Chapter One Vancouver Chinatown in Transition

This chapter uses the case of Vancouver Chinatown to show how shifting race formation in society has altered the social position of and opportunity for the Chinese, which in turn, changed the nature as well as the social and geographical boundaries of Chinatown. The analysis also suggests the need to modify the theoretical understanding of Chinatown. The end of World War II opened up a new era in which legalized exclusion of the Chinese was removed, their civil rights restored and discriminatory immigration regulations revamped. Changes in the period after World War II have altered the pattern of racial formation in Vancouver relating to the treatment and image of the Chinese. Chinatown continued to grow, not as an enclosed and self sustaining community shielded from the larger society, but as a specialty commercial district that thrived on the consumer interests in Oriental cuisine, Asian culture and Chinese goods. Keywords:self sustaining community; Vancouver Chinatown; World War II