Indeed, passing by the omnipresent closing restaurants around Chinatown as shown in the scrapped pieces of photography I have taken in figure 6[1], I was imbued with a strong sense of sadness and grievance. As clearly discernable on the left portion of the map, the front labels of many shops are either covered with heavy dust or even scrawled with random paints. Pressing the button of my camera to document as many places as possible, I wish nothing but to save these businesses myself. But as I believed, the conceptualization of connectivity which regards spaces as a dynamic social construction prone to the influence of human capital offers valuable insights into the potential implications which could be used to tackle this issue. As a result, combining the quantitative analysis that concerns with the prominent demographic traits of Chinatown(figure 1 to 4) with the observations I obtained from my field research conducted around the districts(figure 5 and 7), I hope to advocate for the following ideas which—conceived through the analysis of local ecologies concerning food and service businesses in Chinatown—is targeted to improve the overall urban experience of the Asian communities in the country.
First, given my experience of discovering five additional closing restaurants(i.e., mainly small-sized street vendors) that exist beyond the official documentation, a greater attention is needed to better capture the specificities of Chinatown in which the nuanced proliferation of local businesses should be emphasized. It is only through the preservation of the trivial and informal agencies that the policymakers might finally acknowledge their presence and also their significance to the larger economy. As sites that not only foster connection and communications between humans(figure 6) but also affect people’s movement through space(i.e., attracting them from traveling to Chinatown restaurants), these local businesses indeed embody great potential in launching a revitalization of Chinatown and its surroundings. In this case, perhaps an allocation of funds dedicated to small-sized businesses(e.g., restaurants and stores), social infrastructures, and cultural events would then help to reintroduce the flow of human capital and resources to this district. As the resistance against gentrification and the declining economy is certainly a long-term, strenuous process, people like Zheng have not yet lost their hope “to speak” and “to improve”. The relational theorization of space offered by the paper would then embrace a boundless view of Chinatown. Never confined by a cartographic conceptualization, the revival of this district demands both the attention and action from a network of regions and agencies which might be previously considered as ‘irrelevant’ to the spatialities of Chinatown.
Indeed, passing by the omnipresent closing restaurants around Chinatown as shown in the scrapped pieces of photography I have taken in figure 6[1], I was imbued with a strong sense of sadness and grievance. As clearly discernable on the left portion of the map, the front labels of many shops are either covered with heavy dust or even scrawled with random paints. Pressing the button of my camera to document as many places as possible, I wish nothing but to save these businesses myself. But as I believed, the conceptualization of connectivity which regards spaces as a dynamic social construction prone to the influence of human capital offers valuable insights into the potential implications which could be used to tackle this issue. As a result, combining the quantitative analysis that concerns with the prominent demographic traits of Chinatown(figure 1 to 4) with the observations I obtained from my field research conducted around the districts(figure 5 and 7), I hope to advocate for the following ideas which—conceived through the analysis of local ecologies concerning food and service businesses in Chinatown—is targeted to improve the overall urban experience of the Asian communities in the country.
First, given my experience of discovering five additional closing restaurants(i.e., mainly small-sized street vendors) that exist beyond the official documentation, a greater attention is needed to better capture the specificities of Chinatown in which the nuanced proliferation of local businesses should be emphasized. It is only through the preservation of the trivial and informal agencies that the policymakers might finally acknowledge their presence and also their significance to the larger economy. As sites that not only foster connection and communications between humans(figure 6) but also affect people’s movement through space(i.e., attracting them from traveling to Chinatown restaurants), these local businesses indeed embody great potential in launching a revitalization of Chinatown and its surroundings. In this case, perhaps an allocation of funds dedicated to small-sized businesses(e.g., restaurants and stores), social infrastructures, and cultural events would then help to reintroduce the flow of human capital and resources to this district. As the resistance against gentrification and the declining economy is certainly a long-term, strenuous process, people like Zheng have not yet lost their hope “to speak” and “to improve”. The relational theorization of space offered by the paper would then embrace a boundless view of Chinatown. Never confined by a cartographic conceptualization, the revival of this district demands both the attention and action from a network of regions and agencies which might be previously considered as ‘irrelevant’ to the spatialities of Chinatown.
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