The sun has gone down, but the streets are not dark, they are illuminated for the light of the Chinese food restaurants. A big arch in the middle of a main street, with Chinese letters in the top, give the welcome to Philadelphia’s Chinatown, that’s the China Gate. The Philadelphia’s Chinatown is the only one that exists in the Pennsylvania state. It does have chinese places, but also japanese, vietnamese and korean. People can easily find the asian culture in this part of the city.
It’s 25 January 2020 and this night is the Chinese New Year’s, that marks the start of the lunar year, that happen when there’s new moon. The restaurants are closing early and there’s a lot people walking around. The sound of cymbals guide to the people to the parade; as in the movies, people are lined up and wearing a big red dragon suit and an old man with a fake long and white long beard. The fireworks and petards sound almost everywhere. The lights, the sound and the smell of pyrotechnic enclose the neighborhood in a special atmosphere. It’s a spectacle.
Most of the people on the public want to record every detail; people from Latin America, Europe and Asia are watching the spectacle. And even though is possible that most of asian people are local ones, you also can find asian american people, the children of asian immigrants.
That was one of my experience. I traveled to Philadelphia with my roommate, who born in China, but grew up in the United States. That was her first celebration of the Chinese New Year, she didn’t have idea of what kind of things we were going to find out. (Fun fact: a couple of American asked to my friend the meaning of one of the decorations, because of course, have almond eyes means you know everything about asian culture).
According to The Atlantic, nowadays Chinatown exist just for the tourism business. Asian people in Philadelphia is now preferring to live in suburbs, where is probable that the quality of life is better. The Atlantic highlights that now Chinese people tend to identify more with their white american neighbors. But regardless of this, Chinatown still maintains the different customs that characterize the asian culture, in part, maybe, for the tourism. At the Chinese New year’s white and blonde men can dance next to the parade with dragon, even more than the own Chinese people.
So, here’s my reflection about immigration. Chinatown is a place where you can find most Asian people speak cantonese, mandarin, japanese or korean. You absolutely can feel different in comparison with other places of the city. Recently, I read an article in the foreign affairs about the problems of the immigration. The author, Steven Camarota, explains how bad is that immigrants are not adapting completely to the american culture; but what it means that? Is the american culture the language? Is the fast food? Is even how do you decide to live?
In 1882 the USA Congress passed the “Chinese Exclusion Act”. That was the first time America limited the immigration on the bases of race and class. That bill was removed, but you still can see the consequences in the xenophobia to Asian people. Nowadays, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 percent of Philly population is foreign born and Asia is the continent where are from most of the born-foreign philadelphians. So, who oversees decide what’s American culture? Maybe there’s some nostalgic of the past and what it used to be the american culture, but the truth is that the Chinese New Year’s is a sample of the multiculturality of the country. White young men dancing all around the parade and following it through all the neighborhood, are the example of how part of the American society is assimilating and enjoying the diversity of their country.
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