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One wrote: ''In the heart of the West End, London's Chinatown was a little more than a ragtag collection of all-you-can-eat buffets and low-end grocery stores''.... well it's now 2022, and it is more than low-end all-you-can-eat, self-serving buffets serving egg fried rice and sweet & sour chicken and overpriced-yet authentic far eastern cuisine with the occasional dessert shops & bubble tea places thrown in.
My last visit to Chinatown was yesterday, and sadly on the face of it, the area is on the wane. Much like Oxford Street, the good ol' days are pretty much a distant memory with rising rents pushing many owners out of Central London.
There is no community with a strong sense of immigrant and ethnic identity, nor a sense of belonging anymore in Chinatown; smaller than the one in Manhattan and Flushing, Queens in New York and with San Francisco holding the title as being the largest Chinatown outside of China, London's Chinatown looks even more desolate and despairing, and occasionally decrepit which smells of sewage in one, two areas (one being in the alleyway in Lo's Noodle Factory).
Being the capital city of the U.K, London, this Chinatown has become too commercialized with virtually little in the way of existing as an alternative to travelling to China and Hong Kong to sample a taste of the Orient. When I was young, and having grown up in and lived in London, I and my family used to be in awe whenever we visit Chinatown occasionally on a Sunday for dim sum; - that was then in the 1980s and 1990s, in its heyday, before things took a turn for the worse, and so much has changed since. When the money came from Mainland China and its people emigrated to London and fewer people from Hong Kong came over - probably in effect to the 1997 British handover of Hong Kong back to China -, the landscape in London's Chinatown changed from what was predominately Cantonese-based led to Mandarin offerings.
Nowadays, it exists as a superficial facade and not so flashy-looking tourist trap, resembling a Westerner's view of the Orient with ridiculously expensive restaurants, and dessert shops with the odd Korean and Japanese restaurants popping up.
With the very, very few who have no or nor show any interest in Chinese culture, I can only assume that management and whoever is in charge of the Chinatown areas in Gerrard's Street and Wardour Street is more interested in generating profit and revenue by overcharging its customers and diners in restaurants and targeting overseas tourists. Aside from the supermarkets/grocery stores, whilst there is more variety on the Asian food front, good dim sum places and good affordable Cantonese grub have plummeted as many of these establishments have permanently disappeared or are non-existent. We visited New World a few times; it has since been closed down in 2011 following reports of mice infestation. Oh well.
Whilst it is interesting to see more regional variations in Chinese food appearing, such as Hunan and Sichuan, this shouldn't be at the expense of eliminating Cantonese cuisine, which has been getting a bad rep in recent years.
The fact that in places such as Queens you can grab some dim sum or roast duck with rice for around $5-9 dollars, and here in London, you're looking at £9-10 or more, just shows you what a rip-off Chinatown London can be. And is. There is no such thing as budget- friendly, cheap eats places in London, well, not to my knowledge and from venturing this place. I haven't seen many legitimately good ones.
The coronavirus pandemic led to everything being scaled back and a spate of anti-Chinese racism. Yet limited choices in food and sub-par, yet pricey quality of Chinese food available could explain why Chinatowns in parts of Australia and America flourish and are seeing a bit of a resurgence, whereas London's seems to be stagnating. The U.S has a higher proportion and concentration of Asian immigrants and American- born Chinese people living in the area and there is a vast Chinese American community residing in big cities such as New York, Houston, Texas, and San Francisco in California than in parts of the U.K.
I am looking forward to seeing the Chinatowns in Flushing, Queens and downtown Manhattan when I pay a visit to New York on my travels and from what I have read, they appear and sound to be way better and more authentic than our Central London one.
They have plenty of overly decent to quality Chinese restaurants and cheap eats places which cater to every budget. Not just the middle classes and the affluent.
Tired, worn down, underwhelming and living on borrowed times with little in the way of change, the sense of wonder and interest whenever I go down to Gerrard Street to head to Chinatown is, for me at least, practically over.
