Urban Chinatowns are dynamic, contested spaces that have persevered amid changes in the American cityscape. These neighborhoods are significant for many, from the residents and workers who rely on them for their livelihoods to the broader Chinese American community and political leaders who recognize their 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 Los Angeles Chinatown, one of the oldest urban Chinatowns in the United States.

Working from ethnographic fieldwork, Hom chronicles how Chinese Americans continue to gravitate to this space—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.

About the Author

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.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Why Chinatown Still Matters
1 • The Making and Remaking of Chinatown
2 • Doing the Work in the Community
3 • The Limits of Legitimizing Community Control
4 • Aspirations for a Balanced and Diverse Community
5 • Sustaining an Ethnic Culture of Place
Conclusion: Envisioning Possibilities for Chinatown

Appendix: Additional Information about the Interviews
Notes
References
Index

Reviews

"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

"The Power of Chinatown brilliantly theorizes and documents Los Angeles Chinatown's struggles and dilemmas in claiming rights to a just and equitable city. Laureen Hom richly documents contemporary community history to show why historic urban Chinatowns persist even under pressures of gentrification. Pulling together threads from global migration to intimate community relationships, the book weaves an illuminating narrative about the unique geography of Los Angeles and how Chinese and Asian Americans must reckon with growing urban inequities. A must-read for understanding gentrification, urban development, and racial politics."—Karen Umemoto, Helen and Morgan Chu Chair and Director, Asian American Studies Center, UCLA

"Hom provides a view of power dynamics in Los Angeles’s Chinatown that is centered in the present day but historically informed. The book's attention to diverse Chinese (and more broadly Asian) American community groups is an important contribution in a political moment in which essentialist identity politics often obscure the heterogeneity of racial and ethnic groups. Hom offers a sophisticated analysis of the meanings and dynamics of gentrification in an ethnic enclave that should be of interest to scholars and students of race and urban space in general."—Wendy Cheng, author of The Changs Next Door to the Díazes: Remapping Race in Suburban California

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews