Chinatown, Manhattan - Demographics - Little Fuzhou Emerges

Little Fuzhou Emerges

Once a large influx of Fuzhou immigrants came in, the eastern portion of Chinatown became more fully developed as being part of Chinatown and establishing their own Fuzhou community primarily on the East Broadway and Eldridge Street portion, which has resulted in referring East Broadway as Fuzhou Street No. 1 and Eldridge Street as Fuzhou Street No. 2 becoming known as the New Chinatown of Manhattan separate from the long time heavily dominated Cantonese community, which is the western section of Chinatown or the Old Chinatown of Manhattan. Although minor to moderate numbers of long time Cantonese people and businesses still continue to exist in the eastern portion of Chinatown. Since the Fuzhou immigrants have a strong cultural and linguistic background difference from the Cantonese people, the Fuzhou immigrants were unable to integrate well into Manhattan's Chinatown, which was still very Cantonese dominated and as a result they carved out their own separate Chinatown on East Broadway.

Not only did the Fuzhou immigration influx establish a new portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, they also played a role in property values rising up quickly during the 1990s in contrast to during the 1980s when the housing prices were dropping. As a result, landlords were able to generate twice as much income in Manhattan's Chinatown, Flushing's Chinatown and eventually Brooklyn's Chinatown.