The turbulent history of San Francisco’s Chinatown, oldest in North America

Chinatowns are often portrayed as gritty underworlds riddled with prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking. Some of this is rooted in truth, but that unfair depiction is largely the result of rampant xenophobia and cultural ignorance, especially in the West. In a series of articles, the Post explores the historical and social significance of major Chinatowns around the world and the communities that shape them. Known today as the oldest Chinatown in North America, San Francisco’s Chinatown has a remarkable history that spans over 175 years. Initially only occupying the area around Portsmouth Square and the nearby Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) back in the 1850s, the neighbourhood now encompasses 30 square blocks in downtown San Francisco and is one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. It all began in 1849, when Chinese emigrants flocked to San Francisco as part of the California gold rush. At the time, gold had recently been discovered by American carpenter James W. Marshall in Coloma, California. Dissatisfied with the economic and political uncertainty in China following the First Opium War (1839-42), a wave of Chinese men – eventually known as the “Gold Mountain Sojourners” – decided to travel to the Golden State, often through Hong Kong, in hopes of finding fortune there. Most of them were from China’s Guangdong province. Upon their arrival in San Francisco, many chose to strategically settle near the centre of the city, Portsmouth Square. In that area, the Chinese immigrants, most of whom worked as miners and labourers, created their own community, eventually opening shops, restaurants, pharmacies and laundries. The settlement was initially known as “Little Canton”, but was named “Chinatown” by the press in 1853. During those early days, the Chinese immigrants were mostly accepted by Californians – in 1850, for example, San Francisco’s first mayor, John White Geary, invited the “China boys” to be part of a funeral procession for president Zachary Taylor. But in subsequent years, anti-Asian sentiment grew as the economy weakened and the immigrant population became bigger, in part due to another wave of immigrants arriving to work on the transcontinental railroad. The Chinese population in California became subject to racial discrimination and repressive restrictions on where they could live and work, which prompted them to increasingly congregate in San Francisco’s Chinatown, even if they originally settled elsewhere in the city or elsewhere in California. By 1880, there were 7,500 laundries in the neighbourhood, up from 2,000 laundries in 1870. Aside from its abundance of businesses, Chinatown also became known as a cultural hub, where immigrants could celebrate Chinese festivals, speak their native dialects and even watch Cantonese opera. That said, the community was certainly not clean-cut – gambling halls and opium dens thrived in Chinatown, as did prostitution. In particular, the 1850s and ’60s saw the rise of “tongs” – organisations that were initially established to help new immigrants but eventually became embroiled in all sorts of criminal activity. For example, many tongs, driven by the fact that the Chinese population in San Francisco was overwhelmingly male, ran sex trafficking rings with girls from China. The girls – who were either kidnapped, sold by their families or lured to the US with the promise of work – were then sold as prostitutes or wives. The tongs’ nefarious activities continued even after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of Chinese labourers into the US for 10 years. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), also known as the Chinese Six Companies, attempted to stop the tongs’ various activities, as did other individuals, but it was only after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and its subsequent fire that the tongs’ illegal endeavours were somewhat quelled. Most of Chinatown was completely levelled by the earthquake and ensuing fires, but the tragedy actually allowed for an influx of Chinese immigrants. Because the fires also destroyed San Francisco’s City Hall – and with it most of the city’s birth and immigration records – many Chinese immigrants were able to gain citizenship by claiming that they were born in the US, and were then able to bring over their immediate relatives from China. The loss of City Hall records also led to the growth of an emerging phenomenon: that of the “paper son” system. The process involved a Chinese immigrant paying someone who had American citizenship, who in exchange would fraudulently claim that the immigrant was an immediate family member – thus providing a pathway for the immigrant to enter and live in the US. In 1910, officials set up an immigration station on Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, where over 30 years an estimated 250,000 Chinese immigrants were processed and questioned before they were either given or denied permission to enter. The Chinese Exclusion Act was eventually repealed by the Magnuson Act in 1943, and Angel Island is now a state park. In the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, city officials also pushed for Chinatown to be relocated, but community representatives fought to stay and sought to rebuild the neighbourhood. In particular, businessman Look Tin Eli was able to secure loans to rebuild Chinatown, albeit in a more “oriental” style as a marketing strategy to draw tourists. The new Chinatown made way for updated facilities and buildings. By the end of the 1920s, the neighbourhood had a hospital, a public library and a playground, as well as a number of civic organisations, including the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA and the YWCA. But some issues still lingered, such as racial discrimination, housing shortages and poverty; the opium dens and street gangs also remained. All this contributed to a period of decline for Chinatown, until it was reinvigorated in the 1960s by a new wave of Chinese immigrants – at the time, immigration laws had just been loosened, leading many emigrants from Hong Kong to move to San Francisco and settle in its Chinatown. Today, many immigrants have moved out of the neighbourhood, but it remains a bustling hub filled with restaurants, shops and other businesses. Grant Avenue is lined with red lanterns, while Waverly Place is known for its colourful balconies. Over on Stockton Street, fresh produce, seafood and meat abound. Notable locations in the neighbourhood include the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, a popular tourist destination that opened in 1962, as well as the Tin How Temple, the oldest surviving Taoist temple in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the jade-tiled Dragon Gate, located at the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street, is an iconic landmark that marks the main southern entrance of Chinatown.

The turbulent history of San Francisco’s Chinatown, oldest in North America

From the Chinese Exclusion Act and 1906 earthquake to sex-trafficking rings and ‘paper son’ system, this Chinatown’s story is a bumpy one