Chinatown, Washington, D.C.

For the location of the first Chinatown in Washington, D.C. between 1851 and the mid-1930s, see Federal Triangle.

Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown is a small, historic area of Downtown Washington, D.C. along H and I Streets between 5th and 8th Streets, Northwest. The area was once home to thousands of Chinese immigrants, but fewer than 300 remained in 2017. The current neighborhood was the second in Washington to be called “Chinatown” since 1931. Originally, the first Chinatown was built in the Federal Triangle on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue some time after 1851, but was moved to the H Street area when a new federal building was built there.^[2] In 1986, a Chinese gate was built over H Street at 7th Street. By 1997, prominent landmarks such as the Capital One Arena, a sports and entertainment arena, occupied the area. The neighborhood is served by the Gallery Place station of the Washington Metro.^[3]

Chinatown Downtown Historic District^[1]
Neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Chinatown's Friendship Archway, as seen looking east on H Street NW in 2023
Chinatown within the District of Columbia
Coordinates: 38°53′59″N 77°01′18″W / 38.8998°N 77.0217°W / 38.8998; -77.0217
Country	United States
District	Washington, D.C.
Ward	Ward 2
Government
• Councilmember	Brooke Pinto
ZIP Code	20001
Area code	202

Map of Washington, D.C., with Chinatown highlighted in yellow

History

 

Map of Washington, D.C., with old Chinatown highlighted in red and the current Chinatown in yellow

 

7th Street NW, east side, looking north from G Street, circa 1900–1905, the current location of Capital One Arena

The Chinatown area was once home to many Chinese immigrants, who began to move into the area in the 1930s, having been displaced from Washington's original Chinatown along Pennsylvania Avenue by the development of the Federal Triangle government office complex. The newcomers marked it with Chinese signage and decorative metal latticework and railings. At its peak, Chinatown extended from G Street north to Massachusetts Avenue, and from 9th Street east to 5th Street.

Chinatown remained a strong community into the 1960s, but the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots that followed Martin Luther King's assassination, and the ensuing decline of D.C.'s downtown area, led many of the Chinese residents of Chinatown to move to suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.^{[4] [5] [6]}

In the early 1980s, the D.C. government built a new convention center between 9th and 11th streets, displacing Chinese residents living in the area.^[7] In 1982, the city built the Wah Luck House apartments at 6th and H Streets, NW, to accommodate the displaced residents. Designed by architect Alfred Liu, the apartment building introduced modern Chinese design motifs due to the red-paneled balconies.^[8]

In 1986, the city dedicated the Friendship Archway, a traditional Chinese gate.^[9] This was a collaboration between the Washington DC government and its sister city Beijing. It was intended to attract visitors in addition to recognizing the local Chinese residents.^[10] As part of the same effort, the Metro station was given its present name: Gallery Place-Chinatown.

The MCI Center was completed in 1997 (renamed Verizon Center in 2006 and Capital One Arena in 2017). After the construction of the arena, AsianWeek said in 2000 that the neighborhood "barely" remains.^[11]

Numerous writers have cited Chinatown as an example of gentrification^{[10][12][13][14]} and an example of the commodification of culture.^[15] In 2015, the Washington Post reported that only about 300 Chinese-Americans remained in the borough, and many of them were being forced out by their landlords.^[16][17]

Annual parade

Each year the China Lunar New Year is celebrated with a parade that The Washington Post called, "one of the city’s signature events for more than 50 years". Lunar New Year is a celebration of light with honors family and is said to wipe away bad luck. The annual parade is described as a "massive parade" features dragon dances. The parade was cancelled in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.^[18]

On February 10, 2019 the parade celebrated the year of the pig. "It featured traditional lion and dragon dances, firecrackers, beauty pageant winners and community groups".^[19] The parade route runs along 8th Street NW and in 2020 it featured a person dressed as Caishen and another dressed as a Giant panda. 2020 was the year of the rat and some parade goers had small rat toys.^[20]

Another parade which occurs in Chinatown is The Chinese Merchants Association parade. One such parade was hosted on September 10, 1957, William C. Beall was in the Chinatown section of Washington D.C. to photograph a parade. He worked as a staff photographer for The Washington Daily News.^[21][22] Two-year-old Allan Weaver attended the parade and he approached police officer Maurice Cullinane to ask if he was a US Marine. The image was printed in many publications and it also appeared on the back cover of Life (magazine) and it won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. Beall named the image Faith and Confidence.^[21][23]

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1880	100		—
1930	800		—
2010	300 ^[24]		—
Chinese-American population ^[1]

In 2010, the census tract that contains Chinatown has around 3,000 residents. Chinatown is only 21% Asian, compared to 1990, when it had a majority Chinese American population. In 1990, its population was 66% Asian and 20% African American.^[25] Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown is relatively small in terms of size and number of Chinese residents in comparison to other major Chinatown neighborhoods in the U.S., such as those in San Francisco and in Manhattan. Approximately half of Chinatown's residents live in the Wah Luck House, which has 153 units of apartment complexes. The closest Chinese supermarket, the Great Wall Supermarket, is fourteen miles west in Falls Church, Virginia.^[26]

After the deadly 1968 riots following the April assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., many Chinese people sought a more economically stable and safe environment and moved out of Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown, relocating to suburban neighborhoods in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland.^[27][28] In 1970, there were roughly 3,000 Chinese residents in Washington's Chinatown; by 2016, the number was fewer than 600, many of them seniors residing in two low-income housing developments.^[28] North Potomac, Maryland, is 18.4% Chinese American, the highest of any community within the Washington metropolitan area. The Maryland city of Rockville also has a significant population of residents of Chinese descent, at eight percent. In Virginia, sizable Chinese American communities are located in Centreville, Chantilly, and Floris, south of Washington Dulles International Airport.^[25][29]

Businesses and establishments

 

The 700 block of H Street NW in Chinatown. Constructed in the 19th century, the buildings are designated as contributing properties to the Downtown Historic District.

Along with the development of the Verizon Center, historic buildings, mainly along the west side of 7th Street, were renovated and tenanted, primarily with nationally known brand shops and dining establishments. Within a short time, a significant mixed-use office-residential-retail development on the southeast corner of 7th and H streets commenced construction. These developments, which included restaurants, shops, a cinema complex, and a bowling alley, together with the Verizon Center, transformed the area into a bustling scene for nightlife, shopping, and entertainment. An anomaly is that most of the businesses are no longer representative of Chinatown, yet due to a city design guidelines encouraging businesses to use Chinese characters, even national chains hang their names in Chinese outside their stores.^[15] Chinatown has become home to many high-growth technology companies, such as Blackboard, Blue State Digital, LivingSocial, and The Knowland Group.^[30] It is also the location of the Washington branch of the Goethe-Institut.

 

Sign outside the Capital One Arena (then the Verizon Center) in Chinatown

Chinatown's most prominent businesses are the approximately 20 Chinese and Asian restaurants, almost all of which are owned by Asian American families. Among the most well-known are Chinatown Express, Eat First, Full Kee, and Tony Cheng's. One of the restaurants, Wok & Roll, occupies what was once the Mary E. Surratt Boarding House — the meeting place for John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Another is located in a house once owned by the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association, which was among the first Chinese organizations to move into the neighborhood; today the structure is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The neighborhood is home to a Chinese video store, several general stores, and numerous Chinese American cultural and religious charities. Chinatown has one Chinese church, Chinese Community Church, located at 500 I Street. Chinese Community Church was founded in 1935, initially at L Street, but relocated in 2006 to its current I Street location.^[31] The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue has been restored and is the scene of cultural events.

The Washington DC Chinatown Community Cultural Center offers numerous activities, classes and services.^[32]

Transportation

The Gallery Place Washington Metro station (on the Red, Green, and Yellow Lines), which opened in 1976, serves the neighborhood.^[27] The name of the station was changed to Gallery Place-Chinatown in 1986. Two important Metrobus routes cross at 7th and H Streets.

In culture

Within the FBI-commissioned film Game of Pawns the D.C. Chinatown is used as a stand-in for Shanghai.^[33]

See also

• Chinatown, Baltimore
• Rockville, Maryland
• Taiwanese Americans
• Chinese Americans

References

1. "Downtown Historic District (Chinatown) Washington, D.C."
2. "The rise and fall of DC's Chinatown".
3. "History of Washington DC -Chinatown" 2014-12-13 at the Wayback Machine Chinatown Community Cultural Center Retrieved 12 December 2014
4. "Downtown Historic District (Chinatown) Washington, D.C." U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
5. "Through Chinatown's Eyes: April 1968". Maryland Public Television. Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
6. Simons, Sasha-Ann. "Black, White, And Asian — Three Reflections On The 1968 D.C. Riots". WAMU 88.5. NPR. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
7. "Downtown Historic District (Chinatown) Washington, D.C." U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
8. Harrison Lee papers, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University.
9. DeFerrari, John (February 9, 2011). "Chinatown's Friendship Archway". Greatergreaterwashington.org. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
10. Leeman, Jennifer; Gabriella, Modan (June 2009). "Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 13 (3): 332–362. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00409.x.
11. AsianWeek Staff and Associated Press. "Philadelphia Chinatown Wins Stadium Fight September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. AsianWeek. November 24–30, 2000. Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
12. Lewis, Aidan (2014-02-04). "The slow decline of American Chinatowns". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
13. Hackman, Rose (2017-01-03). "'Here until they take me out': DC tenants use the law to fight gentrification". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
14. Cohen, Rick (2015-06-30). "The Remaining Chinese in DC's Chinatown Fight for Their Sense of Community". Nonprofit Quarterly. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
15. Leeman, Jennifer; Modan, Gabriella (2010), "Selling the City: Language, Ethnicity, and Commodified Space", Linguistic Landscape in the City, retrieved 2018-12-19
16. Wang, Yanan (2015-07-16). "D.C.'s Chinatown has only 300 Chinese Americans left, and they're fighting to stay". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
17. Stein, Perry (23 June 2015). "Remaining Chinese residents fight to stay near Chinatown neighborhood". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
18. Robinson, Chase F. (12 February 2021). "A different Lunar New Year celebration in D.C." Washington Post. The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
19. Malet, Jeff (11 February 2019). "Celebrating the Year of the Pig in Chinatown (photos) | The Georgetowner". The Georgetowner. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
20. Natanson, Hannah (27 January 2020). "At Lunar New Year parade in D.C., festivities mix with face masks and fear of coronavirus". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
21. Kelly, John (19 May 2023). "Meet the people behind a famous D.C. photo". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
22. "William C. Beall of Washington (DC) Daily News". www.pulitzer.org. The Pulitzer Prizes.
23. "The Pulitzer Prize Photographs NCSU Libraries, 2003". www.lib.ncsu.edu. NCSU Libraries. 10 May 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
24. "Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown has just 300 Chinese-American residents left".
25. . U.S. Census. Archived from the original on May 13, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
26. Nakamura, David (July 10, 2011). "Wah Luck House maintains culture in dying D.C. Chinatown". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
27. Cambria, Jak. "Washington, D.C. Chinatown USA". Chinatownology.com. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
28. Anna Spiegel (May 23, 2012). "The Great Fall of Chinatown". Washingtonian.
29. "U.S. Census website". U.S. Census. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
30. Heath, Tom (March 20, 2011). "The Buzz: Sinking Wizards, rising ticket sales". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
31. . Chinese Community Church. Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
32. "Chinatown Community Cultural". Chinatown Community Cultural Center. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
33. Stein, Perry. "Chinatown Passes for Shanghai in the FBI's Eyes." Washington City Paper. April 15, 2014. Retrieved on August 6, 2016.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chinatown, Washington, D.C..

• Washington's Chinese Mafia Wars

38°53′59″N 77°01′18″W / 38.8998°N 77.0217°W / 38.8998; -77.0217