History Main / FriendlyLocalChinatown

** Little Asia, a particularly dense city block in Kamurocho, is home to just about every non-Japanese person of Asian origin in the place. It has been featured in nearly all games - for example, in ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'' Tachibana Tetsu who is of mixed Chinese/Japanese origin uses it as a hideout, and in ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', police officer Tanimura, even though he's ethnically Chinese, is stated to have grown up in there and there for is the {{Omniglot}} and has several sidequests regarding helping people with immigration issues or generally protecting the place through means of varying legality. In said game you can even find a married couple solving their fights over cheating with Kung Fu. When you explore the place, even though there are quite a few ethnic food places, the whole thing looks dreary, being a crammed city block smack dab in a WretchedHive.

* The ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' album "Rantanplan’s Inheritance" takes place in a [[TheWildWest Wild West]] Chinatown far beyond the scope of the usual lone resident ChineseLaunderer. One other album has a town called Shanghai Gulch, where only people of Chinese extraction (it's on the brink of collapse because the only activities people do there are either laundry or restaurants...).

* The ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' album "Rantanplan’s Inheritance" takes place in a [[TheWildWest Wild West]] Chinatown far beyond the scope of the usual lone resident ChineseLaunderer.

One manifestation of this is "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown Chinatowns]]", which feature in countless cities worldwide. Streets with ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown#Characteristics paifang arches]]'' at the entrance, full of Chinese restaurants, shops, acupuncturists, and so on, they have become a rich source for scriptwriters (who for some reason have not noticed how modern day Chinatowns have become mostly pan-Asian affairs, with Chinese herbal stores, Japanese electronic stores, and Vietnamese noodle shops all next to each other).

* In UsefulNotes/{{France}}, 40% of the population of the town of Lognes (in the UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}ian basin) is of East Asian descent (highest such percentage in the country). It's nicknamed "Town of the Dragon" / "Dragon Town" for this reason. Most descent from immigrants from UsefulNotes/TheFrenchColonialEmpire (Vietnam, Laos etc).

* In France, 40% of the population of the town of Lognes (in the UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}ian basin) is of East Asian descent (highest such percentage in the country). It's nicknamed "Town of the Dragon" / "Dragon Town" for this reason.

* In France, 40% of the population of the town of Lognes (in the UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}ian basin) is of East Asian descent (highest such percentage in the country). It's nicknamed "Town of the Dragon" for this reason.

* Historically, the UsefulNotes/{{London}} Chinatown was in Limehouse, it moved west to the Shaftesbury Avenue area. Contrary to the anti-Chinese rumors, it looks like it did ''not'' have any {{opium den}}s.

* Twice in ''Series/{{Castle}}''. The first time, the team travels to Chinatown to infiltrate an illegal gambling club with Russian mobsters. The second time, the team clashes with a Chinese mob family when they are connected to a murder involving a cop's stolen gun.

## It is in Center City--Philadelphia's downtown district. It's just two blocks north of the house where UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Seriously. The library built next door has Chinese signage on it. The firehouse that covers the heart of Center City (including City Hall) is in Chinatown and goes by the nickname "House of Dragons".[[note]]Seriously, their engines have that name on them in a "[[ForeignLookingFont wonton font]]" that would be cringeworthy if it weren't also understood to be subject to the GrandfatherClause, with the support of at least some of the Chinatown community.[[/note]] It also directly abuts the massive Pennsylvania Convention Center, so it's ludicrously common for conventioneers to go to Chinatown for lunch (especially if they know how crowded Reading Terminal gets at the lunch rush).

* Chinatown in UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} is rather interesting for three reasons:

* [[UsefulNotes/SaoPaulo São Paulo]] has Bairro da Liberdade which is something like this, but with a little twist, instead of Chinese people--it has Japanese people, thus making it a Japantown instead.
** Another "Japantown" can be found in Düsseldorf, Germany.

## It has successfully fought off what its residents consider several different attempts to destroy it, including several highway-construction projects and an abortive attempt by the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Phillies]] to build a new stadium there in the 90s. The highway project-thwarting probably kept Center City from the corrupting influence of expressways, so a lot of historic Philly has Chinatown to thank for still existing, or at least for having a nice view.

One manifestation of this is "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown Chinatowns]]", which feature in countless cities worldwide. Streets with ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paifang paifang]]'' arches at the entrance, full of Chinese restaurants, shops, acupuncturists, and so on, they have become a rich source for scriptwriters (who for some reason have not noticed how modern day Chinatowns have become mostly pan-Asian affairs, with Chinese herbal stores, Japanese electronic stores, and Vietnamese noodle shops all next to each other).

[[folder: Fan Works]]

%% * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Asiantown.

* Historically, the UsefulNotes/{{London}} Chinatown was in Limehouse, it moved west to the Shaftesbury Avenue area. Contrary to the anti-Chinese rumors, it looks like it did ''not'' have any {{opium den}}s.

* Manila's Chinatown is the first and oldest existing one, dating back to 1594. Formerly called Parian, it was now called Binondo.[[note]]Not entirely the exact same Chinatown; that initial Parian was founded for the unconverted Chinese just outside the east walls of CitadelCity Intramuros—on the same side of the Pasig River, on the south bank, where it was very easy to attack with the cannons from within Manila's walls in the event of an uprising. Converted Chinese meanwhile were directed to live in the new district of Binondo some years later, across the Pasig River from Intramuros, on the north bank. The Parian continued existing for a time even after the Catholicised Chinese settlers were moved into Binondo, but it's long gone today, with only the "Parian Gate" in the Intramuros walls serving as an existing reminder. The neoclassical, American-era, Manila Central Post Office and the small park in front of it—Liwasang Bonifacio, formerly Plaza Lawton—occupy the site of the old Parian today.[[/note]]

* There's also not one, [[https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2420.html but three Chinatowns in Japan]]. The largest of these, and the largest in the world, is located in Yokohama; the oldest one is in Nagasaki and is probably the second-oldest in the world after Manila's, dating back to the 16th century. (The third one is in Kobe, for those who wonder)

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the case of The Bund in UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}} as a Western (chiefly Britain and [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire its various subjects]], with American and French influence making up much of the rest; there was also German, Russian, Belgian, Dutch, Danish, Italian, and later Japanese presence) enclave of architecture and culture within a Chinese city. Arose with the opening of several Chinese cities via the Unequal Treaties of the mid- and late-19th Century (Shanghai becoming the most prominent center of Western-driven finance and trade) and persisted until the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar and the establishment of the People's Republic of China a few years later (which led to all those trading and banking institutions moving to Hong Kong).
** Tianjin, which is also a port city in China, but further north and closer to Beijing, has similar places. Known as Concessions of Tianjin, the area saw similar history as the Shanghai one, although the buildings are preserved and serve as the old district of Tianjin.
* Liverpool also has the oldest Chinatown in Europe that dates back to the early 19th century.
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} Sydney's]] Chinatown is the largest in the country and is part of a chain of smaller satellite Chinatowns such as Cabramatta or Chatswood. Noted worldwide for being one of the safest and cleanest Chinatowns in the world, it also has the Chinese Garden of Friendship, a gift to Sydney from its sister city Guangzhou.
* UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}} has the longest continual Chinatown in the entirety of the western world, centered around the eastern half of Little Bourke Street. Victoria Street in Richmond is a prominent Vietnamese area. The suburb of Box Hill also has a prominent Chinese population. Bendigo also has Chinese descended from the miners during the Victorian Gold Rush.

* UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}} has several of those, but the most notable ones are in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} and Incheon. The original Chinatowns formed a century ago when the country opened its gates have only traces of it left, due to the harsh policies of the military government towards overseas Chinese who they thought would be a major threat as they gained massive financial power in Southeast Asian countries over time. The new ones are being populated by Korean Chinese, who are ethnically Koreans but culturally Chinese as they were born in China and have spent their entire lives there.
* Even [[OopNorth Newcastle ]] has a Chinatown. It consists of a single small street near to St James Park, with a couple of Chinese restaurants and a Chinese supermarket. However, a very ornate gate will fool you into thinking it's bigger than it looks. It does extend onto Gallowgate and Newgate Street.

* Houston has two, the original east of downtown (aka. East End or [=EaDo=]) and the second in southwest Houston which is far bigger and has Vietnamese and other Asian populations as well.

-->"Where business gets [[IncrediblyLamePun oriented]]."

* UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}} has several of those, but the most notable ones are in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} and Incheon. The original Chinatowns formed a century ago when the country opened its gates have only traces of it left, due to the harsh policies of the military government towards overseas Chinese who they thought would be a major threat as they gained massive financial power in Southeast Asian countries over time. The new ones are being populated by Korean Chinese, who are ethnically Koreans but culturally Chinese as they were born in China and have spent their entire lives at there.

* Emerson Cod's detective agency in ''Series/{{PushingDaisies}}'' is above a Chinese restaurant in their city's Chinatown.

%% * ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''