The Change of Chinatown - Research Paper Example

Chinatown Introduction China currently has emerged as a key player in the global market and is perceived to pose a major threat to the US economy anddefense. Hence, it is important to understand the significance of Chinatown in the US. In this paper, we try to trace the historical origin of “Chinatown”, a popular, notorious and nevertheless incompletely understood neighborhood in the New York City. We would mainly work on this area and further concentrate on the Mulberry Street, particularly, 36 Mulberry Street. That is to say, we want to understand the changes in the neighborhood in terms of culture, ethnicity, and potential as well as the changes that have taken place in customs of the funeral home. New York’s Chinatown, situated in the lower east of Manhattan is the biggest Chinatown in the United States of America. It has a population roughly between seventy thousand and one fifty thousand. Apart from Chinese inhabitants there are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Burmese, Filipinos, African Americans and Vietnamese residing in Chinatown. According to the 1970 census, there were over seventy five percent white citizens in New York while it reduced to thirty eight percent in 1990.1 Chinese Immigration in New York The Chinese came to America in the search for gold and most of them were recruited to build the Central Pacific Railroad. They were a cheap source of labor willing to work under any kind of situation unlike the white labourers. Thus, there erupted violence and antagonism between the whites and the Chinese resulting in The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943). This law restricted their work permits and barred the immigration of their family members in America. Apart from that, they were subjected to racial discrimination, which led to their further unification. The Chinese along with the other Asian Americans were subjected to racial discrimination and exclusion. In Tomie Arai’s murals and other works, we find that she emphasized on upholding the legacy of Asian culture in America, respecting the intergenerational and family relationship and the building of a collective past to reaffirm their grounds and unite them. New York’s Chinatown has been described by Arai as a tourist attraction and commercial place where people came to exhibit Asians.2 There was no interracial involvement, which further aggravated the racial discrimination and rivalry. According to Zukin, there is a crisis of “urban Authenticity”. Authenticity is important because it connects the people to their roots even in the presence of social and cultural diversity.3 From the beginning, the Chinese immigrants stacked up together in adverse living conditions. Chinatown, from the start was by large self-sustaining with internal bodies governing their society and giving them jobs, security and other social and economic necessities. Even after the imposition of the Act, Chinese population expanded because of illegal immigration. The Exclusion Act led to a drastic fall in the number of females in Chinatown for which it was called a “Bachelor’s Society”4. This led to a number of rumors about illegal activities like opium trade, prostitution which further worsened their reputation. To protect their tradition and defend their interest in the face of open hostility from Americans, they formed their own institutions and associations. For instance, they formed an unreported economy where they gave employment to workers having no papers illegally. An internal political organization consisting of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) and other tongs, or fraternal associations, handled the opening of businesses, prepared funeral arrangements, and sorted out disputes, among other duties. The CCBA designed its own constitution, levied duties on all New York Chinese, and controlled Chinatown during the early and mid 20th century. They represented the privileged class of Chinatown and the tongs created protective and social organizations for the less privileged. With the lifting of the Exclusion Act in 1943, Chinatown’s population started booming and spread into Little Italy. They started businesses in garments, laundry and restaurants employing the Chinese internally and under paying them. They bought the apartments in Little Italy and converted them into garment manufacturing units or office buildings. Although the buildings in Chinatown are from the 19th century, their rents are sky-high. A lot of foreign investment comes from Hong Kong, which makes the properties in Chinatown quite expensive. Both a tourist spot and the abode of the bulk of New York-Chinese, Chinatown presents tourist and inhabitants with a number of restaurants, a blooming fruit and fish marketplace and junk ornament shops and sweets on its snaky and congested streets.5 With the expansion of the Chinese population in New York, most of Little Italy came under Chinatown. In the beginning, Mulberry Street was the home of the Irish immigrants who built up the St. Patrick’s Church in 1809. By the early 20th century, they were replaced by the Italians and came to be known as Little Italy. With the Chinese settlement, St Patrick’s Day School was attended by their children and the region reverberated with their language. Today Mulberry Street is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity and is mostly inhabited by the Chinese and Dominicans. The street is adorned with a number of Italian Restaurants along with miscellaneous Chinese shops.6 Mulberry Street Mulberry Bend, where Mulberry Street curved, was an Italian refugee commune in the late nineteenth century. A number of touching pictures taken by the journalist cum social reformer, Jacob Riis showed the ghastly social conditions in which the people in the Mulberry Bend lived. The horrible sanitary conditions and the extreme destitution were solely responsible for the high under-five mortality rate. Notorious and dangerous slums including murderous passages like Bandit Roost and Bottle Alley.7 Mulberry Street has been one of the worst slums in America with dirty tenements where these immigrants stacked up with ten to twelve persons per room. The rooms were black, sooty and desolate. The nationality of the people can be understood from their face and their poverty is evident.8 The Mulberry Bend Park was built with the motive to bring a new life and regulation in that devastated locality.9 Mulberry Street situated in lower Manhattan open ups to a vibrant scenario with the streets wizened up with the flourishing businesses of Chinatown like confectionaries and fish markets, memento shops and a famous funeral home.10 36 Mulberry Street, presently Ng Fook funeral Home was the home of Bishop W.M. Miller in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, an Italian man named Giovanni Carifa who resided with his wife and four children occupied it. In 1976, the Ng Fook funeral home was established.11 Cultural and Traditional Transition - The funeral of Charlie Boston Apart from the Chinese residents, Chinatown is a home for a number of people hailing from other parts of the world. And with the passage of time and intermingling of the western culture along with other diverse cultures, the customs and culture of the American born Chinese have changed from that of the traditional customs to a different and not so traditional form. The change can be seen not only with respect to a person’s style of living and behavior but also in their funeral customs. One of the first examples deals with the funeral ceremony of Charley Boston also known Lai Qoung Young. The funeral was unique in the way it blended two types of rituals- eastern and western. He was Presbyterian and a self-styled boss of the Chinese community in New York. He was also known as the Mayor of Chinatown and the first Chinese to use American clothes. The using of Presbyterian (at the funeral chapel) and Confucian rituals (at the grave) reflects a confusion of customs and invention neo-funeral customs in modern urban America. His procession was escorted by fifty police and massed band. The death of Boston created so much confusion regarding his funeral rituals that his body was kept in the Chinese Cheung Sang Funeral Corporation in Mulberry Street. It was the first and at that time, the only funeral house in Chinatown. During his funeral, Boston’s was placed in a metal coffer clothed in a dinner jacket. Mostly American and Christian rituals took place in the chapel and a Chinese Presbyterian priest led the funeral without any sort of oriental uniform. The confusion rituals started while heading towards the cemetery where a person gradually dropped tattered papers to irritate the evil spirits that might follow the dead to its grave. Boston’s body was kept in the Chinese side of the cemetery followed by some more Confucian rituals which involved the burning of white paper, a gesture of offering to the spirits in order to carry his soul to heaven. A chicken was left at the grave for the Presbyterian soul to eat. Boston’s funeral shows a typical intersection of occidental and oriental rituals, which symbolizes the modern Chinese-American culture. It is important for every race or individual to adapt to the surroundings to better fit in their new environment. It is difficult for any community to merge with the extreme diverse culture prevailing in the United States. Nevertheless, it is evident from Boston’s funeral that the Chinese have created a unique funeral ceremony by mingling the diversities. This is reflected in the way the Chinese have tried to fuse the east with the west along with traditional and modern ways.12 Traditional Chinese Funeral Customs In this section, we want to see the changes that have taken place in the Chinese funeral traditions over time in New York’s Chinatown and how the Ng funeral house has evolved through these changes in providing the funeral services. Traditional funeral rituals vary with the causes of death, age, marital status and social position of the deceased. It generally lasts for seven weeks. According to Chinese rituals, an elder person is not supposed to show respect to a younger person. Hence, if an unmarried son or daughter dies in a family, parents cannot offer prayer for his/her soul, cannot bring the body home and it is kept in the funeral parlor. Customary coffins are rectangular in shape although presently the coffins used are western in style. The deceased is clothed in his/her best clothes covering the face with a yellow fabric and the body with a blue fabric before being positioned in the coffin. Food is kept on the coffin for the dead. Customarily, the grandchildren and the children are not supposed to cut their hair for forty nine days although in modern times it is hardly followed. The grandchildren are to wear blue while the children and daughters-in-law put on black without any jewelry. They also cover their heads with hoods. Prayers, chanting, and services offered by the priests help out to ease the course of the departed’s soul into heaven. These prayers are go along with music played on the gong, trumpet and flute. The coffin is not taken to the cemetery at the first place. Prior to that, it is positioned at the side of the street outside the residence, more prayers are offered, and paper is speckled. Chinese cemeteries are usually located on hillsides because it is believed that the height improves Fengshui (geomantic omen), more high the grave’s location, the better it is. The wake generally lasts for seven weeks. At the graveyard, when the coffin is placed on the ground from the hearse, every one present have to turn away. Family members and other relations toss a handful of earth in the grave prior to the coffin is put. After the funeral, the dresses put on by the mourners should be burned to stay away from bad luck connected with death.13 Present Generation and Rituals Presently the new generation of American born Chinese has started to modify funeral services to suit their needs and acquired customs. The place of origin is very important in the Chinese funeral. This is because the Chinese believe that the spirit of the deceased always goes to the place of birth. There is a definite order according to which the family members of the deceased need to sit. The moment one steps inside the funeral home, the funeral director takes charge of all the proceedings and the family just follows. The fact is that the present Chinese generation in America is caught between the Chinese tradition and the modern American culture. They do not know their native language or their traditional customs properly. With the beginning of the second generation American-born Chinese in the early twentieth century, the orthodoxy of the Chinese cultural institutions diluted. Over the following years, Chinese Americans frequently tailored their customs and way of life, regulating them with the American traditions while continuing some specific Chinese cultural aspects. Nevertheless, they always abided by those rites that acknowledged their family identity and stuck to the faith that the deceased have an effect on the lives of the persons left behind. By the end of 19th century, they had taken on an amalgamation of Chinese and American customs for funeral processions and burials. The blend of Chinese and American writing on the headstone was an attempt to conserve the Chinese convention and accommodate the American traditions at the same time.14 The changes that I came across during a funeral ceremony I attended were many. The funeral home took care of all the responsibilities and undertook all the duties of the funeral process. The noticeable changes were in the music, which was a light or classic tune instead of the traditional Chinese one. The place of origin is very important in the Chinese funeral. This is because the Chinese believe that the spirit of the deceased always goes to the place of birth. In America, the Chinese funeral generally does not continue for seven weeks. There is a definite order according to which the family members of the deceased need to sit. The moment one steps inside the funeral home, the funeral director takes charge of all the proceedings and the family just follows. They know the tradition and undertake the entire responsibility of the funeral and the customs. The fact is that the present Chinese generation in America is caught between the Chinese tradition and the modern American culture. They do not know their native language or their traditional customs properly. According to the Chinese tradition, the mourners who pay their respect get an envelope with a coin in it. This is a gesture from the deceased to gift the visitors who have come to pay their last respect. Then one is supposed to pick up a sweet hard candy from a bowl that is meant to take away the bitterness of the grief. Another way to overcome the grief is the banquet that takes place after the burial. The mourners were clad in three-piece suits instead of the traditional Chinese outfit. In the traditional way, the dress is white with sash and hood. The role of superstition works in every step of the funeral. They believe that if the ceremony id not conducted according to customs, it would bring bad luck. The food served during a funeral is generally white, that is it consists of rice, tofu, chicken, fish and other plain food since white represents death. However, in the present funeral, there was diverse catering. There were black armbands instead of red and there were no hoods. A blue cloth does not cover even the body of the deceased; a blanket covers it. The funeral houses are internally linked with florist shops that take care of the floral requirements in the funeral and by the relatives. The headstone has the American name with the ancestral Chinese name in the middle. Balancing between Old and New Although the funeral home takes the Chinese American closer to their tradition, over time these have also changed because of the socio-cultural blend. The term, which represents the new Chinese American generation is Juk Sing. It refers to the hollow portion of a bamboo in Cantonese. In the real sense, it means that the present generation is caught between the two ethnicities - traditional Chinese and modern American. They are not fully American because of their looks and not fully Chinese being uprooted from their native place long back. They represent a group that is Chinese and yet so American in their attitude with no proficiency in their Chinese native language. The other is the Juk Ka, which holds on to their tradition under every circumstance just like the outer hard portion of a bamboo. Recalling the deceased unites the Chinese Americans, since the past is an essential component of the present and future. The multicultural aspect of United States of America calls for a mutual respect for each other’s ethnicity and customs. It is imperative that individuals respect and welcome this diversity of ethnic customs. Works Cited 1. Chinese Funeral Customs, “Chinese Way” , n.d. Available from: http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway/2004-03/03/content_46092.htm (Accessed on Dec 24, 2009) 2. Chung, Fawn Sue and Wegars, Priscilla Chinese American death Rituals: Respecting The Ancestors AltaMira Press 2005 3. Hayden, Dolores. The power of place: urban landscapes as public history MIT Press, 1997 4. Kirsch, Adam. “How Jacob Riis Lived: Tom Buk-Swientys The Other Half”, 2008, Available at: http://www.nysun.com/arts/how-jacob-riis-lived-tom-buk-swientys-the-other/84669/ (Accessed on Dec 24, 2009) 5. Krase, Jerome. “Seeing Ethnic Succession in Little Italy: Change Despite Resistance” Modern Italy Vol 11 No.1, 2006 6. Laderman, Gary. Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America. US: Oxford University Press, 2005. 7. Machida, Margo. Unsettled Visions Duke University Press, 2008 8. Ostrow, Daniel and Sham, Mary. Manhattan’s Chinatown Arcadia Publishing, 2005 9. Our History (n.d.) Available from: http://www.fookfuneralgroup.com/english/e_history.htm (Accessed on Dec 24, 2009) 10. Riis, Jacob A. Out Of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement Life In New York City BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009 11. Waxman, Sarah. “The History of New Yorks Chinatown” n.d. Available at: http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html (Accessed on Dec 24, 2009) 12. Zukin, Sharon. Naked City: The Death And Life Of Authentic Urban Places Oxford University Press US, 2009 Read More