The New Orleans Chinatowns

Eight decades in the Crescent City

by

After the Civil War, waves of Chinese immigrants came to America to work as laborers. These immigrants suffered considerable racial persecution: in 1871, twenty Chinese people were murdered in a riot in Los Angeles, and California eventually banned the immigration of Chinese women. The Republican Party, at the time ostensibly devoted to equal rights for recently freed slaves, mostly supported measures such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. James G. Blaine, a powerful Republican who ran for president in 1884, was vocal in his animus towards the Chinese.

The Chinese story in New Orleans was different from their experiences in California. The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in Louisiana in 1867 to work the plantations in the wake of emancipation. De Bow’s Review, a prominent magazine based of out New Orleans, encouraged Louisiana planters to turn to Chinese migrants who had been working the Caribbean plantations. A few came from Cuba, but the first wave of some 1,600 Chinese came mostly from California and directly from China.

The Chinese workers found the pay and conditions appalling. The planters cooled on the idea, and most of the Chinese people who had come to Louisiana went (or returned) to California. A few went to New Orleans, in search of better pay. They worked in the factories, railroads, docks, cigar-shops, and particularly in hand-wash laundromats. They became importers of Chinese tea and other luxuries, with stores scattered around the city, among the first being Yut Sing’s Curio Shop on Royal Street. At this time, they hardly numbered one hundred.

The first religious denomination to embrace the Chinese, and the even smaller Korean population, were the Presbyterians. They offered both groups classes and aid. In the 1880s, the Presbyterian mission became the heart of a small Chinatown on the 1100 block of Tulane Avenue, between Elk Place and South Rampart Street. Chinese merchants lived elsewhere but operated thriving if small businesses on the block. They founded organizations for merchants, politics, and funerals.

For New Orleans locals, Chinatown was considered exotic. The Chinese population helped the image by generally being insular. They wore traditional garb and spoke their native tongue, at least until the early 1900s. Many did not want to be buried in New Orleans; the Soon On Tong vault in Cypress Grove Cemetery was mostly used for temporary entombment until remains could be shipped to China. In addition, some Chinese maintained a thriving narcotics trade, which flourished in the heyday of Storyville, and drew some negative comments and police attention.

Chinatown remained small because of exclusionary immigration laws, a process which arguably worked in favor of the Chinese of New Orleans. Few in number and working mostly in shops, they did not stoke racial tensions, since they did not challenge white supremacy nor the working class of New Orleans, who would resent any encroachments on their jobs. Chinese restaurants became popular and thus made the Chinese more tolerated. Louis Armstrong, who grew up nearby, got his life-long love of Chinese food from his visits to New Orleans’ small Chinatown. All told, the Chinese population generally avoided the persecution suffered by blacks and Italians at the time, not to mention the discrimination suffered by their more numerous counterparts in California.

By the 1920s, the Chinese of New Orleans were natives of the city. They were more westernized in appearance, and their success as businessmen made them more middle class and less dependent on Chinatown. In 1926, the Presbyterians moved their Chinese Mission to Mid-City. In 1937, Chinatown was claimed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for redevelopment, and Chinatown moved to the 500-600 block of Bourbon Street. Rent was cheap in the French Quarter, and the massive Oriental Laundry (where Rick’s Cabaret is located today) was one of the most successful Chinese businesses and provided a focal point.

The Chinese did well in the French Quarter, although they became more associated with drugs and operated at least one opium den. When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, the Chinese gave a massive fireworks display on Bourbon Street. Among Chinatown’s top Bourbon Street businesses was Dan’s International Restaurant, one of the city’s most beloved eateries. Tennessee Williams frequented the area and mentioned it in A Streetcar Named Desire.

By the 1950s, Bourbon Street had become a center for Jazz and striptease acts. The Chinese population joined the general middle class exodus to the suburbs, mostly going to Metairie. Although the Bourbon Street Chinatown was gone as a sub-neighborhood, the retreat was gradual, with several businesses holding out. However, by the 1990s, all of the businesses had closed shop. Today, the On Leong Merchants Association’s hand-painted sign on Bourbon Street is the only visible reminder of the Chinatowns of New Orleans.