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Though it lacks the scale and deep historical roots of the famous Chinatowns in San Francisco and New York, the compact Chinatown in Downtown Los Angeles offers a wealth of colorful sights and exotic flavors. Chinatown is all about details. There is also an extensive collection of restaurants, of varying quality and authenticity. A helpful clue is an establishment crowded with Chinese-speaking customers.

For historical reasons, the district is confusingly called both “New Chinatown” and “Old Chinatown.” The original “Old” Los Angeles Chinatown was established in the 1870s, near the historic city center— now El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park— south of its current location. It’s now the site of Union Station.

Chinese immigrants were (grudgingly) welcomed in the nineteenth century as cheap labor for gold mining and railroad construction. But fearing the “yellow peril”— a phrase that frequently appeared in the widely-read newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst— white citizens and their elected representatives refused to allow Chinese immigrants to assimilate into American society. Immigration policy precluded the male workers from bringing their families from China. Federal and state laws prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens or owning property. This discrimination contributed to the decay of Chinatown into a slum infested with gambling, opium dens, and gang wars by the early twentieth century.

When the three passenger railroad companies serving Los Angeles wanted to build a large new station in the 1920s, Chinatown was the obvious place for it. The land was cheap, and building the station provided a welcome opportunity to clear away the festering urban blight. That proposal went on the ballot in 1926. Voters narrowly approved it, with of course no participation from the affected residents. Litigation over ownership and land value delayed the project, until the California Supreme Court finally cleared the way for the condemnations and evictions to begin in 1931.

As lessees and tenants, the evicted residents of Chinatown received no help with relocation from the government. Peter Soo Hoo, a bilingual engineer born in Old Chinatown, came forward to organize a community-based relocation plan. After spending years securing the necessary non-Chinese support and funding assistance, his group created the first planned Chinatown in a neighborhood originally settled by Italians and Croatians.

The core of the “New Chinatown” is Central Plaza, a square meant to invoke an idealized Hollywood version of Shanghai or Beijing. Working with a limited Depression-era budget, Los Angeles architects Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson designed modern buildings that included enough traditional Asian elements to create an “exotic” tourist attraction that could provide employment and self-sufficiency for the Chinese community. Themed outdoor malls are ubiquitous now, but this was a new and unique concept when Chinatown opened for business in 1938.

Chinatown remained the center of the Los Angeles Chinese community until the 1950s. With the repeal of the odious laws prohibiting citizenship and land ownership, many Chinese-Americans found their piece of the American dream in the San Gabriel Valley, northeast of Downtown. The “New Chinatown” became “Old Chinatown,” as Monterey Park and adjacent suburban communities developed into what might be called “Newer Chinatown.” (Its residents don’t call it that, as their community has transcended the “Chinatown” label). But Chinese-Americans from all over Southern California still throng the old Downtown enclave for the winter Lunar New Year celebration.

In the 1970s, ethnic Chinese displaced from Vietnam moved in and took over some of Chinatown’s shops. And more recently, non-Chinese artists have set up studios and galleries in various abandoned buildings.

Travel Note: Traffic congestion and costly parking makes public transit the cheapest and most pleasant way to visit Downtown. The Chinatown station on the Metro Rail Gold Line is worth a look, no matter how you get to Chinatown. Designer Chusien Chang incorporated familiar features and colors of Chinese architecture, as well as elements of I Ching, the ancient Chinese divination system also known as “The Book of Changes.” The station’s street level has a granite mosaic five meters across with a working magnetic compass, called The Wheels of Change. It incorporates the 64 hexagrams of I Ching, which represent the states of human transformation.

The fine print: Pictures and text are copyright © 2010 and 2011 by Ted R. Marcus and may not be reproduced without permission. For information about licensing any of these images for Web, print, stock, or other uses, contact me.