Stop Wal-Mart from Destroying Chinatown

Note: If you are new here, read this then this, first.

Great movie btw

Chinatown LA is under threat by the economic monster known as Wal-Mart, who wants to open a new store in Chinatown.

Chinatowns are a Mecca of prospering small business, and Wal-Mart destroys small business. Not only that, but Wal-Mart has been linked to increased poverty, exploitation of workers and other nasty things.

It is without a doubt that Wal-Mart will completely destroy one of the largest cultural and ethnic enclaves in the United States by ripping out the heart of its economy.

Visit the oppositions tumblr page and sign the petition to show Wal-Mart they're not wanted!

Asian Turf War

I recently saw an episode of South Park in which the Chinese guy who owns City Wok is forced to contend with a new sushi place that moves in next door. The whole thing turns into a giant episode spanning fight between them, while most of South Park thinks that China and Japan are the same. Its quite hilarious.

Embedding is not allowed so heres a link. I think its viewable in the US only.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e06-city-sushi

CNY

Hi, Chinese Guy, great blog.

One question: Why Lunar New Year is called (Mostly) Chinese New Year? Vietnamese, Koreans, Bhutanese... celebrate lunar new year, too, but they don't call it as Vietnamese New Year...you see.

What do you think?


Jo

Dear Jo

Um the Koreans call it Korean new year I think. Anyway it's not really Chinese new year its more Spring festival 春節. I'd guess everybody calls it Chinese new year quite simply because there are shit loads of Chinese people all over the planet. 1 in 5 people are Chinese Han people.

As a people we have spread far and wide. Thus have managed to embed ourselves into each and every society on the planet. I was pretty damned surprised to see Han Chinese in Azerbaijan (just after I was mugged). Also in Bojourmi in Georgia (Tbilisi).

While the other people from Asia the Koreans, Vietnamese, Bhutanese simply are completely outweighed by our sheer numbers. Sure sure lots of Koreans move overseas. Apparently LA has lots of Korean cornershops. But they have a population of 48 million compared to 400 million (since the 1950s) and 1.3bn today.

A simple example is the UK. The UK has many large China towns. Liverpool has a big one

Copyright Alan Walker

London has a China town (c)

Leeds has one (c) (it's rather small and doesn't have an imperial gate)

So does Manchester, and Birmingham, and Nottingham and various other smaller incarnations of China town. These are more like clustered together restaurants and shops tbh.

Why lets compare to say the Koreans. This here doesn't even make a footnote of there being a Korea town in the UK. Though there is a Korea town in the UK, it is in New Malvern. I've been there and didn't even realise it was Korea town. I wondered why people were calling me an arse regularly (they were saying Anyeonghasseyeo) which TCG being the ignorant twunk he is thought they were saying you arsehole! (We were all young once eh)

I can't even find a picture to link to the London Korea town. The Vietnamese, the Bhutanese are even smaller in population than Korea and thus are outweighed completely by the Chinese version of it.

For once.

In a week of snow and nowhere to go in particular I had a crack on an old game.

In a video game China town is normally portrayed as a place filled with gang bangers etc for once I found a game where China town isn't portrayed as a place full of gang bangers, criminals triads and tongs. The game I'm on about is prototype.

Instead China town Manhattan is filled with zombies. Lots of zombies, nothing strange about that you might say. But here is an old psycho fan clip I remember seeing a while ago.

Chinatown from your Desktop

The Huffington Post has posted a photographic walkthrough of China's American colony (also known as San Francisco Chinatown). More than 50+ photographs give one a detailed look at the beauty of the oldest Chinese community in the America's, from the comfort of your computer.

Enjoy!

A Walk through San Francisco's Chinatown

Gems of Chinatown: Pearl River Market

Its not often I have the chance to go into Manhattan. But when I do I always make sure to stop by Chinatown. One of my favorite places to visit is the Pearl River Market.

Their story, from their website:

Everything from lanterns to clothing to furniture to lighting to musical instruments to wedding dresses, you can find all of it in this tiny, two story department store in the middle of the Big Apple. All of what they sell is handmade and authentic, the kind of goods China was known for prior to the Opium Wars, not the Chromium tainted plastic crap we know them for today.

Needless to say, I have bought many things there. Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, its a wonderful place to look around.

The Store is located at:

477 Broadway, New York, NY

If you don’t live in the New York metro area, you can shop online and they will ship anywhere in the world.

Website: pearlriver.com