1. Title of Workshop

Reimagining Global Chinatowns in Megacities: A Multidisciplinary Workshop on Innovative Local Storytelling

重塑全球大都會中的唐人街：多學科視角下的本地敘事創新工作坊

2. Workshop Organizers

Workshop Instructor: Dr. Bayer Lee

Urban China Network: Mina wei, Joanna Chen

WanderLens Lab: Zihao Zhang, Daoxin Chen

Columbia GSAPP (Chinatown Studies): Mengyao Chen, Fei Deng, Weijie Sun

Poster Design: Hongqian Li

3. Rationale for the Theme

• Chinatown is a historic and ongoing version of Chinese immigrants’ settlement, whose inhabitants include not only Chinese, but a cultural and ethical kaleidoscope.
• Chinatown as a product of the fusion between Chinese origins and global urban environments;
• Overseas Chinatowns serve as a counterpart to urban development in China, acting as an image by inversion to China's urbanization. They demonstrate an alternative possibility for urban evolution with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics;
• They offer us new perspectives of Chinese urban issues: Whose place? Whose memory? Whose city?

4. Workshop Topics

Topic 01:

“Chinatown for Rent”: Gentrification, Urban Renewal and Satellite Chinatowns

Topic description: Since the 1950s, with the growth of the immigrant population and the influx of new immigrants, New York City's Chinatown has continuously expanded and extended outward. From the mid-1960s, Chinatown was no longer a segregated area for Chinese immigrants in the city, but rather an ethnic enclave with significant potential. After the 1980s, satellite Chinatowns gradually formed in Brooklyn and Queens. Along with this development, the land and rental prices in Manhattan’s Chinatown have continuously increased, leading to the outflow of Chinese immigrants, which has contributed to ongoing issues of gentrification and urban hollowing in the area. Today, the old Chinatown no longer houses a large number of immigrants, and many properties are leased to businesses that cater to the stereotypical image of Chinese culture.

This is yet another urban issue tied to rising land rents and the development of suburban areas. What discussions exist on this topic from the perspectives of real estate, urban planning, sociology, and economics, etc.?