Institute for Culture and Society Sydney’s Chinatown in the Asian Century: From ethnic enclave to global hub A RESEARCH REPORT Dr Alexandra Wong Professor Kay Anderson Professor Ien Ang Professor Donald McNeill Prepared for the City of Sydney June 2016 CHINATOWN RESEARCH REPORT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (ARCLP 120200311), in collaboration with the City of Sydney. The researchers would like to thank the City of Sydney for its participation and funding support for this project, especially Mr Steve Hillier and Mr Phil Raskall from the Research, Strategy and Corporate Planning Unit; Ms Robyn Simon from the City Business and Safety Unit; and all the City of Sydney councillors and officers who have participated in the interviews for their time, commitment and expertise. The researchers would also like to acknowledge the support and assistance of the Haymarket Chamber of Commerce and the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. This research would not have been possible without the help of a large number of informants who have taken part in the interviews, focus groups and survey questionnaire. The researchers would like to express their sincere gratitude for these participants’ time, openness and insightful responses to our questions. (Photo2 by Stephen Kelly, flickr.com, creative commons license 2.0) Western Sydney University CHINATOWN RESEARCH REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................2 Table of contents ..................................................................................................................................................................3 Preamble ..................................................................................................................................................................................7 Summary of key findings ..................................................................................................................................................8 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Chinatown in the Asian Century ...............................................................................................................10 1.2 Background .......................................................................................................................................................10 2. Methodology ..........................................................................................................................12 2.1 Aims ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Approach and data collection ................................................................................................................... 12 3. Previous research on Chinatowns .........................................................................................14 3.1 Origins and early Chinatowns as ethnic enclaves .............................................................................14 3.2 ‘Chinatown’ as a racialised social construct ........................................................................................14 3.3 Chinatown as a commodified ethnic precinct .................................................................................... 15 3.4 The rise of suburban Chinatowns ............................................................................................................. 15 3.5 Precarious Chinatowns .................................................................................................................................16 3.6 Revival of the Chinatown concept ...........................................................................................................16 4. Sydney’s Chinatown in the Asian Century ............................................................................18 4.1 Chinatown unbound ...................................................................................................................................... 18 4.2 Towards inter-Asian urbanism ................................................................................................................... 19 5. Demographic changes in Sydney’s Chinatown ...................................................................20 5.1 The study area .................................................................................................................................................20 5.2 Chinese ‘ethnoburbs’ in greater Sydney ............................................................................................... 21 5.3 Rise of Sydney ‘Asiatown’ ........................................................................................................................... 23 5.4 Comparison of New York and Sydney Chinatowns ......................................................................... 24 6. Chinatown beyond the ethnic enclave ................................................................................26 6.1 People and knowledge migration ........................................................................................................... 26 6.2 Transnational investment and property development .................................................................. 28 7. The Chinatown economy ...................................................................................................... 32 7.1 Changes to the business and employment structure of Chinatown ....................................... 32 7.2 Spatial and economic divisions in the core Chinatown precinct ...............................................34 8. Chinatown’s culinary economy ............................................................................................36 8.1 Economic significance of Chinatown’s Asian culinary industry .................................................36 8.2 Chinatown’s Asian culinary cluster .........................................................................................................38 8.3 The challenges ahead .................................................................................................................................... 41 9. The New Asian consumer .....................................................................................................42 9.1 The Chinatown usage study survey ....................................................................................................... 42 9.2 Survey findings ............................................................................................................................................... 42 10. Chinatown’s heritage and culture ........................................................................................46 10.1 Old and new solidarities ..............................................................................................................................46 10.2 Sydney Chinese New Year Festival ........................................................................................................48 10.3 Cultural politics: Chinatown or Asiatown?...........................................................................................50 11. Symbolic and material expressions of Chinatown.............................................................. 52 11.1 The Chinese Garden of Friendship ......................................................................................................... 52 11.2 In Between Two Worlds—reconciling tradition and modernity .................................................54 11.3 Negotiating space in the New Century Garden ................................................................................ 55 12. Inter-Asian urbanism and the re-configuration of Chinatown ..........................................58 12.1 Chinatown and the resurgence of Sydney’s CBD .............................................................................58 12.2 Contradictory development and potential homogenisation ...................................................... 59 12.3 Mainstreaming of ‘Asianness’ ................................................................................................................... 62 12.4 Chinatown’s night-time economy ...........................................................................................................65 13. Discussion and Chinatown’s future .....................................................................................68 13.1 Discussion of findings...................................................................................................................................68 13.2 Chinatown’s policy future ............................................................................................................................ 71 References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 72 About the Authors ............................................................................................................................................................ 79 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................................................................80