SEMINAR: Asian Studies Seminar Series

Today, Sydney’s Chinatown owes its existence primarily on Chinese food in restaurants, cafes and grocery stores that are frequented by both Chinese and non-Chinese. With its recognisable ceremonial red archways and pagoda-like rooftops, the enclave has become one of the ways in which Australians can perform meanings of Asian-ness through eating Chinese food and buying Chinese ingredients. Redeveloped in 1980 in a conscious bid for multiculturalism by the City of Sydney Council, it also attracts student groups and tourists, particularly for events such as Chinese New Year and Autumn Festival with special food promotions. This paper examines whether in the act of eating Chinese food in Chinatown, mainstream Australians and others imagine themselves to be multicultural. Sydney Chinatown’s past image of the depraved, gangster-ridden diseased quarter has emerged as a model urban centre of multiculturalism. The Chinese themselves have outgrown Chinatown as a network for job search, trading and clanship. As they become economically prosperous and improve their social standing they move outwards, spreading across the metropolitan area with their own Chinatowns. The survival of Sydney’s Chinatown depends on the Chinese food industry – in the form of restaurants, cafes and grocery shops.