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Home Away from Home:
A Cultural Ethnography in Flushing Chinatown

Chinese food and Asian people – these are usually what my non-Chinese friends would
immediately associate with the word ‘Chinatown’
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In this paper, I will present a short cultural ethnography that I conducted
in Flushing Chinatown with a focus on the perspectives of the Chinese individuals who are
occupying the space
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It is a space that defines them as social beings and wherein a rich history is
treasured hand in hand with a proud ethnic identity
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I will provide a short historical background of Flushing Chinatown and of Chinatowns in
general in the first section
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The third section will focus on the material objects that
are found in this space specifically the foods
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Lastly, I will summarize in
the fifth section the key ideas that I have discussed in the entire paper and present some concluding
statements
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This explains why there
is a Chinatown in different areas all over the world that are not part of mainland China
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Chinatowns emerged as “a result of both labor mobility that had brought immigrants to the
USA as well as a distinct sense of racial otherness that both physically and socially delimited and
confined Chinese migrants to a small area of the city” (Meethan, 2014, p
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There are numerous historical events that influenced many Chinese to migrate to this
country
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In order to avoid atrocities,
many Chinese families looked for another place to live
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New York City is one of the areas outside China with the most number of Chinese residents
(Semple, 2011)
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This cultural ethnography was conducted in Flushing Chinatown which is one of the largest
in the country
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and Roosevelt Lane
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It is a smell of different
foods and ingredients mixed together in the air such as ginger, sweet fruits, sesame seeds, fish, and
rice
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People speaking in a foreign language, which is
usually Cantonese, would also be noticeable to an outsider
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The number of Asian people in the area is to be expected
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This implies that the businesses really
intend to primarily cater to Chinese people more than any other groups
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This could include a pack of bamboo shoots or cured eggs that are a thousand
year old
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Chinatown foods, not just in Flushing but in all other Chinatowns, have connections to
traditional recipes
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Some of these foods include the General Tso chicken, dumplings, and many other viands
cooked with oyster sauce
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The most common sight that would welcome one’s entry to many of the restaurants in the
area is an aquarium that usually contains catfish, crabs, prawns, and lobsters
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3|Page

Social Interactions
For a Chinese in a Chinatown, every other Chinese is a peng yu or friend
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For Changying, a Cantonese lady working in a restaurant, this is the beauty
of this space
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But since she works at this Chinatown every day, she feels that she
is not too far from her hometown
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She speaks the same language that she uses at home
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Wen, for example, who is
a postgraduate student who frequents restaurants in Flushing Chinatown, the place is not just about
food
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Because of this level of comfort, the place really feels like home for her even
though she is living alone half way around the globe from her parents
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The Jewish people in New York, for example, are known to be
loyal patrons of restaurants in Chinatowns (Tuchman and Levine, 1993)
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386)
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4|Page

Home Away from Home
Chinatowns like the one in Flushing serve as a home away from home for many Chinese
living in the country
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For some, there is a need to be in a home away from home
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For
others, like Changying who needs to find a job in another country, the smell, taste, and social
connections in Flushing Chinatown make her feel at home
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And, for international students like Wen, the comfort
and security that they can find in a Chinatown make them feel less estranged in a country that is
very ethnically diverse
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2006
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Pedagogies: An
International Journal vol
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4: 221-242
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2014
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In The Wiley Blackwell Companion
to Tourism
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New York: John Wiley
& Sons
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2011
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The New York Times
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nytimes
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html, retrieved December 3, 2017
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1993
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Journal of Contemporary Ethnography vol
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3:
382-407

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