Search Results

This chapter focuses on the emergence of the Chinese ethnoburb as a new type of ethnic settlement in San Gabriel Valley and how it surpassed Chinatown as the center of Chinese residential, commercial, and community life in the Los Angeles area. It begins with a discussion of the three main stages in ethnoburb formation: emergence of suburban Chinese residential concentration area (1960–1975); expansion of the ethnoburb's Chinese population and ethnic economy (1975–1990); and establishment of the ethnoburb as a global outpost and racialized place (1990–present). It then considers various efforts aimed at fostering racial harmony and ethnic diversity in the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburb, including initiatives such as Harmony Week and Community Roundtable discussions, along with the promotion of multiculturalism and Chinese cultural heritage.

This chapter concludes the book with a discussion of a dance piece by choreographer Cheng-chieh Yu. Yu's piece, Hood, Veil, Shoes was commissioned by a Taiwan dance company and is inspired by Yu's experience with gender dynamics as they are negotiated on Taipei's crowded streets. The piece, choreographed by a Taiwanese American choreographer returning to Taiwan in order to create work that ultimately is conditioned by her experience of Taipei's urban choreography, reflects upon the broad themes discussed in the previous three chapters: the pull of Chineseness, and the relationships among bodies, urban motion, and choreography.

This book has explored how Los Angeles's Chinese community has evolved into an ethnoburb, comparing it with downtown Chinatown to highlight its differences from the traditional ethnic enclave. It has shown how ethnoburbs were created by ethnic minority groups and emerged as a new and important form of suburban ethnic settlement due to a combination of factors including global geopolitics and economic forces, U.S. national policies and local demographics, and socioeconomic and political shifts. This concluding chapter summarizes the book's main findings and their implications for the Chinese ethnoburb in San Gabriel Valley. It also describes ethnoburbs in other North American cities and ends by discussing the opportunities and challenges presented by ethnoburbs with regard to immigration, race, and ethnicity.

This book focuses on the emergence of a new model of contemporary urban ethnic community: the ethnoburb. Drawing on the experience of the Chinese community in Greater Los Angeles, from downtown Chinatown to the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburb, it examines the process and forces that gave rise to multiethnic ethnoburbs in the latter half of the twentieth century. It considers how the ethnoburb, as a form of urban ethnic settlement, has been formed by the interplay among economic globalization, political struggles between and within nation-states, immigration policy shifts in the United States, and a host of local conditions. The book consists of three parts. Part 1 introduces the ethnoburb model and compares the ethnoburb with traditional ghettos and ethnic enclaves. Part 2 looks at the Chinese ethnoburb in Los Angeles and Part 3 assesses the future of the Los Angeles ethnoburb, similar ethnoburbs in other major North American metropolitan areas, and the opportunities and challenges posed by ethnoburbs.

This chapter examines the trajectories of some ethnoburban subgroups by providing portraits of individual Chinese immigrants in order to personalize the hurdled masses of Chinese residents and business owners in San Gabriel Valley in 2000. It first takes a look at American-born Chinese (that is, native-born Americans of Chinese descent), many of whom fit the model minority profile, who left Los Angeles's inner-city neighborhoods for Monterey Park. It then considers the experiences of immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China who settled in Los Angeles and how these transmigrants succeeded in their business ventures in the area. It also discusses the story of one Chinese immigrant, Henry Y. Hwang, who served as chairman of the board of the Far East National Bank. By focusing on the stories of Hwang and other ethnoburban Chinese, the chapter shows how their personal lives were intertwined with global, national, and local factors and events.