How Sydney’s Chinatown has survived poverty, racism, pandemic and gentrification
Since the early 19th century, Sydney’s Chinese community has overcome Sinophobia, anti-Asian laws and Covid
Chinatowns are often portrayed as gritty underworlds riddled with prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking. Some of this is rooted in truth, but that unfair depiction is largely the result of rampant xenophobia and cultural ignorance, especially in the West.
Sydney’s Chinatown is a reflection of how the Chinese-Australian community helped shape the city’s identity.
Its story mirrors Australia’s complex relationship with immigration, from the “White Australia” policy to today’s celebration of multiculturalism and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
From its humble beginnings in The Rocks to its current home in Haymarket, Chinatown has weathered exclusion and undergone reinvention and cultural renaissance.
