Assimilation in Suburbia Doesn't Mean Forgetting Home

That's the message in a front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal ($) on the mini-Chinatowns (and, I'd add, Koreatowns, Vietnamtowns, et al.) that have sprung up in unlikely places. The article traces the development of a series of malls and shopping centers along a formerly dreary stretch of road in Las Vegas. Possessed by an entrepreneurial drive in a land of opportunity, first and second-generation Chinese have constructed a commercial center at which their confreres can purchase just about any product from the old country.

Just as interesting is the fact that the businesses are miles from the suburban homes of most customers who flock there daily. That's a striking departure from ethnic enclaves in older cities such as New York and San Francisco, which still harbor ethnic neighborhoods where people live and shop.

James Chen, who pioneered the Chinatown concept in Las Vegas, is a model of what an enterprising individual can do in his community. His actions strengthen the institutions of civil society by helping immigrants succeed in their new land. According to the Journal:

"Chinatown Plaza feels snug and homey. In contrast to kitschy casino shows for Asian gamblers, it began a parking-lot Chinese New Year's festival. Politicians came. Signs went up on Interstate 15: 'Chinatown Next Exit.' Mr. Chen founded a Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce and printed up a directory. He puts on a Miss Chinatown beauty pageant, holds open-houses for school kids, arranges free flu shots for the elderly and offers help with their tax returns."

What's more: "Comfort, as Prof. Zhao at UCLA sees it, is what Chinatown Plaza and places like it are about. She calls the Asian shopping center a new form of social organization for America's migrating immigrants. 'When people have to drive for miles, they want to spend a day,' she says. 'Nobody lives in it, but it becomes the meeting place, the center of a community.'"

That a commercial area could become a comfort and cultural zone for suburbanites won't surprise the tens of millions of Americans whose own lives in the 'burbs prove the vacuousness of snobbish charges that suburban life is culturally sterile and isolated. Americans are too innovative and communal to live miserably. Thanks to the James Chens around us, the critically important act of forming communities is possible anywhere. Even in the desert.