As Chinatown struggles to return to its pre-COVID golden age, younger generations have been busy creating cultural hubs of their own.
As a Chinese immigrant growing up in Australia, Elizabeth Chong recalls the days when Melbourne's Chinatown was a place that reaffirmed her heritage and offered a sense of belonging.
"I now feel almost like a stranger — that's a very funny feeling to me."
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Elizabeth, now 92 years old, migrated to Australia from China in the 1930s at the age of three.
Dubbed "the last empress of Melbourne Chinatown", Elizabeth is part of a family with a decades-old connection to the precinct, having owned restaurants and held festivals in the area since the 1980s.
"But now I don't know where it's going. I don't feel it's the same personal Chinatown that I knew," she says.
The "personal Chinatown" Elizabeth refers to is the strip down Little Bourke Street, which for decades served as a hub for social gatherings, meals and cultural celebrations — in fact, it's one of the oldest Chinatowns in the world.
"It will end up more like a tourist precinct than a serious place — I think it's going to lose the heart that I would say was Chinatown," she says.
"It has to progress. It has to change a little."
Traditional Chinatowns were significantly impacted by the pandemic, but since COVID-19's extended lockdowns, Chinese hubs outside of the CBD have seen meteoric growth, particularly among youth without a strong connection to old Chinatowns.
The development of these areas — dubbed "ethnoburbs" by sociologists — has brought considerable challenges to traditional Chinatowns, with many suggesting that sociocultural, demographic shifts are underway catalysing "new Chinatowns" to rise.
Mark Lane is the mayor of Whitehorse City where a new Chinatown in the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill is evolving.
He believes it has surpassed the relevance of the CBD's Chinatown.
"The variety of food and the diversity of cuisine that we now have from various parts of China is amazing," Mr Lane says.
"Box Hill in itself is, I think, the better Chinatown of Melbourne."
The suburb is building what's been dubbed as Melbourne's second Chinatown, known initially as "Xin Tang Li" (New Chinatown) to target youth and new migrants (although the "new Chinatown" brand has recently been dropped to avoid controversy).
"I'd like to think there's friendly competition," Mr Lane says.
"I like to think the offering we have is a bit different to what the city has, which being the first real Chinatown in Melbourne is more of, I guess, a Westernised offering.
"Where I find in Box Hill, we offer many different cuisines that are more authentic than what the city perhaps does."
Many Chinese residents in the surrounding ethnoburbs have said they feel these new Chinatowns already meet their needs — and it's a phenomenon that's happening not only in Australian cities, but around the world.
But given Australia is home to some of the oldest Chinatowns in the world, these historic hubs will not be sidelined without a fight.
'It's not Disneyland'
Mark Wang, Elizabeth's first cousin, is a case in point — he firmly disagrees that Chinatown has lost its direction.
“We are a historic street," he says.
"We're the oldest Chinatown in the Western world — this is a continuous living history of 170 years.
"It's not something we’re just creating as a facade — it's not Disneyland."
Similar to Elizabeth, Mark's family also has a historical connection to the neighbourhood.
Mark's father, David Wang — dubbed "the King of Chinatown" — owned shops in the area, supported Melbourne's Chinatown during his time as a councillor in the 1970s, and was responsible for importing some of the iconic archway on Little Bourke Street.
Mark maintains that Chinatown's historical value is not just a marketing ploy, but a crucial part of the city of Melbourne's history and fabric that must be preserved.
Similar to the lull experienced during the pandemic, he points out that Chinatown has always faced various challenges throughout its history, but it has always adapted and survived — he says this time will be no exception.
"Every Chinatown goes through these troughs and peaks — there might be some competition from Box Hill naming a certain place 'Chinatown'. So be it."
But detractors say that history is shifting, and that it's not simply a desire to relocate Chinatown, but boils down to demographic shifts throughout major cities.
These shifts have resulted in demand for a much more diverse array of Chinese food and culture, rather than the Cantonese-dominated culture represented in traditional Chinatown.
And it's not just in Melbourne in suburbs like Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Doncaster and Springvale, but in Sydney too, with "new Chinatowns" popping up in Eastwood, Chatswood, Burwood and Hurstville.
"Once you’ve tried the food and experienced the lively vibes at Burwood Chinatown — you’ll be hooked for more!" Burwood Chinatown wrote on a social media post.
And they're not just small-time cafes, many of these "new Chinatowns" have garnered thousands of supporters and followers, and become popular hotspots during the pandemic.
"It's just a place to come enjoy great food, and be social with family and friends," Gina Liros, Burwood Chinatown CEO says.
In addition to creating a food district, the area has been revamped with new amenities and a more family-friendly environment.
She insists that Burwood Chinatown is not in competition with Sydney's traditional Chinatown in Haymarket, which she says concentrates on tourists, but is just committed to serving the local community.
"You know, we obviously don't have a huge history, but we're making history. We're building our own history."
'We've still got the charm'
There are similar stories unfolding in historic Chinatowns in the United States as well.
University of California Los Angeles sociology professor Min Zhou has long observed the evolution of American Chinatowns, and has seen similar trends of "new Chinatowns" flourishing in American ethnoburbs, while historic centres struggle to attract younger generations.
Dr Zhou says there were similarities between what is taking place in Australia, in that traditional Chinatowns were generally populated by older generations, and are more monocultural, mostly Cantonese, meaning there's plenty of yum cha, but not a lot of Sichuan hot pots or Lanzhou noodles.
"Nowadays, young people are very diverse, and they don't like to go to downtown Chinatown … except for major annual celebrations such as Chinese New Year."
However, Dr Zhou says it is critical that traditional Chinatowns maintain their history and are not demolished or neglected, and remain vital, as they tell an important part of American and Australian stories.
She recognises the need for more "selling points" in traditional Chinatowns to provide people with immersive experiences of history, culture, food, arts and activities, and incentivise younger visitors.
In Australia, there are proposals and hopes to revamp older Chinatowns by expanding museums and adding cultural hubs and centres for families and children.
But they are often hampered by building restrictions and a lack of space, in addition to reduced traffic as less people commute to cities after COVID-19.
Danny Doon, president of the Melbourne Chinatown Precinct Association, is one of the people at the centre of this dilemma.
"We are a historical precinct … there's no room for major development," he says.
"Whereas suburbs like Box Hill, with all their new buildings, are able to add that 'wow' factor to create something different altogether."
Such limitations will make it difficult for traditional Chinatowns to constantly develop like those in the ethnoburbs — however, he insists that Chinatown's historical relevance is irreplaceable, and there can only ever really be one real "Chinatown".
"Chinatown has been the name of the area for more than 150 years. It's an iconic name worldwide to refer to historical precincts," he says.
"We've still got the charm, people like to see historical things, so they come to Chinatown."
Whatever the future holds, preserving Chinatown will require proactivity from both a development and a marketing perspective, and from the community, to promote its historical significance while hopefully adding more Chinese diversity to its food and cultural offerings.
"Melbourne's Chinatown has always been a place of hybridity," urban and cultural heritage expert Soon-Tzu Speechley recently said.
"It's associated with things like the invention of the dim sim, which is a very local take on Cantonese dumplings.
"I think it's these kinds of cultural adaptations that, in the long run, will be what keeps Chinatown going."
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Credits
- Reporting & Writing: Jason Fang & Dong Xing
- Photography: Danielle Bonica (Melbourne) & Ilham Issak (Sydney)
- Additional Photography: Jarrod Fankhauser, Iris Zhao, Golden Age Group (Concept Images)
- Production & Editing: Steven Viney
