The Jing Fong may be a very successful restaurant, but it has other challenges other than financial problems. Not only would people be able to share in this extraordinary experience, but the restaurant would fulfill its dreams of having a powerful business that satisfies all parties. This business did not have a target audience as many others do, which gives it so much authenticity like the Chinese food it serves. So many different people enjoy the chance to spend their money on an inexpensive, yet luxurious meal and setting. “The “old guard” of Chinese people fills the restaurant Monday through Friday… On the weekend there’s always a wait, a multicultural, multi-generation scrum jockeying for tables and baskets of har gow.” (Healy, ) This statement emphasizes the restaurant’s ability to attract and serve anybody and everybody. This restaurant has created a strong sense of strategy and individuality as it opened two doors for opportunity. The Jing Fong restaurant doesn’t deny any person or culture the opportunity to experience the authentic Chinese and American Chinese food. Nonetheless, with continuous changing environments and groups of people, the Jing Fong restaurant satisfies everyone. But these fluctuations balance themselves out as Chinatown offers several businesses and restaurants that give people the best of both worlds. There are time periods when there are more non-Chinese people living in Chinatown than Chinese people. However, as time changes, the Chinese population does fluctuate. Obviously Chinatown has been known to host the largest ethnic Chinese population. From this point on, huge changes and renovations would be made to make the small, underestimated restaurant a flourishing business. It wasn’t until 1993 that the business started to look up. As the restaurant neared bankruptcy, Shui Ling Lam, the janitor, collected enough shares to potentially own the business (He is also the current owner of the business). Financial troubles were just as hard to get rid of, too. Chinese gangs and violence ran wild through Chinatown in the 1970’s. The 1970’s time period was not only a time of effortless immigration, but it was also a time of hardship and distress for the restaurant and the local neighborhood. Ultimately, this resulted in Chinatown becoming one of the most well-known parts of New York City. This meant Chinese immigrants would move into the US and form large groups in different areas of the country. Most immigrant groups stick together in order to maintain a stable/comfortable transition into a new country. These statistics foreshadow the jobs, businesses, and lifestyles they would have to adopt as means of “survival of the fittest”. And by 1990 the numbers doubled to about 536,000. This resulted in roughly 300,000 Chinese immigrants coming into the United States. This is a significant year because it was when the People’s Republic of China lifted migration restrictions. The Jing Fong restaurant benefited from this through the great business and reviews they received from all different groups of people. It led to many American people loving not only their version of Chinese food, but also the original Chinese food. Since American and Chinese cultures are extremely different, it is interesting to see how easy it was to mix both. This indicates the authentic Chinese food colliding with American food in order to raise this national food boundary. The Jing Fong restaurant served to bring two cultures together from a transnational point of view. As a result of Chinese and non-Chinese people migrating into and out of the area, such changes required local businesses/restaurants to adapt and create a new agenda to prosper. Chinatown is the living example of how people have gained exposure and fused their cultures. New York, itself, has offered several locations, ethnicities, and opportunities to fulfill these expectations. The migration of Chinese immigrants into the United States has positively affected the Chinese-American experience for many people.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |