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Also further on in the progression of the Chinese tongs
in Chicago, this paper will explain how the tongs in the modern age
survive in the city. The Chinese tongs of today survive in the city
because of two factors: institutionalization and the placement of the
modern day Chinatown. Today’s Chinatown is located between physical
barriers on all sides. To the south, there is the Dan Ryan Expressway.
To the north, there are the CTA’s Orange Line commuter railroad
tracks and the Chicago River. Also located just north of the river and
the commuter rail track, you will find large open spaces that are covered
with railroad tracks. To the east, there are the Metra Commuter Rail
railroad tracks and the CTA’s Red Line commuter railroad tracks.
Plus beyond the railroad tracks, you have public housing that was built
by the city of Chicago in late 50’s to house the African-American
population living there. It is a ghetto. To the west, there are the
Dan Ryan Expressway and the Chicago River. These physical barriers built
by the City of Chicago enclose Chinatown into a confining space. What
does all of this have to do with the survival of the Chinese tongs in
Chinatown? These physical barriers put Chinatown into what is known
as a natural area. Harvey W. Zorbaugh who wrote The Natural Areas
of the City argues that the natural areas of a city are those areas
surrounded by the physical barriers built by the city. These natural
areas are havens for crime. Zorbaugh elaborates by writing:
The structure of an individual city, then, while always exhibiting
the generalized zones described above, is built about this framework
of transportation, business organization and industry, park and boulevard
systems, and topographical features. All of these break the city up
into numerous smaller areas, which we may call natural areas, in that
they are the unplanned, natural products of the city’s growth.
Railroad and industrial belts, park and boulevard systems, rivers
and rises of land acting as barriers to movements of population tend
to fix the boundaries of these natural areas, while their centers
are usually intersections of two or more business transportation,
or natural advantages each area acquires a physical individuality
accurately reflected in land values and rents.
Now, in the intimate economic relationship in which all people are
in the city everyone is in a sense, in competition with everyone else.
It is an impersonal competition- the individual does not know his
competition. It is a competition for other values in addition to those
represented by money. One of the forms it takes is competition for
positions in the community. We do not know all of the factors involved,
but each individual influences the ultimate position of every other
individual.
In this competition for position the population is segregated over
the natural areas of the city. Land values, characterizing the various
natural areas, tend to shift and sort the population. At the same
time, segregation re-emphasizes trends in values. Cultural values
also play a part in this segregation, creating repulsions and attractions.
From the mobile competing stream of the city’s population each
natural area of the city tends to collect the particular individuals
predestined to it. These individuals, in turn, give to the area a
peculiar character. The physical individuality of the natural areas
of the city is re-emphasized by the cultural individuality of the
populations segregated over them. Natural areas and natural cultural
groups tend to coincide (Zorbaugh: The Natural Areas of the City,
46-47).
Within the physical barriers surrounding Chinatown, the population
mostly consists of people of Chinese descent. This has been the case
for close to 90 years when the Chinese population moved there in 1910.
Only in the recent years have Chinese-Americans been moving out of Chinatown
to neighborhoods surrounding including Bridgeport. However, this is
only recent change in demographics of Chinatown. Why was it until recently
Chinese-Americans were placed into an area surrounded by physical barriers?
It is important to note that these physical barriers excluding the river
were built in the late 50’s. It is due to these barriers placed
by city that the tongs went on without notice to the outside world.
The Chinese always had to live within the presence of the tongs, but
with these barriers in place, it makes more difficult for the citizens
of the Chinatown to live the grasp of the tongs.
Now that we somewhat understand the processes around the creation and
successfulness of the tongs from a theoretical perspective, this paper
will go into the history of the Chinese immigrant in America to show
how history played a major role in the creation of the tongs. The start
of the Chinese immigration began during the California gold rush in
the 1840’s. The Chinese immigrants came to America in search of
gold and fortune. However, this was not the case when they arrived to
these shores. Peter Kwong, author of The New Chinatown, writes:
The California gold rush during the late 1840’s
brought the first wave of Chinese. When the rich surface gold mines
were exhausted, most white miners moved on to more productive sites.
Only large mining companies had the necessary capital to work underground,
and to realize a fair return, they needed a reliable source of cheap
labor. “Coolies” (“bitter labor” in Chinese)
from the southern Chinese provinces were brought to America as contract
labor. By 1851, there were 25,000 Chinese in California (Kwong: The
New Chinatown, 11-12).
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