Overview
A “Chinatown” refers to a neighborhood where immigrants or cultural establishments from China are concentrated.
History and Etymology
The term “Chinatown” emerged from the California Gold Rush around the 1850s amidst anti-immigrant hysteria as labor groups blamed Chinese workers for taking jobs rather than poor speculative decisions from investors in a railroad bubble. Xenophobia and anti-drug hysteria often go hand-in-hand with both assigned the quality of an exotic Other that disrupts the order of the status quo. When Chinatown communities set up opium dens that took the customers that bars in white neighborhoods frequented, the local governments passed restrictions on opium to give law enforcement cover to disrupt all networks with Chinese immigrants, not just the drug users in Chinatown.