There're Chinatowns almost everywhere in the world. You can't think about a big city without a Chinatown, unless the city is in China.
China has a substantial population. This may contribute to it, no doubt about that. But India, the US and many other countries are all similar in this regard. Also, China isn't the only country that treasures its culture. Among them, India may be the most similar country because it also treasures its traditional culture, as is demonstrated in its national anthem.
So my question is why are there no Indiatown or Americatown or similar cultural centres? Thank you.
Why, this certainly is interesting. I once took a module on Chinese Migration and Diaspora and we studied about this phenomenon.
I guess from a sociological perspective, "Chinatowns" in my opinion, are not uniquely Chinese. Each ethnic group outside their home country living abroad would tend to clutter together forming an ethnic enclave in the host society. In this case, the Chinese with their large population have had several "Chinatowns" or "Tang Ren Jie" across the globe. Still, there are certain traits to the Chinese culture that makes it stand out from other ethnic enclaves which makes "Chinatowns" more prominent. This itself can well be a research question and I hope this wee post could stir more discussion!
There are some Chinatowns in the Netherlands. I can understand this behaviour, I would also like to live close to all the real Chinese restaurants :p
I think it's partially the size as mentioned. I think the reason the same doesn't happen for India is that it's much less homogeneous. Just national pride isn't enough to start a community if you speak different languages, eat different food...
Here are some Wikipedia entries about the Chinatowns in Canada and the US:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_the_United_States
Chinatowns are quite common in Canadian and American cities, but there are other similar neighbourhoods, such as "Little Italy" in my city.
There is also a Chinatown in Vietnam.
As far as I know, it depends partly on the collectivism or individualism culture that a country is more likely. Some typical examples of collectivist democracies include China, Japan, India.
Well, there are many points to talk about this matter and my English skill is not good enough to express all my ideas. I think you should read some more articles about collectivism vs individualism and how its affect.
