Every great city constantly recycles itself, responding to changes in immigration, trade and more. I took the picture above while on a walking tour highlighting changes in New York’s oldest ‘Chinatown,’ which, since immigration law changes in the 1960s, has absorbed most of traditional Little Italy—including the bank above that has now become a Chinese funeral home.
On Mulberry Street, the Most Precious Blood Church continues its role as the shrine of San Gennaro; each year a huge (and no longer local) street fair is held in his name, but the neighborhood is nearly all Chinese now.
This church, on Mott Street, which could be called the ‘Main Street of Chinatown’ has a real changing scene story. It was built in 1801 by an English Lutheran congregation. 50 years later, it was bought by the Catholic church and remodeled. For the past hundred or so years, it’s been home to Chinatown’s Chinese Catholics and hosts many activiies.
And to finish off, here’s Lin Ze Xu, a man clearly ahead of his time as an anti-drug crusader. As Imperial Viceroy of Canton in the 1830s, he wrote to Queen Victoria asking her to end the opium trade created by Britain, and, hearing no answer, destroyed huge amounts of imported opium. Britain responded by starting what’s known as the First Opium War, ravaging south China and forcing resumption of the opium trade.
