[PHOTO] Four pictures from Chinatown, New York City

New York City’s Chinatown is fantastically photogenic. I found the first scene with the aid of Alexander, the remaining three with Livejournaler satyadasa

Doyers Street is, as shown on Google Maps, an unusually-shaped street, here shown as it makes its sharp turn between Chatham Square and Pell Street. Apparently it was known as the “Bloody Angle” on account of the frequent wars between Chinese organized crime groups in the neighbourhood.

The Nom Wan Tea Parlor visible in the left of the photo is a famous dim sum restaurant; Indonesian/Malaysian-Chinese Sanur, where my host Alexander took me, would be found at the far end of the street to right.

For more photos, see this excellent collection of contemporary and historical photos.

Mott Street is a major artery of Chinatown, Chinese settlement on the street having begun as early as the 1870s.

Despite its relatively small size, Mott Street has had an outsized role in Chinese politics. This 2002 New York Times report notes that Kuomintang founder Sun Yat-sen spent a fair amount of time on Mott Street, gathering support for his party and the cause of republicanism in China among the denizens of the neighbourhood. Indeed, visible above Hop Lee Restaurant at 16 Mott Street is the Eastern Region Head Office of the Kuomintang.

(See here for a 2009 picture of the same building , and here for a close-up.)

32 Mott Street has been a commercial address in Chinatown of note since the 1890s, as this 2004 article points out.

Opened in 1891 by [Lee Lok], 32 Mott Street General Store was originally called Quong Yuen Shing & Company. During that time, the store not only sold general merchandise like medicinal herbs, sundries and silk brocade for clothing, but also conducted import and export business. Importing goods from China, the store distributed such goods to Chinatowns in major cities including Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Because immigration laws forbade Chinese men to bring their wives to America, a bachelor’s society formed and Quong Yuen Shing & Company became a social center. As society became more modernized, the store went through its own evolution. In its next incarnation under Lee Lok’s son Peter Lee, Quong Yuen Shing & Company became a restaurant wholesaler. Still engaging in the import business, the store sold imported goods such as non-perishable foods and cookware.

In the mid-1970s, Paul Lee took the reins from his father, although the two vacillated in the role of head proprietor until Paul Lee finally took over in the mid-1980s. Under his ownership, Quong Yuen Shing & Company became 32 Mott Street General Store, selling Asian giftware and knickknacks. Lee also began selling bus tickets to Atlantic City and services to local residents, such as handling bill payments for seniors without checking accounts.

But after 9/11, Lee’s business suffered. The store never even got close to earning half its original revenue, Lee said.

The location later reopened as a different store.