A Study on Chinese Way of Life in Yokohama's Chinatown

Abstract

There are approximately 2, 000 Chinese people living in Yokohama's Chinatown, including those who are naturalized Japanese citizens. The Chinatown was estabished in a foreign settlement in Yokohama after the port was opened in 1859 (Fig. 3). An earthquake which occurred in the Kanto Province in 1923 and the war damage in 1945 destroyed the Chinatown completely. However, the Chinese settlers recovered from these disasters, and reconstructed their Chinatown quickly. The tourism for the Chinatown was being promoted rapidly around 1970, and that made the Chinatown one of the most important tourists' attractions in Yokohama.The aim of this thesis is to show how the Chinese people in Japan have adapted themselves to Japanese society. In order to attain this goal, I analyzed Yokohama's Chinatown, the biggest Chinatown in Japan, from economic, social, and cultural points of view.The Chinese settlers launched into business fields in which competition with the Japanese was not so severe. Before World War II, they were distinguished in the Santogyo: Chinese restaurant business, hair-dressing business, and tailoring business. They made the best use of their traditional skills in their professions (Fig. 6). Right after World War II, the Chinatown became a street market. Some Chinese made fortunes under the special circumstances of being a victorious nation's citizens, whereas the Japanese were defeated nation's citizens. After the Korean War, the number of bars and restaurants owned by Chinese people increased in the Chinatown. These days, however, shops which sell Chinese products, folkcrafts, and confectioneries are increasing with the development of tourism. As of 1976, there are 199 Chinese owned shops in Yokohama's Chinatown, and 95 of them are Chinese restaurants (Table 3. Fig. 7). The Chinese settlers made a great use of their cultural backgrounds by making an under commercialized ethnic town in Yokohama. This is one of the most distinctive forms of their accommodation to Japanese society.In the society of a Chinatown, relationships among blood relatives and people who had had the same geographical background were maintained closely, in order to help each other overcome disadvantages in a foreign society. Yokohama's Chinatown has consisted of people mostly from Canton province (Fig. 9). Although there are still various organizations of people who are from the same province or who have the same professions, the degree of their dependence on these organizations is decreasing.Yokohama's Chinatown was a base of Chinese immigration and dispersion to the various areas after entering Japan until World War II. Therefore, the place was then predominated by Chinese culture and its traditions. However, due to the end of new immigration after World War II and an increase of their Japanese-born offsprings their traditional culture has suffered a great change. An example is language, where Japanese is more commonly spoken than Chinese in a Chinese family. The Chinese culture and traditions are being reduced to a shell in the Chinatown, whereas the place looks more and more exotic outwardly because of tourism.