How to Save Chinatowns From Disappearing

Chinatowns are shrinking. Can you save them? And if so, what does it take? Yeah. I mean, topics like this have been going viral for several years now. I think Philly's Chinatown is the most recent one to get national attention because they're thinking about building a new 76ers arena right next to it, which they feel like will destroy it, just like DC's Chinatown got destroyed. However, Andrew, every local paper of every major city in America that has a Chinatown has had this in the news for the past couple years. How to save Chinatown. Chinatowns are disappearing. They're being encroached on by developers. Gentrification. The older generation is moving on. Young people are not moving back. Andrew, what can people do? Yeah, well, we've actually made multiple videos of this over the years, guys. So we're going to address it. But we also have, you know, gained a lot of knowledge and perspective from talking to local business owners, older generation, the younger generation, even politicians, kind of people who are involved on things. So these are our solutions. These are not end-all be-all solutions. I'm not saying that we can all do all of these things at the same time, but you let me know in the comments down below what you think because this is something that we have thought a lot about. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications. Andrew, let's get into what realistically needs to happen in order for Chinatowns in America to sustain and thrive and survive. Andrew, what is the first thing that people probably, it's difficult to say this, but like the first thing that needs to happen before we even get into solutions? I think the one thing that people need to remember is that the system that allowed Chinese to come here, build Chinatowns, make money, and move out of Chinatowns. Right, to the suburbs, to raise their kids, to be professionals, whether that's STEM or anything else. Is the same system that is kind of, at times, shrinking and pushing Chinatown out. You're talking about the ebbs and flows, the waxing and waning of just capitalism. Yes, capitalism. The chase of money. And like, I mean, obviously Chinese are very well known for starting businesses, working very hard, working long hours, doing a lot of trade. This is something that a lot of people, this is what Chinese people started doing when they came to America. But I'm just saying like, we can't be shocked anymore about the system. We just have to understand the system that we're in and then we can move forward and make solutions. I think you're right. And yeah, moving on to the solutions, Andrew. Second generation Chinese-Americans or Cantonese people, Fujianese people, you know, every Chinatown sort of has a different makeup, but originally there were a lot of people from Toisan, right? Or Cantonese-speaking people need to come back and collaborate with other Chinese that are wealthy to what? Build new businesses that appeal to the current crowd living in Chinatown or spending their money in Chinatown, but also to people outside of Chinatown to bring in foreign capital inflows, right? Yeah, the key is, guys, Chinatown cannot be the same as it was 30 years ago. And even though that there is a beauty to a lot of the old businesses that have been around, not all of the 50-year-old businesses can still exist. Some of them will and some of them are great businesses and they need to be supported. However, you do need the next generation to come back and open up businesses that can appeal to everybody. It's true. You need it. This heavily relies on the second generation. Actually, all like historical ethnic enclaves that are about a hundred years old right now are going through it. Little Italy's, little Armenia's, little Greek areas, etc. Somebody said you need the building owners, aka the people who probably got rich off the equity bounce over holding their buildings for several years to give favorable leases to what? Businesses with good intentions, right? Yeah, building owners, landowners, they essentially have control and get to pick which businesses get to open up down below. Right, because who they're renting to or who they're selling the entire block to, right? Exactly. So whoever they sell the building to or who is opening up a shop in their building. Obviously, it's all essentially up to them. Now, I'm not telling people not to make money. I think that it is very hard to tell people not to take like profit, but you have to. Right. Somebody said they need the younger generation of customers, not just the business owners to still support and attend the old classic businesses as well as the new modernized ones that the ABC's are opening up. Yeah, I mean, I think there's some classic businesses in every Chinatown that have existed for 30 plus years that will continue to exist because people just love them. So you still need to support them to make sure that they do not go away that quickly. However, like I can't just put it on the rich business owners. I have to put it on the customers themselves. We also as a second generation or even tourists, they need to come in and support the businesses that they like. You know, I noticed that it's really different like some businesses like me, some, Andrew, in New York's Chinatown, which started in like 1950 and then some new classics, like for example, Great NY Noodle Town, which is viewed as a as a stalwart or like a institution that was made in the 90s. So that's still a 40-year span. But like you said, they're both classics. Somebody said people got to be ready for Chinatown to change and morph. It's not going to look the same as 30 years ago. 30 years ago didn't look the same as 30 or 40, 50 years ago before that. It has to be ready to enter a new phase of evolution. Yeah, and one thing that a lot of people need to think about is that, you know, just because the Chinatown in the downtown is shrinking or morphing or changing that doesn't mean that's a full-on L for Chinese people in general, because there's actually way more little Chinatowns popping up everywhere else. So as a whole, there's more Chinese restaurants, more Chinese business, even more Chinese commerce than there was 30 years ago, even though Chinatown itself might be shrinking. Yeah, I would agree with that. I don't think it's the same case in every city like New York how people say there's like eight or nine Chinatowns now instead of one only. But yeah, in Philly, I'm sure there are certain pockets in certain suburbs that have a plaza now and things like that and things may be more dispersed. Maybe it's not the same energy anymore. But yeah, who knows like things they grow, they get weaker here, but they get stronger here too, to your point. Somebody said they also need to maintain rent control housing so that working-class people can still live their entire lives in Chinatown in terms of they wake up, they go to work, they go to sleep, spend their money within these smaller dense zones. Yeah, I mean working-class Chinese immigrants are one of, if not the backbone of Chinatowns. So how do you incentivize them to still live in the city? Well, you have to make it affordable for them. So this is like kind of this comes down to the government or the building owner or whatever it is guys. These are usually powers a little bit beyond what we as customers can do, but they do need rent control so they can live there. Yeah, what do you think about building new more modern businesses like a Chinatown, you know gym or like, you know, obviously local bars anything that can maintain people outside people coming in or maintaining the same people to spend the money to stimulate the economic cash inflows and just circulation within the community. Yeah, I mean maybe if you look at Chinatown as its own like separate country, you need like foreign investment and you need foreign currency to come into that country. So just like you need money from outside of the community to come into Chinatown and sustain Chinatown. So you do like if you could build a gym or obviously bars that are appealing to the next generation or even tourists and non-Asians. That's also very important. Right and I think that that's to the point our next point about how do you design Chinatown from a decor vibe ambience atmospheric energy way? Yeah, I think if you make Chinatown's very bright and ornamental okay and make it look very cool and that people are going to care more about Chinatown. They're going to want to go there more like putting lanterns along the top of New York Chinatown about two three years ago during the pandemic have really helped a lot. Oh and it kind of made it look more like Yokohama Japan Chinatown and Yokohama Chinatown in Japan is like the cleanest biggest Chinatown that I've ever been to what about political leaders nonprofit leaders, you know, obviously political leaders who you elect as your political leaders that represent, you know, this district that Chinatown is in is very important. So they have to care because they're going to help fight for you. Also, there is a lot more organizations and nonprofits. There's a lot more people who have professional jobs whose livelihoods don't rely on Chinatown but spend their free time organizing things for Chinatown. And that's very important because as we know Asians oftentimes, you know, you study hard you get a good job and you make like a good living but also what can give you purpose on the outside after work, right? Right, right, right. You mean just like maybe moving to the suburbs or getting that one like condo in that, you know adjacent City and just like living that yappy life. This is maybe something more keeps that fire burning inside of you. I mean, I think it varies person to person and what do you think about gentrification just needing to accept that some of its going to happen but also knowing that there's different types of gentrification like gentrification from modern second-gen businesses, which I don't even know if it counts as gentrification if the kids grew up in Chinatown, but like it's just no, you know what I mean? Like that's different than like outside people coming in making like six blocks. There's a bunch of non-Asian businesses. Yeah. No, I would say that gentrification is bound to happen because we're talking about Chinatown is situated in downtown's most mostly they're all in downtown, especially downtown, New York. This is prime real estate. So of course you have to accept that it's going to happen on some level, but at least you need it to happen by people who want to uphold the culture. They don't have to be Chinese, but they need to want to uphold the culture that's important. I think Chinatown is becoming more pan-Asian Asian towns as well as more condensed, but in a way higher quality and having the speed of capital inflows sped up in there is it's like a good compromise as opposed to obviously the entire thing disappearing off the map. David, so we talked to a lot of business owners and we've learned we've walked into a lot of businesses. We filmed that a lot of businesses. What are some like quick business considerations? This is for people who maybe have an idea of a business. They want to open up in Chinatown. What what are some questions they need to answer when trying to open up something in Chinatown to help the next generation? All right, if you really want to help Chinatown, but obviously you're still going to be concerned with ROI return on investment. It's not evil to want to make money off your business and everybody who does like 97% of jobs 98% of jobs doesn't do it for charity, but it doesn't mean that you can't see ROI on a profitability end and still impact the community positively. I think you have to remember that ROI and community impact can obviously go together, right? So I guess what are some business considerations just some questions that they need to be answering. I think for example, you need to go how much homage are you trying to make and make it appeal to like what generations are you trying to appeal to are you trying to appeal to just people who grew up in Chinatown and live every day there or outside people and what's your ratio mix obviously what would be beneficial as a business that appeals to both because you're pulling from two major economic pools rather than one isolated one. How much are you going to spend on your decor vibe and probably for modern businesses that want to appeal to outside people as well as inside people. They're going to need to be cool, right? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then you want to make it Instagramable guys. This is how it is. And there are obviously we have some friends businesses that are opening up that look very cool in Chinatown. So I think they are leading the way and I think for if you're trying to open up a spot Andrew, it's almost like what are you trying to say to the world? If you look at Corey's potluck club, shout out to Corey. He's trying to say a lot. He's trying to just pay homage to his childhood and all the Hong Kong cinema or Cantonese things that we all grew up with. So there's a very strong messaging there rather than like, oh, yeah, I had a product that's high margin. So I tried to sell it right. Also another question is like who's going to run the system and how do you incentivize other Asians or Chinese people if that's who you want to run your system? How do you incentivize them to come into Chinatown and work? Yeah, I think that you know, it's important, you know the operations that matters your cost of goods sold supply chain legal taxes Excel spreadsheets the landlord you got to worry about the triple net. There's so much stuff that goes into it. And the reason we're talking about these details right now is because if you're out there and you're watching I want to show you not discourage you. I want to encourage you but also give you the reality of how complicated it can be. All right. So here we this is at the point of time in this video where we want to give a shout out to some of the new restaurants in New York's Chinatown that we think are doing a great job that are kind of leading the next generation of Chinatown new phase. Yeah that I think not every business that opens has to be like them and maybe they shouldn't but I'm just saying these are good examples of things that we like and also, you know having been to a lot of Chinatowns from Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, LA. We've been to Boston, Philly, New York. We've been to a lot of Chinatowns. Like these are the things that we like. So these are three spots Andrew that just opened up in the past year that are doing Neo Chinatown Americana Golden Age Hong Kong, Potluck Club, Soft Swerve, Mabu Cafe. This is a good aesthetic that a lot of Cantonese people which primarily make up the most of Chinatowns. They like this. Yeah, some other businesses that we like are 12 Pal. I know that they are what they're providing to people understanding haircuts is amazing. Their haircuts are way more expensive than the Chinatown ones that are $13, but it's a way different experience, but they show a lot of love to both and they're all a lot of local guys. They make it worth it. It's not just like 50 you sit down and then get out of my chair right there. They're offering like a whole analysis of your hair and your head shape. Shout out to actually HBX, hypebeast.com Andrew. They actually opened up in Chinatown. They are originally a blog from Hong Kong that opened up their first American store in Chinatown. Yeah, I do think that they show a lot of homage to Chinatown and to Chinese culture in general. Although of course that is a a expensive retail streetwear. So another thing we've noticed for a long time Andrew is that there are Chinese own Japanese chains in Chinatown that add a lot of value. Now some people go. Oh, how can you know it's Japanese? It's not Chinese, but I'm like, well, the owners are still Chinese and they're making these Japanese concepts very accessible whether it's adjacent snacks or you know, Japanese cheese tarts or tea swirls Japanese crepes that are right. Like what do you think of this? Because I got this is kind of a thing right now where Chinese are licensing or building their own Japanese brands, but the the cultural product or food product they're selling is Japanese. Yeah, there's like a small Teso life like in Chinatown. That's something that you probably wouldn't have expected. However, I will say there was always shops in Chinatown that serve Japanese snacks, but they weren't necessarily chains from Japan. So now you do get some chains from Asia and I think that is going to happen more in Chinatown. Now, I don't I don't think it'll take over Chinatown, but there is space in Chinatown for some of these bigger chains to open. And if you've ever actually spent time specifically in Hong Kong or Taiwan, but a lot of places in Asia, Andrew, it doesn't matter where you grow up in Asia. You grow up eating Japanese snacks, even if you grow up in China or like anywhere in Asia. It's true. Japanese snacks probably overall. I got to say are the best. I've been in Malaysia in a 7-Eleven and seen like full-on Japanese snacks that have been relabeled. What about traditional Toisan food, you know, for the low Waku, you know, the older 60, 70, 80, 90-year-old generation. Yeah, Uncle Lou's I think is a great example. I mean, it has kind of an updated look and the dishes are actually still pretty fairly priced for what you get and also, you know, they're serving a lot of traditional like Toisan food there. What about diasporic Chinese foods mixing with Southeast Asian Chinese via Chinese Cambo, Thai wontons, Chinese Thai. This is something that I'd like to even see more of and I think that there probably were some more spots maybe 15 years ago open in Chinatown. However, this this even group of people because the diaspora is so specific from that time period and from that story of where Southern Chinese went all over Southeast Asia, right? Yeah, or even having to move around between Thailand Cambodia during the war from Vietnam that are Chinese and then they come here. That's a specific story that their next generation. It cannot replicate obviously, so I think that I would like to see more of these restaurants open again. If a second generation chef could do it. I would like to see a lot of Cantonese from Penang and Malaysia coming in now as well, but shout out to all the chill gel people and what about places like art being like pan Asian hipster coffee shops where they have like an ube Uji matcha. They have like a Korean barley tea on the menu as well as a Hong Kong. Yeah, they're being super pan Asian. This this would be a good example of people who are doing something different. You know, there's the coffee is like more expensive than your average coffee, but it is also really upholding the culture and being very involved in the community. I think Dong Liang hot pot is malatang is very great. It's great because that's actually a chain from China that opened up but everybody in Chinatown likes it. What do you think about this new trend because I enter for a long time change from the mainland did not really enter the American market, but now there's quite a few like Yun Shang is there. I think that it's something that people need to embrace. I know the older cancel people. They're not necessarily going to go get kangaroo or malatang. Yeah, but try it out. It's pretty tasty. Yeah, and you know, you need bars like basement and Nori to be around for like local people to come to and anyways, you need nightlight. I mean you need your watering holes. That's that's what a community is because you have your regulars you have your crowd and that's what brings in a lot of like that nightlife because obviously people go for the bar they go eat food later at night. I know for example in Seattle and or the Vietnamese American community or the Vietnamese Seattle community has done a great job of modernizing the Vietnamese coffee shop and made it really almost like a museum. It's hipster. It's advanced. I saw a lot of that in Boston as well. Yeah, so guys, you know, let us know what you guys think in the comments down below about how to save Chinatown's things that you want to do. What are some things that you've seen done and what are some businesses that you really think should open up or could open up or have opened up that you really like? Yeah, I mean do you think that people are doing this right now? I think people are beginning to usher in the new phase, but I'd like to see even more. Yeah guys, it's going to weigh heavily on the building owners and the second generation to come in there and open up modern businesses that can appeal to everybody but that still uphold the culture. It might just tricky. Well, it's difficult. I guess it's not just something that like anybody would like the willpower to do it. They still would need like the thinking and then the execution. Hey man, if you got an idea, you can ask us our thoughts and for our consultation. I'll gladly give you my my feedback. Oh, we have seen so many upstarts so many failures so many successes people who are hanging on by a thread people who made a bunch of money people who made money and then dropped off. We seen it all by now. All right, everybody. Let us know in the comments down below this video was about how to save Chinatown. And if you can what does it take you let us know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching and until next time we out. Peace.