Chinese cuisine in Boston reflects a mélange of multiple influential factors. A large Fujianese immigrant population lives in Boston; therefore, Fuzhou cuisine is readily available in Boston. The Vietnamese population has also influenced the cuisine. Innovative dishes incorporating chow mein and chop suey as well as farm-to-table produce and regionally procured seafood ingredients are found in Chinese as well as non-Chinese food in and around Boston.
Chinatown remains a center of Asian American life in New England, hosting many Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants and markets. Chinatown is one of Boston’s most densely populated residential districts, with over 28,000 people per square mile in the year 2000. Nearly 70% of Chinatown’s population is Asian, compared with Boston’s nine percent of Asian Americans overall. Chinatown has a median household income of $14,289.
The traditional Chinatown Gate (paifang) with a foo lion on each side is located at the intersection of Beach Street and Surface Road. This was once a run-down area, housing little more than a ventilation-fan building for the Central Artery Tunnel; however, a garden was constructed at this site as part of the Big Dig project. The Gate is visible from the South Station Bus Terminal, and is a popular tourist destination and photo opportunity. Offered by the Taiwanese government to the City in 1982, the gate is engraved with two writings in Chinese: Tian Xia Wei Gong, a saying attributed to Sun Yat-sen that translates as “everything under the sky is for the people”, and Li Yi Lian Chi, the four societal bonds of propriety, justice, integrity, and honor.
A new satellite Chinatown has emerged on Hancock Street in the neighboring city of Quincy, about 10 miles (16 km) to the south of the original Chinatown. This is due to a rapid influx of Hokkien-speaking Mainland Chinese immigrants from the province of Fujian, as well as a large and growing ethnic Vietnamese population. There are already several large Asian supermarkets such as the Kam Man Foods and Super 88 supermarket chains, and other businesses that are competing with Boston’s Chinatown. Several businesses operating in Chinatown now have branches in Quincy. The MBTARed Line connects via either South Station or Downtown Crossing near Boston’s Chinatown, to three rapid transit stations in Quincy, including Quincy Center station. A similar, but much smaller, enclave has developed in Malden to the north of Boston. Malden Center station is directly connected via the MBTA Orange Line to Chinatown station, in the original Chinatown.
