Overview

Urban Chinatowns are dynamic, contested spaces that have continued to persist amid changes in the American cityscape. These neighborhoods continue to be significant for many, from the residents and workers who rely on Chinatown for their livelihoods to the broader city-dwelling and Chinese American communities who recognize its cultural heritage and economic value. In The Power of Chinatown, Laureen D. Hom provides a critical examination of the politics shaping the trajectory of development in one of the oldest urban Chinatowns in the United States: Los Angeles's. Working from ethnographic fieldwork, Hom chronicles how Chinese Americans continue to gravitate to Chinatown—despite being a geographically dispersed community—and how they have both resisted and encouraged processes of gentrification and displacement. The Power of Chinatown bridges understandings of community, geography, political economy, and race to show the complexities and contradictions of building community power, illuminating how these place-based ethnic politics might give rise to a more expansive vision of Asian American belonging and a just city for all.

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9780520391222

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"""The Power of Chinatown lucidly examines why historic urban Chinatowns still matter: Place-based racial politics are continuously reshaping the physical neighborhood environments, amid gentrification and forced displacement. Hom effectively argues that Chinatowns simultaneously persist and change; they are static sites with radical potential for equitable development, if the myriad Chinese and Asian American stakeholders across generations, socioeconomic status and immigration cohorts commit to a vision of spatial justice that foregrounds histories of resistance and collective power."" * Los Angeles Times *"

Author Information

Laureen D. Hom is an associate professor of urban and regional planning at San José State University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work is at the intersection of urban studies, ethnic studies, public policy, and public administration.

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