Chinatown Also Losing Chinese Edge To...Harlem?

Canal St or 125th St? (Flickr user Idle Type)

While just last week we reported that Manhattan's Chinatown was losing its Chinese edge to Chinatowns in Flushing and Sunset Park, it turns out that we were forgetting one other nouveau Chinese hotspot...Harlem.

Harlem and East Harlem have seen their Chinese populations grow by an astounding 200 percent in the past ten years, reports the Daily News, who analyzed data from the Center for Urban Research. Why the influx? More space and cheaper rent, of course. The area even has a brand-new, babyfaced Chinese speaking community liaison!

But unlike the city's Chinatowns, Harlem is still lacking in Chinese goods and services: "Chinese people like Chinese food and Chinese vegetables," said Harlem resident Yang Xiu Ain, who takes the bus to Chinatown to load up on groceries twice a week. "It's good if more Chinese come here," she said. "Maybe then we can have a Chinese supermarket."

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By Jamie Feldmar in News on August 8, 2011 5:53 PM

Comments [rss]

Miss Understood

If you get off of main drags like Mott Street Chinatown is very authentic. It's chock full of small grocery stores, fish markets, specialty shops, and salons which cater to a largely Asian clientele. The prices are unbelievable for downtown Manhattan. New Yorkers are obsessed with declaring everything over. Chinatown might be threatened by the growing real estate development but it's far from over.

m015094

As long as the Chinese moving in aren't gang bangers or idiots popping wheelies on dirt bikes and quads on 125th street, I think they'll be welcomed with open arms.

soothsayer

a harlem chinese new years involves poppin guns in the air, and pouring 40s on the ground for the dead spirits during the autumn festival.

nice job

Funny, we've seen a huge spike in young Asian residents in my building in West Harlem.

Gwinny

Part of the reason I moved to West Harlem was because it was so the opposite of Chinatown...

diablofreak

chinatown is a joke. only midwest tourists who want a glimpse of the asian populace go there now.

ktinnyc

So Chinatown is lame because it's full of Chinese people and tourist want to see these people?

diablofreak

it's not lame, but it's become more of a tourist trap for out-of-towners than it is to get true asian goods and authentic food.

fancyasian

I agree, all the Chinese that come in from Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, and Harlem to do their shopping in Chinatown are buying inauthentic food and FALSE Asian goods. Actually some of the Chinese walking around are actors hired by the Tourist-Trap Board of NYC to help Chinatown retain some of its Chineseness that was lost when you walked down Canal st. and decided it was lame.