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Alice Chan

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.
For three decades, Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant has been serving dim sum in the heart of Toronto’s Chinatown. Since May 2022, it has also played host to Queens of Dim Sum (QoDS), a series of drag brunches where Asian performers serve not food but looks as they weave between trolleys laden with char siu bao, spring rolls and more.
An old-school Chinese banquet hall may not be an obvious setting for a drag brunch, but for co-founders Ryan Tran and Sum Wong, being visibly queer in a culturally Asian space is the point.
“I’ve seen how big the Asian queer community is [from] working 10 years with Asian Community Aids Services, yet people tell me they don’t know where others are beyond DJ Sumation’s AsianXpress” says Tran, referencing Wong’s stage name and his past club nights.
The duo approached Sky Dragon at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic when business was slow, unsure of how accepting the staff would be.
“We just told them we’d have loud music and performances,” Tran says. “They were shocked, but in a good way. Even the cooks ran out to see what was going on.”

Guests have ranged from toddlers to a 90-year-old couple celebrating their anniversary, while the press coverage has helped Sky Dragon attract a new customer base.
“They even booked a gay wedding,” Tran says. “I’m glad we could help when they were struggling.”
Toronto’s original Chinatown was further east, where the City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square currently stand.
It formed as Chinese migrants who were initially brought to British Columbia in the late 19th century as cheap labour for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway eventually pivoted to laundry and restaurant work around Elizabeth Street.
The area’s first record of a Chinese resident was Sam Ching, listed in the 1878 city directory as the owner of a hand laundry business on Adelaide Street.
But like for many Chinatowns in North America, existential threats from large infrastructure or development projects have consistently loomed. By the late 1950s, the city had demolished two-thirds of the neighbourhood to make way for the new City Hall.
Campaigns were launched to save the remainder, most notably by Jean Bessie Lumb, the first Chinese-Canadian woman and the first restaurateur to receive the Order of Canada for her community work.


However, many businesses could not afford to relocate and closed. Others moved west along Dundas Street to Spadina Avenue – which the Jewish community had started to vacate in their move north along Bathurst Street – forming the city’s present-day Chinatown.
Today, the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust (TCLT), established in 2023, aims to protect vulnerable people from displacement through community ownership. Current displacement threats come from real estate speculation propelled by an investor-driven condo boom, exacerbating a housing affordability crisis.
TCLT’s managing director, Chiyi Tam, an urban planner by training, is well-versed in anti-displacement work: she led the first building acquisition for the city’s Kensington Market Community Land Trust. Now she is trying to do that same for TCLT, even though “Chinatowns shouldn’t need land trusts”, she says.
“Every Chinatown is founded on shared property – a tong, or hall,” she says, referring to the family associations once integral to the immigrant experience.


Early Chinese immigrants – known as lo wah kiu – who shared surnames formed such associations, believing they shared an ancestor in the distant past.
These associations were safe havens for immigrants during Canada’s era of anti-Chinese immigration legislation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during which Chinese people entering Canada after work on the Canadian Pacific Railway was finished were heavily taxed.
They assisted new arrivals with housing and employment opportunities, and provided essential services such as healthcare and financial loans, none of which Chinese immigrants could otherwise access.
I love going just to hear the sounds, the mahjong tiles before you even enter the room
Christina Wong, author and playwright, on visits to the Wong Association of Ontario
Nowadays, the associations serve more social and cultural functions. But earlier generations who lived the classic immigration success story and left Chinatown for expansive Toronto “ethnoburbs” such as Markham rarely return to visit.
“We want to strengthen these family association relationships not only because they own property but also because of their precious lived history,” Tam says.
“Many kids of those who’ve successfully assimilated can’t speak any Chinese dialect and feel cultural loss when they can’t understand the meetings at their family association … We provide the opportunity to get involved with English-speaking projects like mending family association buildings and running intergenerational events.”

One of the oldest family associations still in operation is the Wong Association of Ontario. For Toronto-born author and playwright Christina Wong, it is a “second home” and served as “a way to get to know my culture and history”.
“Just hearing the seniors chat in toisan wah is comforting to me,” she says, referring to Taishanese, a dialect native to Taishan in China’s Guangdong province. “You don’t often hear it in Chinatown any more.”
She adds that a new mahjong club called Four Winds, originally from London, now hosts regular meets at the association.
“I love going just to hear the sounds, the mahjong tiles before you even enter the room,” she says.
Most [other] Chinatowns have policies to shape how investment and money come into the community so developers can’t just evict grandmas
Chiyi Tam, Toronto Chinatown Land Trust
Wong captures the disappearing Taishanese dialect alongside English translations in her novel Denison Avenue.
It follows Cho Sum, an elderly Taishanese-speaking immigrant, as she navigates life around the gentrifying Chinatown and Kensington Market neighbourhoods after the sudden death of her husband, all while afraid of becoming the kind of “invisible” person most vulnerable to Chinatown redevelopment.
“A lot of the bakeries are third spaces where [such elderly people] can buy coffee and a pastry or a pineapple bun, and stay to socialise,” Wong says. “But a lot of the cafes don’t cater to that demographic now. There’s nowhere really free to go.”

The novel is accompanied by Daniel Innes’ before-and-after illustrations of neighbourhood changes, including one of the most recent controversial development sites: 315 Spadina Avenue.
In 2019, the city received a zoning application to redevelop the site into a 13-storey mixed-use building. There was huge pushback from the community, angry that beloved businesses such as Rol San Restaurant and Ding Dong Pastries and Cafe, as well as Chinese-speaking healthcare providers, were being kicked out.
“Most [other] Chinatowns have policies to shape how investment and money come into the community so developers can’t just evict grandmas,” Tam says. “[In Toronto’s], if you come in, we can’t stop you. But there should be a formal process to make people pause and recognise that they’re in Chinatown.”
Acknowledging the criticism, the city council introduced a motion directing city planning staff to study how Chinatown can simultaneously preserve existing culture and anticipate future development, covering everything from housing and businesses to public grounds and transport.
For one year, city planners Ran Chen and Patricia Cho frequently appeared in the neighbourhood either hosting tea meetings with residents, businesses, activists and service providers or going door-to-door to hear from the community.
Their June 2024 interim report pointed out that there was a general desire for heritage preservation among the Chinatown community.
“There are opinions around designating it a heritage district because [some of the community’s] goal is to pause development … but [in Toronto] these designations are only for the building structure, not its use, so it doesn’t prohibit displacement,” Chen says.
“We have to really understand what’s behind a request to address it, because we only have the tools of the city planning department.”

Although Toronto is going beyond the scope of its usual planning studies to consider culture, organisers such as Tam are not sure it is enough.
“Intangible heritage designations do give us more hope, but will the term be flexible enough to protect the people who practise the intangible heritage and let them live the way they live and cover affordable housing in ‘weird’ rooming formats or massage parlours? People are worried about stuff getting put in a museum but [them] still getting evicted,” she says.
“Chinatown is a rich ecosystem of informal economy with cash jobs, immigration lawyers, dentists … It’s a natural hub for newcomers. They don’t need to go to City Hall to find information, they can just walk into Hong Kong Island Bakery, buy their first bun and strike up a conversation with the uncle next to them.
“That’s always been true in 100 years of Chinatown’s existence, whether the immigrants came from Canton to build the railway or fled the Vietnam war. Each wave of Hong Kong immigration has reinforced how Chinatown works – it’s one of the most efficient ways to run an immigrant programme that’s not state-sponsored.”
For now, Tam is focused on TCLT’s mission and hoping to land and finish an acquisition deal this year.
“We had the first instances of people coming to us, rather than us to them, this year. It takes a community land trust, on average, five years to buy their first property, so the fact that people are already giving us the chance to respond first, rather than putting it straight on a listing, is an honour.
“We welcome more – our door is open.”


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People attend a Toronto Chinatown Land Trust mahjong fundraising event at the Wong Association of Ontario. Photo: Maylynn Quan

A drag performer sings at a Queens of Dim Sum brunch at Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant. Photo: Yi@postyism

Men in Toronto’s original Chinatown read a newspaper in a window in 1945. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Victory celebrations to mark the end of World War II take place in Toronto’s original Chinatown on August 26, 1945. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Toronto’s Chinatown in the late 1970s. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Shoppers and vendors in Toronto’s Chinatown in 1988. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Toronto’s Chinatown at Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue in 2008. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Author Christina Wong was born and raised in Toronto. Photo: Daniel Innes

People queue outside a supermarket on Dundas Street West in Toronto Chinatown in 1988. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

How Sydney’s Chinatown has survived poverty, racism, pandemic and gentrification

The gateway to Chinatown, in Sydney. Chinatown is a reflection of the struggles of the Asian community in Australia since the early 1800s. Photo: Shutterstock

Sydney’s Chinatown is in Haymarket in the southern part of the city’s central business district. Photo: Shutterstock

Paddy’s Markets in Haymarket, Sydney dates back to the 1850s. Photo: Chinatown

Marigold had two locations. The original restaurant (pictured) on Sussex St, Sydney, opened in 1982 and was a popular location for events and weddings. Photo: Lena Lai

George Street in the historic Rocks district of Sydney, Australia. This was the site of Sydney’s earliest Chinatown. Photo: Shutterstock

Of New York’s many Chinatowns, 3 stand out. How immigration shaped them over the decades

The Chinatown in Lower Manhattan is New York’s oldest, shaped by immigrants from Hong Kong, and from Guangdong and Fujian provinces in mainland China. Photo: Getty Images

Pell Street in Lower Manhattan Chinatown in 1979. Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A street in Lower Manhattan Chinatown in the early 20th century. The Chinatown is said to date back to the 1850s. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Nom Wah Tea Parlor, on Doyers Street, is one of Lower Manhattan Chinatown’s historic restaurants. Photo: Shutterstock

Mei Lai Wah is another restaurant in Lower Manhattan Chinatown with a long history. Photo: Google Maps

A street in Lower Manhattan Chinatown in 1955. Many Taiwanese immigrants arriving in New York in the 1970s were put off by the neighbourhood’s lack of quality housing options, and instead opted to settle in Flushing. Photo: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

What to see and eat in Melbourne’s Chinatown, cultural hub that grew from gold rush roots

A dragon dance troupe perform in Chinatown in Melbourne, Australia during Lunar New Year festivities in 2024. The Chinatown is one of the world’s oldest. Photo: Getty Images

Chinatown in Melbourne, Australia. One of the oldest in the world, it was founded by Chinese prospectors who stayed on after the 1850s gold rush and opened businesses. Photo: Shutterstock 

People in Chinatown, Melbourne, celebrate the 2025 Chinese Lunar New Year. Photo: Instagram/chinatownmelbourne

Yum cha is best enjoyed at Secret Kitchen, known for dim sum favourites, Peking duck pancakes, fried rice in an omelette pouch and piggy-shaped steamed buns. Photo: Secret Kitchen

A A$450 million lifestyle, dining and residential complex being built in Box Hill, Melbourne, has been referred to as “New Chinatown”. Photo: Golden Age Group

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Tigers are one of the Snake’s three “enemy signs” in the Chinese zodiac. The Snake and Tiger can be a challenging combination in both love and business, with relationships often full of conflict. Photo: Shutterstock

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Lifestyle

Chinatowns around the world

London Chinatown’s evolution from Hong Kong Chinese outpost to multicultural melting pot

Wardour Street, Chinatown, London. The area, which dates back to the 1970s, has evolved over time to become the multicultural enclave it is now. Photo: Getty Images

Chinese pedestrians on a street in Liverpool, 1940. A partially inflated barrage balloon can be seen in the background. Photo: Getty Images

David Tang Hon-sing (left), former vice-chairman of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, with a friend on Lisle Street in 1980. Photo: David Tang

A street in Limehouse, East London circa 1930. In the first half of the 20th century, Limehouse was home to London’s largest Chinese community. Photo: Getty Images

A large crowd watches traditional celebrations for Lunar New Year in Liverpool in 1983. Photo: Getty Images

People gather to watch the Year of the Snake celebrations in Chinatown, London, on February 1, 2025. Photo: Getty Images

A Lunar New Year parade in London. Photo: Allan Hong

How Seoul and Incheon’s Chinatowns tell stories of Chinese immigration to Korea

The main entrance gate to Incheon Chinatown, South Korea’s oldest Chinese enclave. Photo: AP

The Chinatown in Seoul’s Daerim neighbourhood is full of shops selling goods from China that are difficult to find elsewhere in South Korea. Photo: Erika Na

The Jjajangmyeon Museum in Incheon Chinatown documents the invention and evolution of jjajangmyeon, a Korean-Chinese cold noodle dish. Photo: Park Chan-kyong

Daerim Chinatown has faced several challenges in recent years, including rising rents. Photo: Erika Na

A shop selling street food in Daerim Chinatown in Seoul. Photo: Erika Na

Although Daerim Chinatown is the South Korea’s most vibrant, it does not have a paifang gate.

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

Large crowds fill Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the US state of California for the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo: Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

The Dragon Gate at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue marks the main southern entrance to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Photo: Getty Images

A Chinese butcher and grocery store in San Francisco’s Chinatown circa 1885. Photo: Getty Images

A Chinese apothecary in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the mid-1880s. Photo: Getty Images

Much of San Francisco was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and ensuing fires. Photo: Getty Images

Chinese lanterns line a street in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Photo: Getty Images

Pedestrians walk along a crowded Stockton Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Photo: Getty Images

History of Bangkok’s Chinatown from Teochew enclave to red light district and business hub

Food hawker stalls serve customers during Chinese New Year in Bangkok’s Chinatown in Thailand. Photo: Getty Images

A vendor prepares food in Bangkok’s Chinatown. Photo: Shutterstock

Street food vendors serve customers in Bangkok’s Chinatown. Photo: Shutterstock

Yaowarat Road in Bangkok’s Chinatown in 2017. Photo: Shutterstock

Sun (second left) is the second-eldest son in the Assakul family. Photo: Baan Trok Tua Ngork

Baan Trok Tua Ngork is a space in Bangkok’s Chinatown created by Sun’s family that restores and revitalises their family’s shophouse, as well as several other neighbouring shophouses. Photo: Baan Trok Tua Ngork

The interior of Baan Trok Tua Ngork. Photo: Baan Trok Tua Ngork

History of the world’s oldest Chinatown, Binondo in Manila, now a foodie paradise

While Binondo today is known as a foodie’s paradise, it was once better known as a financial hub. Photo: Shutterstock

Binondo in Manila is the world’s oldest Chinatown. We look at its past and how it has shifted from a financial hub to a culinary hot spot. Photo: Shutterstock 

The Minor Basilica and National Shrine of San Lorenzo Ruiz, popularly known as the Binondo Church, is an architectural highlight of Binondo. Photo: Instagram/lanie.puno28

The Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch. Photo: Shutterstock

The El Hogar Filipino Building. Photo: Instagram/mrdaleasuncion

Pei Pa Koa Latte with Ube Cheese Ensaymada at Apologue Coffee & Pastry in Manila. Photo: Instagram/apologueph

People pose in front of a restaurant on Ongpin Street. Photo: Instagram/flowry_maze

How the oldest and largest Chinatown in Mexico rose despite terrible xenophobia

A traditional gate marks an entrance to Mexicali’s Chinatown, known as La Chinesca, in the city in Mexico’s Baja California state.

Lanterns line the street outside restaurants in La Chinesca. Photo: Instagram/sl_mr05

A view of La Chinesca in 2023. Photo: AFP

Tourist guide Elvia Chen, granddaughter of a Chinese migrant, shows historical pictures in a museum in La Chinesca. Photo: AFP

A showcase displaying souvenirs is seen next to a curtain made of Chinese food containers at the entrance to a museum in La Chinesca. Photo: AFP

A mural depicting scenes of the history of the Chinese community in Mexico adorns an abandoned building in La Chinesca. Photo: AFP

Buildings display Chinese-style architecture on a street in La Chinesca. Photo: Shutterstock

Lunar New Year celebrations take place in La Chinesca. Photo: Instagram/nic.maynardp

How Singapore Chinatown went from slum to diverse tourist hub that puts heritage first

People take photos in front of a giant golden rooster lantern in Singapore’s Chinatown in preparation for the upcoming Lunar New Year on January 4, 2017. In recent decades the area has become a tourist hub where boutiques stand beside old tea houses and Buddhist temples Photo: Xinhua

In October 2023, the Tai Thong Cake Shop, a family-owned bakery in Singapore’s Chinatown, closed its doors after 73 years in business. Photo: Koh Kim Tat Dean

Singapore Chinatown’s Food Street in January 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic forced its closure. Photo: Shutterstock

A woman offers a joss stick at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, one of Singapore Chinatown’s most notable places of worship. Photo: AFP

Singapore Chinatown is awash with murals by local artist Yip Yew Chong. Photo: Tamara Hinson

How Vancouver’s Chinatown, rich in history but plagued by poverty, fights for survival

Chefs and volunteers at Light Up Chinatown, an outdoor event held in the neighbourhood and organised by the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. Photo: Light Up Chinatown

Chefs and volunteers attend Light Up Chinatown, a free two-day festival that celebrates the living heritage and diverse history of Vancouver’s Chinatown, organised by the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. Photo: Light Up Chinatown

The cover of Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History. Photo: Donna Seto/House of Anansi Press

Donna Seto is an author and self-taught artist. Photo: Donna Seto

Andy Yan is an associate professor at Simon Fraser University. Photo: Andy Yan

Chinatown in Vancouver in 1975. Photo: Getty Images

A painting from Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History. Photo: Donna Seto/House of Anansi Press

Carol Lee is the chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. Photo: Carol Lee

A view of Chinatown, featuring the Chinatown Storytelling Centre, an exhibition space showcasing items and stories from residents in the area, past and present. Photo: Chinatown Storytelling Centre

Tracy To and Ross Lam of Forum Home Appliances. Photo: Forum Home Appliances

Why Japan’s largest Chinatown is unlike any other around the world

Yokohama Chinatown’s transformation from its migrant enclave roots to today’s tourist attraction is one steeped in history and culture. Photo: Getty Images

Children view lanterns in Yokohama Chinatown in 2024. Photo: Xinhua

A lion dance is performed outside a restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown in 2020. Photo: Getty Images

Crowds of people fill Yokohama Chinatown in 2023. Photo: Xinhua

Chen Kentaro is the third-generation chef of Shisen Hanten. Photo: Shinsen Hanten

Pedestrians walk through Yokohama Chinatown in 2020. Photo: AFP

How Boston’s Chinatown overcame constant threats to win its place in history

A paifang gate marks an entrance to Boston Chinatown. Although at one time or another, Chinatowns existed in other cities in the United States’ New England region, today, Boston’s is the only one remaining. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Roast meats hang in the window of a restaurant in Boston Chinatown. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Empire Garden is a long-standing Chinese restaurant located in a historic building in Boston Chinatown. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

A street vendor sells Asian produce in Boston Chinatown. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

The Auntie Kay and Uncle Frank Chin Park in Boston’s Chinatown is named after the volunteers who for years served as the park’s unofficial custodians. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Established in 1960, China Pearl is Boston Chinatown’s oldest restaurant. It serves dim sum the old-school way – from trolleys. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

The face of Michelle Wu, Boston’s first Asian-American mayor, can be seen all over Boston Chinatown. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Young Asian-Canadians in Toronto are trying to keep its Chinatown’s heritage alive as downtown development and real estate speculation rise


Young Asian-Canadians in Toronto are trying to keep its Chinatown’s heritage alive as downtown development and real estate speculation rise.


Chinese overseas

Canada

Asian diaspora

How Toronto’s Chinatown is fighting back against development that threatens its existence

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Young Asian-Canadians in Toronto are trying to keep its Chinatown’s heritage alive as downtown development and real estate speculation rise

Young Asian-Canadians in Toronto are trying to keep its Chinatown’s heritage alive as downtown development and real estate speculation rise