Chinese Immigration and Its Implications on Urban Management in Los Angeles

1. Introduction Los Angeles County is the most populous, multi-ethnic county in the United States (U.S.) with an existing total population exceeding 10 million. Of all the U.S. counties, Los Angeles County has most Chinese American population. In the year 2000, the County's total Chinese American population amounted to 377,301, which was 33.6% and 15.6% of all Chinese American population living in California (1,122,187) and U.S. (2,422,970), respectively (Source: http://www.ameredia.com/resources/demographics/chinese.html). Therefore, examining Chinese Americans' urban development patterns in Los Angeles clearly has its national significance. A good urban management requires a clear understanding about its population, including ethnic population. With the globalization trend and emergence of China, Chinese Americans will play an ever important role in future American urbanmanagement, economy and politics. This paper intends to unfold this research from three perspectives. The first perspective is to review the Chinese immigration history in Los Angeles County from urban development's standpoint: first urbanization (represented by Chinatown), then suburbanization (represented by San Gabriel Valley). The second perspective is to compare the Chinese American urban development pattern with the America's mainstream society urban development pattern, through which major similarities and differences can be highlighted. The third perspective is to examine the implications of Chinese immigration on local urban management from political, cultural, and socioeconomic aspects. Based on this empirical research, a concluding section will summarize research findings. 2. Geographic Distributions of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles Figure 1 shows the Los Angeles County racial/ethnic diversity in 2000. The Anglo population used to be distributed everywhere, but now the region has become highly segregated along racial/ethnic lines. In the year 2000, within the county area, the Anglo population resided in the outlying areas, the Black populations were primarily found in the south/central Los Angeles, whereas most Chinese Americans were clustered in the San Gabriel Valley, as coded by red color shown as "Majority API (Asian Pacific Islander)." [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] In Los Angeles County, Chinatown, which is located immediately north of downtown area, symbolizes the early Chinese American urbanization process, while San Gabriel Valley east of downtown area can properly be labeled as the so-called "ethnoburb," or ethnic suburban settlement housing more recent Chinese immigrants (Li, 1997). Figures 2 and 3 show the geographic locations of existing Chinatown and San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, respectively. Within San Gabriel Valley, there is a recent tendency for Chinese Americans to gradually migrate from the western valley area (e.g., Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel) to the eastern valley area (e.g., Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Diamond Bar), as well as to other outlying areas (Cerritos, Irvine, and rest of Orange County). Therefore, the Chinese Americans in Los Angeles area have clearly undergone both urbanization and suburbanization processes, which constitute the focus of this research. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] [FIGURE 3 OMITTED] 3. Los Angeles Chinatown as the Ethnic Enclave The Los Angeles Chinatown is a typical ethnic enclave. The Chinese were the first in the sequence of Asian groups that entered Southern California. The existing Chinatown shown in Figure 2 is a new Chinatown established in 1938. Before 1938, there was an old Chinatown, which was torn down due to the construction of the Los Angeles Union Station at the same site. Therefore, old Chinatown and new Chinatown need to be introduced separately. 3.1 Old Chinatown (Pre-1938) In the 1860s, Chinese began to settle in the east of the old City Plaza in Los Angeles. …