!
in peanut oil. It actually enhanced the flavor a bit. A Thai restaurant always has used a kind of peanut butter sauce as part of the dish. Pad Thai for example uses peanuts in their dish!
is that right-wingers "swarm" such places and eventually take them over with the epitome of rude behavior. Someone around here pointed that out in one of those recent Discussionist threads about how they act online. IMDb, YouTube, tumblr, Yahoo Answers, they're all overrun with wingers because there isn't much in the way of adequate (or intelligent) moderation.
While they're certainly saying such hateful things on YT, they wouldn't make any headway in trying to take such action in "real life." Chinatowns across the nation are often so large that they have huge impacts on the local economies. They'll continue in their hate, but they won't be able to do anything to remove such communities.
Locally, I used to shop in one of the Chinatowns here, and probably should go back as it's been too long. I do like shopping at an international foods place that serves the Indian and Middle Eastern communities, though. It's great to go in there and hear people speaking French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Arabic (and probably Farsi, though I don't know either well enough to discern one from the other) in addition Urdu, and some from the East-Asian languages I can't even begin to separate due to a dire lack of knowledge of their languages. At least I do recognize Japanese thanks to all that anime I've seen over the years 
I tend to think positively, and with the fact that these communities have strong representation, too. And not just from within their communities, but from surrounding and sympathetic communities. I agree that the East and West coasts probably have nothing to worry about because they're not ruined by gerrymandering, unlike my home state of Texas.
However, where I live, in Houston, the diversity of people from across the world is greater than even NYC now, and any wingers trying to get such legislation through would find themselves unable to make such headway. I'd even bet that the City of Houston would fight such legislation in court. You'd also have companies and corporations fighting them over the one thing wingers respect more than anything: loss of revenue.
Personally, I think that worrying about such a worst-case scenario isn't that constructive. I don't feel that their comments on YT truly represent all wingers and/or moderates. But, if you do see such things happening here in the future, feel free to give us a hand in defeating them
We also have Annise Parker, a nice thorn in the sides of the wingers for being an openly lesbian Mayor
Unfortunately, this is her last term, and I don't know yet who we'll be getting for choices in the next election. Houston is pretty much purple, yet we haven't had any extreme wingers in previous elections get enough votes to even place second. Plus, we've had a large influx of people from across the country moving here for the oil & gas jobs. That's bound to have a positive impact on our elections in the future as well.
Namaste
(postus scriptus: I don't actually speak any languages other than English; my mind doesn't seem to want to retain the Latin or Deutsch I had in HS and university. The only thing I ever learned was spelling, pronunciations, and grammar. Don't ask me why! 
)
Mahalo~! (I have been told I have a teensy little bit of Hawaiian in my genes!)
Greetings in more than 3000 languages
(above link is for "Thank You"
and Tika hoki~!
(Maori for "Thank You" (Mandarin, pronouced shay shay knee) it means Thank you in Mandarin.
I know quite a few Asian greetings!
Fun Yihng! (Cantonese)
Selamat Datang! (Malaysian or Indonesian forget which)
Kamusta!! Maligayang Pangdating (Philippines)
Sawadeeka! (Thailand)
Hwan Yeong! (Korean)
Huan Yin! (Mandarin)
Xin Chao! (Vietnamese)
Konnichiwa! Konbanwa! Ohayou gozaimasu! Gokigenyo! (Japanese)
(good afternoon, Good evening, good morning, and the last, hello and goodbye)
But that's it. So, I'll copy your list for later use (thanks, too, for the pronunciation guide; next I need to learn how to pronounce Greek so I can better read my favorite mythology site!)
And I just found another language-site I'm going to have to study
And now to go clean my windscreen while I listen to belly dance music. Sea ya, Yui!
I remember reading that group in the beginning, and the discussion of having those videos. I'll check them out. Then maybe I'll rent Tompopo again
My sister took German in HS and when she went with my parents on a trip to Holland, I believe they had a stop in Germany. The natives were appreciative of her attempts to communicate in their language, though they immediately switched to English for her better communication with them Gotta love multilingualism! (unless you're an "ugly 'murican" winger )
dou itashimashite!
On IMVU, I created a three dimensional chat room which featured Asian Music. As the room owner, I instructed my mods to greet all visitors by either addressing them using Japanese:
"Youkoso! Irasshaimase!" or to use from my list, the greetings we researched. I always had my
Moderators check the profile of visitors entering, to greet them in their native language which would make them feel at home. For example, in Korean to say "Hwan Yeong!".
Now I only know Japanese, so I had to talk to friends of mine who lived in these countries. One of my friends, Linchunying, was from Taiwan. She advised me to use "Huan Yin" as a greeting.
Lin used to also teach me various Mandarin Phrases, which I would write down and try to remember. It was one day we had a person from Mainland China who told me our writings were entirely wrong.
One of my favorite phrases was from the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was:
Wo huitidao wudan shan which means something like, I have come to kick down Wudan Mountain. (Wudan Mountain was a place the priests practiced some special forms of Kung Fu.)
The guy from Mainland China was incensed over the spelling, but I suppose that in Taiwan it could be written differently. Sort of like Montreal French, and French in Paris!
So as for Huan Yin, I checked on line, and it was confirmed correct, however, as I said.. it may be different in Beijing, I don't really know.
Ichiban Jpop Kurabu.. (Jpop, Kpop, Cpop, Jrock, and other Asian music)
That's the problem when not using pinyin.. something that may look the same, often is not. My ex-wife is Chinese and I have spent a good deal of time in China, and some in Taiwan.. never heard huan yin. :> I know a little Mandarin, not very good. I was pretty fluent in Japanese 30 years ago when I spent a year there. but... have forgotten most.. EXCEPT what is needed to eat sushi..
Thanks for giving me a chance to learn a little..
zai jian
What would they do -- tell the people living there that they have to move, and then blow up the neighborhood?
Why isn't it illegal to be that stupid?
Throw the people out of their houses, and blow up the place. I don't know where they expect them to go while waiting for a new home. Maybe they would do what they did to they did to the Japanese, and send them to interment camps out in some remote area. Kind of like an Indian Reservation. These people are totally clueless.. and yes, it seems like it should be illegal to be that stupid.
Thanks for the correction. I kept looking at the Year and thinking, is that right? It bugged me, I should have gone and looked it up. The city did turn their backs on the Chinese and I am glad they held firm.
They do it at Big Football games...so flip a coin, I am sure you will be satisfied with the choice that comes up
I love eating it... one of my favorite was the Shark Dimsum, (it was actually a mixture of ground
shark and chicken, a wierd combination, but I liked it.) The shrimp Dim sum is now my ultimate favorite with a hint of hot sauce!
General Tso never learned Kung Fu!!! 
tradition of flipping a coin which normally works out as your best choice. I on other hand have access to Fortune cookies, since I ordered Chinese food today!
What concerns me, as an Asian-American is the influence that can be brought to bare on people in Political positions. A few letters, emails to Fox News can get them started on the subject. We have already seen Fox News talk about NO GO Zones in Paris. Having them focus on American Chinatowns, Koreantowns, Japantowns, and Vietnamesetowns could end up hurting those communities in any number of ways. Imagine them calling Chinatowns, No go Zones.. and demanding that Republican Politicians make up ridiculous Immigration laws that would put an end to these cultural places.
In Arizona, new laws there changed it so, universities and colleges could not have Hispanic studies, nor Foreign studies for that matter.
Stripping an area from Asian people so rich people can make themselves richer by putting up businesses and Hotels would be a cherry on the top of the proverbial Ice Cream Sundae. For years now, our San Francisco Japantown has been growing smaller.. but thanks to several Asian businesses some of that property has been purchased back, and Asian businesses have started to grow again.
Chinese New Years parade in the 1800s San Francisco
That is truly amazing, considering the stories about the many places, Like Santa Barbara that threw out the Chinese because they were different.
