<http://purl.org/dc/terms/description>
"The definition, face, and location of Chinatowns have changed significantly as Chinese communities\r\nestablish themselves inside and beyond their boundaries. This paper demonstrates that both the older and\r\ncontemporary Chinatowns in the Greater Toronto Area have developed in response to patterns of Chinese\r\nmigration relative to the socio-economic, political, and cultural status of the Chinese in Canadian society. The\r\nhistory of the Chinese in Canada has been examined in many historical works, such as by Morton (1973),\r\nCon (1982), and Lai (1988). On the narrower subject of the Chinese in Toronto, academic research is extensive on a variety of topics reflecting the complexity and diversity of the Chinese communities, including\r\nthe landmark papers of the early Chinese community by Mah (1977; 1978). The transition out of the\r\ndowntown core into the suburbs has been studied, as by Lo 1997; however, only one book, Toronto\u2019s\r\nChinatown, has been published (Thompson, 1989) and this one focuses on its social organizations.\r\nMy paper draws upon the qualitative findings of a literature search and interviews with descendants of the\r\nearly Chinatown residents and business owners, as well as my own first-hand experiences. Having grown up\r\nin what-is-now-called Old Chinatown, I identified and interpreted the myriad and confluence of factors that\r\nhas affected the settlement patterns of the Chinese in Toronto.\r\nThe early Chinese, like others in urban centres across Canada, sequestered themselves largely in Chinatown\r\nas they faced the racism and discrimination of a white host society. The head taxes and subsequent exclusion\r\nlaws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fueled the anti-Chinese sentiment of society, labour\r\norganizations, newspapers, and public officials. From among a predominantly homogeneous group of\r\nimmigrants with common roots in villages of Guangdong province, merchants and businessmen assumed\r\nleadership positions within the clan, district, and political organizations that gave direction to Chinatown, the\r\ncentre for commerce, culture, and community life of a bachelor society. After the Second World War,\r\nimmigration laws were eased for family reunification and the ensuing influx of Chinese immigrants was\r\nfostered by a government policy of multiculturalism and a business incentive program.\r\nRising out of the ashes of Old Chinatown, two-thirds of which was demolished for Toronto\u2019s new City Hall,\r\nwas Chinatown West, to the west, then Chinatown East, to the east. While these three inner-city Chinatowns\r\nremain significant centres of Chinese stores, services, and restaurants for locals and tourists alike, the middleclass\r\ndream for less congested neighbourhoods and more spacious homes attracted settlement in the suburbs\r\nof North York and Scarborough by the late 1970s. As coined by American professor, Wei Li, these\r\n\u201Cethnoburbs\u201D or new suburban Chinese neighourhoods further expanded into the adjacent municipalities of\r\nMississauga, Richmond Hill, and Markham. Unlike the traditional Chinatowns in crowded downtown\r\nlocations, the ethnoburbs are attracting the more affluent, skilled, and educated newcomers. Both Markham\r\nand Richmond Hill are among the fastest growing municipalities in Canada where the largest visible minority\r\ngroup is Chinese.\r\nSecond, third, and fourth generation Chinese Canadians have integrated into the broader community. New\r\nimmigrants, now arriving from all provinces in China, the second largest source country for newcomers to\r\nToronto, as well as from Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, are establishing themselves in the\r\ntraditional Chinatowns and in the newer ethnoburbs. The settlement patterns of the Chinese reflect the\r\ndiversity of the Chinese diaspora in the Greater Toronto Area, home to Canada\u2019s largest population of\r\nChinese. No longer are Chinatowns viewed as the urban plights of days gone by, rather as healthy signposts\r\nof neighbourhoods where the Chinese are at liberty to retain their culture and traditions in a multicultural,\r\nmultiethnic, and multilingual society."@en
<https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/43391/items/1.0103074>