How Chinese is London's Chinatown, a Critical Review

This photograph was taken at Wardour Street W1, at the heart of Chinatown in Soho, central London. The street’s decoration and the dominance of the red colour indeed indicate the origin of the picture. It is hard not to admire the whole surround, and the picturesque windows of the restaurants displaying ducks and pork chops beautifully and succulently hanging for all to see, admittedly not everyone’s cup of tea, however, a definite sign of the Chinese cosine. Gambling shops are also popular in Chinatown and can be found rather easily. Although this critical review will not focus on Chinese social issues, it is important to point out that gambling has been part of the Chinese culture for thousands of years.

Consequently, the rate of gambling problem among Chinese people is higher than the average (Tse et al., 2010). Nevertheless, once walking on the streets of Chinatown, the whole scenario brings a sense of closeness to the Chinese culture. Also of that, I feel reluctantly proud to ignorantly believe that despite the rapid change in today’s life and despite the introduction of technology which has caused the closure of a significant amount of high street business, London still managed to maintain Chinatown impeccable and more than surviving, thriving throughout generations.

Although one might easily believe that Chinatown has been part of Soho for as long as Soho itself exists, Chinatown only became popular at the beginning of the 1970s (Witchard, 2015). In fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, the first Chinese community settled in Limehouse due to its port. During this period, Chinese men stayed for a while before returning to Chine. However, some decided to stay and opened a business such as restaurants and shops (Witchard, 2014).

The reason I have chosen this picture is due to its almost misleading message to those visiting the area. Although it is rather clear the Chinese influence in this street, heavily emphasised by the red decoration across the street, looking closer, one must recognise the business around it including the restaurants and shops on Wardour Street. On the left-hand side of the picture is a Japanese restaurant called Yamagoya, followed by a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet, next to it is a casino called Play 2 Win, owned by a group of partners from UK and America (Companies House, no date).

The street in front of the casino is a Chinese restaurant called Gerrald’s, followed by a Japanese restaurant called Ichibuns. On the right-hand side of the picture, the first establishment shown is a chain of British fast-food restaurants called Leon, followed by an Italian restaurant called Centrale. Next to Centrale, are two Chinese restaurants, Young Cheng and Wong Kei. The following business next to the Chinese restaurants are O’Neil’s and Waxy’s, both Irish pubs.

Including in the picture, there are also Pizza Express and Betfred a betting shop. It is essential to highlight that among all those non-Chinese businesses including in the photograph there is some indication of Chinese decoration, in order to glocalise its purpose and facilitate its acceptance in the area. Such a strategy of adapting global brands in a local area is not a new procedure in the global market.

Moreover, business across the globe have been adopting this Glocalisation since the 1980s (Robertson, 2012, p194). However, should the Chinese decorations be removed altogether on Wardour Street, it is fair to say that perhaps the whole Chinese influence would be gone. Furthermore, one could argue that differentiate Wardour Street from any other street in central London would be a difficult task.

It is, however, visible the growing amount of other Asian restaurants around Chinatown, which one could argue that rather than be called Chinatown it should be called Panasiantown which most certainly would not be welcomed among the Chinese community, identity is understandable taken very seriously by the Chinese. It is crucial to highlight that Chinese businesses are facing financial challenges to maintain their establishment, the rent, for instance, is the main issue, “Shaftesbury admits that about 10% of the restaurants it owns have changed hands in the last two years.” (Boffey,2015).

Although businesses around Chinatown have taken a localised strategy in order to blend in among the Chinese establishments, by decorating its windows in red or even writing messages in Chinese, I could not find an example of hybridisation where other cultures and cuisines have tried to infuse with Chinese culture in cuisine.
Notwithstanding that the notion of hybridisation is commonly used in social, economic and political terms, such as the result of globalisation, cultures are merged as a consequence of globalisation, creating, therefore, a cultural or social hybridised society or culture (Pieterse, 1995).

However, in this review, the term is explored among food and cuisine. In other words, despite the Irish pubs, the casinos and the chain restaurants displayed in the picture, there are no cultural infusion and those cultures are strongly identified. O’Neil’s and Waxy’s might display some aspects of red in their decoration as a sign of support to Chinatown. However, it does not necessarily mean that Chinese food will be served in that establishment, or, that Chinese beer or wine would be included on the menu.

Moreover, despite the closure of some Chinese business and the introduction of different business in Chinatown, the most significant Chinese events still take place in Chinatown, including the Chinese New Year which brings an incredible amount of spectators each year, advertising, even more, the Chinese culture rather than diluting its identity. In that sense, one could argue that the Chinese identity has helped to protect and support Chinatown in Soho despite massive globalisation. Quite in the contrary, “Globalisation has also become a significant ingredient of advertising” (Robertson, 1992, p16). Therefore, Chinatown should be considered as a great example of such a statement.

Please feel free to check my sources below:

Bibliography:

Boffey, D. (2015). Big trouble in little Chinatown as rent rises force restaurant owners out. The Guardian, 29 March. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/29/chinatown-restaurants-london-threat-rent-rises [Accessed 19 March 2019].

Companies House (no date). Family leisure company limited. Available from https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03585991/officers [Accessed 18 March 2019].

Pieterse, J. ed., (1995). Globalization as hybridization. In: Featherstone, M. (eds.) Global Modernities. London: Sage.

Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization, social theory and global culture. London: Sage.

Robertson, R. (2012) Globalisation or glocalisation?, Journal of International Communication, 18:2, 191-208, DOI: 10.1080/13216597.2012.709925.

Tse, S., Yu, A.C.H., Rossen, F., and Wang, C.-W. (2010) Examination of Chinese gambling problems through a sociohistorical-cultural perspective. The Scientific World JOURNAL: TSW Child Health & Human Development 10, 1694–1704. DOI 10.1100/tsw.2010.167.

Witchard, A. (2014). England’s yellow peril, Sinophobia and the great war. Melbourne: Penguin Books.

Witchard, A. (2015). How did Chinatown come to London? London Live YouTube. Available from

[Accessed 17 March 2019].