The death and life of Chinatowns

The death and life of Chinatowns: Towards an integrated and authentic transformation of ‘Chinatown’ in Amsterdam

Wu, Y. (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

Bracken, G. (mentor)
Kleinhans, R.J. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Complex Cities

2020-07-08

The advent of steamship in the 19th century is accompanying with the Chinese immigration. Chinese seamen gathered around the dockland at a certain scale and formed Chinese quarters. Therefore, Chinatowns appeared in many harbour cities in European countries. With the urban development and migrant shifts within the recent one hundred years, Chinatowns transformed many times regarding their recognitions, urban roles and functions. However, Chinatowns seem to decline universally. The stereotypic manifestation and commodification have gradually erased the social meaning as an ‘ethnic core’, and the ‘voluntaristic way’ to accommodate difference (Peach, 1996). Based on literatures, this thesis defined the spatial dimensions and social constriction of Chinatowns, as well as the concept of integration and authenticity, analysed contextualised problems of Chinatown in Amsterdam, and thereby to reconfigure Chinatown in Amsterdam through the socio-spatial strategies.

Chinatown
Integration
authenticity
socio-spatial planning
transnational identity

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b0f54046-1cb4-414b-b0d3-e2c5781a97d1

Student theses

master thesis

© 2020 Y. Wu