From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States

216 Pages·2023·7.207 MB·English

by  Zai Liang

From Chinatown to Every Town

From Chinatown
to Every Town
How CHinese immigrants Have
expanded tHe restaurant Business
in tHe united states
Zai Liang
university of California press
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2023 by Zai Liang
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Liang, Zai, author.
Title: From Chinatown to every town : how Chinese immigrants have
expanded the restaurant business in the United States / Zai Liang.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press,
[2023] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2022030907 (print) | lccn 2022030908 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520384965 (cloth) | isbn 9780520384972 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520384989 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese restaurants—United States. | Chinese
restaurants—New York (State)—New York. | Immigrants—United
States. | Chinese Americans—United States—Social conditions. |
Chinatowns—New York (State)—New York.
Classification: lcc tx945.4 .l53 2023 (print) | lcc tx945.4 (ebook) |
ddc 641.5951—dc23/eng/20220817
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030907
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030908
Manufactured in the United States of America
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Catherine, Andrew, and Olivia

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. Job Search: From Immigrant Networks
to Market- Based Institutions 16
3. Making the Connection: The Story
of the Chinatown Bus 38
4. Choices for New Immigrant Destinations 60
5. New Businesses in New Places:
Adaptation and Race Relations 84
6. The Ties That Bind: Between Chinatown
in Manhattan and New Immigrant Destinations 112
7. Conclusion 134
Appendix A: Methods 149
Appendix B: Analysis of Job Locations 152
Notes 159
References 175
Index 193

List of Figures
1.1. Conceptual framework 8
1.2. Map of China 9
2.1. Chinatown in Lower Manhattan 17
2.2. Detailed map of Chinatown 18
2.3. Employment agencies in Chinatown 20
2.4. Employment agencies by borough 21
2.5. Distribution of job locations in the United States 35
3.1. Map of Chinatown bus routes 43
4.1. Distribution of jobs at the phone area code level 71
5.1. Spatial distribution of business owners in six states 85
5.2. Anti- violence rally in Philadelphia 109
6.1. Printing companies and restaurant supply shops in Chinatown 117
6.2. A printing company in Chinatown 119
6.3. A cookware shop in Chinatown 120
7.1. Changes in the Chinese population in two Chinatowns
in New York City 144
ix