Exploring Chinatown

Come along on a trip to discover Chinese culture! You'll learn about family, religion, celebrations, music, and more. You'll discover how Chinatowns came to be, and how today's lively neighborhoods are home to culture and traditions more than 2,000 years old. Learn more about how North American Chinatowns were established, and why these proud, lively, and vital communities still thrive.

Is Chinatown a ghetto, an area of exotic sensations or a business venture? What makes a European Chinese, Chinese? The histories of Chinese communities in Europe are diverse, spanning (amongst others) Teochiu speaking migrants from French Indochina to France, and Hakka and Cantonese speaking migrants from Hong Kong to Britain. This book explores how such a wide range of people tends to be - indiscriminately - regarded as 'Chinese'. Christiansen explains Chinese communities in Europe in terms of the interaction between the migrants, the European 'host' society and the Chinese 'home' where the migrants claim their origin. He sees these interactions as addressing several issues: citizenship, political culture, labour market exclusion, generational shifts and the influences of colonialism and communism, all of which create opportunities for fashioning a new ethnic identity. Chinatown, Europe examines how many sub-groups among the Chinese in Europe have developed in recent years and discusses many institutions that shape and contribute ethnic meaning to Chinese communities in Europe. Chinese identity is not a mere practical utility or a shallow business emblem. For many, China remains a unifying force and yet local and national bonds in each European state are of equal importance in giving shape to Chinese communities. Based on in-depth interviews with overseas Chinese in many European cities, Chinatown, Europe provides a complex yet enthralling investigation into many Chinese communities in Europe.

In 1995, during the publicity tour for his much-acclaimed first novel, "The Jade Peony," Wayson Choy received a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to have just seen his mother on a streetcar. He politely informed the caller that she must be mistaken, since his mother had died long ago. "No, no, not that mother," the voice insisted. "Your real mother." Inspired by the startling realization that, like many children of Chinatown, he had been adopted, Choy constructs a vivid and moving memoir that reveals uncanny similarities between his award-winning first novel and the newly discovered secrets of his Vancouver childhood. From his early experiences with ghosts, through his youthful encounters with cowboys and bachelor uncles, to his discovery of family secrets that crossed the ocean from mainland China to Gold Mountain in the form of paper shadows, this is a beautifully wrought portrait of a child's world from one of Canada's most gifted storytellers.

It was the dawn of a New Year and I was ready to make my resolutions. As I watched the countdown of 2012 and prepared myself to usher in 2013, I made a commitment to complete a 1- year photography project that would explore and encompass Vancouver's Chinatown.I began in the cold months of early 2013 and started walking around Chinatown rather casually. I usually started from the large gate standing over Pender Street and then worked my way around the various other avenues and roads that encompassed Vancouver's Chinatown. I explored shops and stalls and observed people going about their daily lives, all while documenting it with my camera as best as I could.As I passed by people and observed both from a distance and up-close, a thought came to me: I was an outsider. I didn't know anyone in Chinatown and having not grown up in the neighborhood I found myself in unfamiliar territory. This meant that everything was fresh and new to me as I walked around the Chinatown streets but also meant that, despite a few visits to Chinatown in my earlier years, I was basically a blank canvas.

In 2016, Globe and Mail reporter Ann Hui drove across Canada, from Victoria to Fogo Island, to write about small-town Chinese restaurants and the families who run them. It was only after the story was published that she discovered her own family could have been included—her parents had run their own Chinese restaurant, The Legion Cafe, before she was born. This discovery, and the realization that there was so much of her own history she didn’t yet know, set her on a time-sensitive mission: to understand how, after generations living in a poverty-stricken area of Guangdong, China, her family had somehow wound up in Canada. Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurantsweaves together Hui’s own family history—from her grandfather’s decision to leave behind a wife and newborn son for a new life, to her father’s path from cooking in rural China to running some of the largest “Western” kitchens in Vancouver, to the unravelling of a closely guarded family secret—with the stories of dozens of Chinese restaurant owners from coast to coast. Along her trip, she meets a Chinese-restaurant owner/small-town mayor, the owner of a Chinese restaurant in a Thunder Bay curling rink, and the woman who runs a restaurant alone, 365 days a year, on the very remote Fogo Island. Hui also explores the fascinating history behind “chop suey” cuisine, detailing the invention of classics like “ginger beef” and “Newfoundland chow mein,” and other uniquely Canadian fare like the “Chinese pierogies” of Alberta. Hui, who grew up in authenticity-obsessed Vancouver, begins her journey with a somewhat disparaging view of small-town “fake Chinese” food. But by the end, she comes to appreciate the essentially Chinese values that drive these restaurants—perseverance, entrepreneurialism and deep love for family. Using her own family’s story as a touchstone, she explores the importance of these restaurants in the country’s history and makes the case for why chop suey cuisine should be recognized as quintessentially Canadian.

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet's San Francisco is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Admire the brilliance of the Golden Gate Bridge, swing down Balmy Alley for a slice of Mission life, and take in the city's hills on a cable car ride - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of San Francisco and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's San Francisco: NEW pull-out, passport-size 'Just Landed' card with Wi-Fi, ATM and transportation info - all you need for a smooth journey from airport to hotel Full-colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, art, food, drink, sport, politics Over 43 maps Covers Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, downtown, North Beach, Chinatown, Nob Hill, the Mission, the Castro, the Haight, Japantown, Berkeley, Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's San Francisco is our most comprehensive guide to San Francisco, and is perfect for discovering both popular and off-the-beaten-path experiences. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, eBooks, and more. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Vancouver's streetscapes and neighbourhoods have changed drastically in recent years. New buildings representing current architectural trends are mixing with and often replacing those of earlier eras and tastes, and a maturing architectrual melange is emerging. This book invites the reader to explore the city's continually evolving urban landscape in a highly readable, yet authoritative, guide to its architecture. In this completely updated edition of Exploring Vancouver, with brand-new entries and accompanying photographs, Harold Kalman and Robin Ward have divided the city (including the North Shore, Richmond, Burnaby and New Westminster) into fourteen areas, selecting buildings and structures in these neighbourhoods that represent the best exakmples of the new and old architecture. Each area is preceded by an informative introduction that provides historical context for the entries that follow. There are over 400 entries, each featuring a short description that combines architectural, historical and social commentary. The prose is lively as the authors consider the new and the old, the modest and the grand, the attractive and the not-so-attractive in a wide-ranging work that encompasses everything from heritage to "monster" homes. This book is designed as a walking tour guide, with a map of each area showing the location of every entry.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes "one of the funniest books of the year.... A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire" (The Washington Post). A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.