Part 4: Gentrification and Today's Chinatown

Into the late 1900’s, property prices in the neighborhood continued to rise, and it became increasingly difficult for residents to stave off developers and the tidal wave of gentrification. Local residents were offered large sums of money to buy out their property, especially to working class immigrant families. Chow described it as “enough to buy property in the suburbs, pay for college, and then some on top of that.” 

Many moved to the suburbs, and along with them, many of the amenities that sustained the distinct needs of the Chinese population – grocery stores, Chinese-speaking community services, and fellow Chinese American residents. In 2015, it was estimated that the Chinese population that remained in the neighborhood was as low as 300.

First generation elderly residents of Chinatown were hit the hardest by these changes. Wah Luck House, completed in 1982 and located on 6th and H Street NW, is the only remaining rent-controlled housing option for these residents, and the units are highly sought after. Many remaining residents are engaged in battles to stay where they are and worry whether they’ll be able to stay in D.C. if Section 8 housing contracts evaporate.

Today’s Chinatown marks a very different neighborhood than the one that was first founded in the 1800s. 

The Chinatown Friendship Archway, designed by Alfred Liu, is one example of this. Dually financed by the cities of Beijing and D.C., the archway marked solidarity between the two nations. Plans originally included an equivalent archway on the other side of Chinatown honoring the relationship between Taiwan and D.C., but was never completed. 

Still, the archway’s highly Asiatic imagery serves as a landmark, and marks the neighborhood as visually Chinese. This is not unintentional: in 1986, a group of Chinese American community advocates formed the Chinatown Steering Committee. Working with the D.C. Office of Planning, they began a series of reforms that encouraged English-Chinese signage in the neighborhood. 

The Office of Planning writes, “enhancing Chinatown’s physical experience requires activating streets with Asian themed vendors and animating buildings with Chinese signage and storefront design.” This includes the zodiac-themed crosswalk markers, dragon adornments on Capitol One Arena, and many others. 

In reflection, what does an ‘Asian theme’ really mean for the things that we know make Chinatown important today? The ‘themed vendor’ and ‘Chinese signage’ speaks nothing to the actual residential population as well as the now-dispersed Asian Americans who look to the neighborhood as a cultural touchstone. 

For example, many of the businesses now located in Chinatown are non-ethnic owned typical chain businesses, and are only markedly ‘Chinatown’ by the inclusion of phonetic spellings of their brand names in Chinese characters.

We must ask the question of what this really accomplishes for Chinese and Chinese Americans who look to and rely on this neighborhood. If the remaining Chinatown residents are facing eviction and aren’t being protected, the businesses aren’t Chinese-owned, and the visitors are not visiting ‘for’ Chinatown, what makes this neighborhood Chinatown besides nomenclature?

We can find the answer in history, in memory, and in this small but resilient community. While often considered a ‘dying Chinatown’, D.C.’s Chinatown is precious, storied, and home to many, even those who may not live there anymore.

The Mary E. Surratt Boarding House, constructed in 1843, was the site of several meetings of the co-conspirators in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Surratt herself was associated with Confederate sympathizers, and when put on trial for conspiracy, Mary Surratt became the first woman executed by the United States federal government. The space has since been returned to a commercial space, and houses a restaurant today with a plaque to honor its history.