The First Suburban Chinatown: Monterey Park, California

Chinatown were created for the necessity of Chinese immigrants, where they were in the United States to work for the factories or for the low wage labors. The traditional Chinatown and other Asian enclaves are located in central urban areas such as San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, to name a few. For Asian labors, the passages of immigration acts were made and some 20 million Asian immigrants came into the United States and the Chinatown and other Asian enclaves exploded and flourished throughout the United States. In Southern California and New York City, the arrival of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean immigrants were so great that the urban cities were crowded already, many of these immigrants moved to middle class suburbs.

The first suburban Chinatown emerged in Monterey Park in 1987. Monterey Park that is north of Los Angeles. Many second-generation Chinese Americans moved out of the urban Chinatown and moved into the suburb Chinatown in Monterey Park, and this region already consisted of Taiwanese immigrants and Mainland Chinese immigrants.

The history of Monterey Park was first settled by Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and South Asian pioneers. These Asian pioneers worked in the agriculture fields, to name a few harvest, they harvested grapes and citrus fruits. And today, they are part of the large infrastructure of San Gabriel valley today. Monterey Park is the first suburban Chinatown, and it was released in public, such as Time Magazine, Los Angeles Times.

There is an informal name named by the Chinese communities that Monterey Park is called Little Taipei, because they consist of the largest population from Taiwan. Monterey Park has heavy concentration of Chinese signs, and this is rare in suburban areas, and because English is the official language in the area. In addition, second-generation Chinese Americans started moving into Monterey Park, making it difficult for them to learn the language. Because the Asian American identity is split in two, Asian Americans need to try extra harder for them to be American, hence, losing their own cultural heritage. As a result, the concentrated Chinese signs made it difficult for these new visitors and residents to live in this suburban area. The Chinese immigrants did not assimilate to the American culture in Monterey Park, they were different from the urban ethnic enclaves although suburban areas are America concentrated.