THE ARCHITECTURE IN CHINATOWN

THE ARCHITECTURE IN CHINATOWN:

伦 敦 唐 人 街

Rediscovering the Identity of the Chinese migrant community in London

Keywords

Chinatown architecture

Culture

Identity

Sense of Place

Community

Sense of Belonging

Lived Experience

Abstract

The Chinese architecture in Chinatown as seen today has become its key characteristics and the situation is escalated as a result of the visual-indulgence societies. This dissertation focuses on London Chinatown in understanding the relationship between people and such proliferation of cultural architecture in an alien site. These forms of architecture are able to simulate a same spatial experience for any given Chinatowns in the world, as they all derived from the source and replicated as presented, thus becoming boring copies. This aim is to identify how Chinatown manage to retain its values and significance to the Chinese community, under this influence of fast culture where everything is intended to be quick and straightforward.

As there seems to be a decline of Chinese migrants who relies on Chinatown as much as before, it is essential to reconsider the role and validity of these Chinese architectures of just being replicated. Are they capable to preserve the identities of Chinese migrant community by representing the community? Or are they purely elements of nostalgia that people need to feel good about a place? The main study is then to examine the past and present spaces of Chinatown to discover the reasons for the space to remain resilient for both the community and the wider society despite its long history of being shaped by various outside forces such as discrimination, stereotyped understanding, wars, and the slightly recent ones like city council and landlords. Thus, the dissertation will argue intensively through architectural and social terms as human experiences are indispensable aspects to discover identity and sense of belonging for migrant community.