II.3.1. EUROPE'S "CHINATOWN"

MENU: 5.1. "Chinatown"

EUROPE'S LARGEST ASIAN NEIGHBORHOOD IS ON THE SOUTHEASTERN FRINGE OF PARIS

(IN THE 13TH DISTRICT)

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In brief

• Towers and a city within a city

• Historical panels that evade what counts

• Cultures intertwine

• A crossroad for Asian color

• Still more color 

• On to the towers 

• Asians enliven a neighborhood of "Gauls" 

• A park that evokes Asians and kings

• Posters on park railings

• An alignment of shops that are small and distinctive

• A bustling, spartan and generous Vietnamese canteen

• A Thai restaurant whose decor is as refined as its cuisine

• Parisians adopt the Chinese New Year parade

• That parade, unique in Europe

• Asians emerge from the shadows

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 Towers and a city within a city

TOWERS AND A CITY WITHIN A CITY

THE ASIAN PRESENCE COMES FROM HIGH-RISES THAT PARISIANS REJECTED...

("OLYMPIADES," PROJECT APPROVED IN 1966, ABANDONED IN 1977)

"The neighborhood needed cleaning up, 

but not in the way meant for the trenches of World War I.

One could 'renovate' on a human scale,

but this delirious and oppressive gigantism came instead" 

-- Léo Malet, 1978, 

Preface to new edition of Fog on Tolbiac Bridge

(Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac, 1956)

Meant to announce utopia, they seemed symbols of soulless

technocracy and their apartments did not sell.

The towers hover over little houses. 

"Will we still find what used to be

the living heart of the neighborhood...

workers and craftspeople, peaceful, humble folk, modest marginals [... ] little whores with flowers in their hair [... ] people who were not very smart, probably, but who were human [... ] they no longer have a place in this technocratic universe." 

-- Léo Malet

That rebuff let refugees from the Vietnam war find decent, affordable housing. Other Asians followed and "Chinatown" was born.

(From 1975)

                                          Zoom          Poster, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration  

 Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration  

Poster announcing an exhibit on immigration of southeast Asians

Ramsay Casadesus Rawson 

The horizontal roofs were part of the original project, so recall pagodas by a fortunate coincidence. 

# # #

"Les Olympiades" is detached from the neighborhood and color reinforces the separation from the sober surroundings:

# # #

It is an autonomous city, with...

• A mall

The multitude evokes community, as in Black neighborhoods.

• And besides what one would find in a French town (a supermarket, a pharmacy, an optician, fast foods, restaurants, social services)...

"Sixth PRIZE

THE BEST TRADITIONAL BAGUETTE

 City of Paris, 2024

Pottery-making

Gatherings that lack a meeting-room (these activists plan a demonstration for migrants without official papers).

Only a bank and post office are missing.

# # #

The site must hark back to royal places. It is set away from the the rest of town, its architecture is homogeneous and and straight lines converge toward the center...  

And a statue of a king: 

 

It is accidental (and now gone),

 but the design looks to the past 

to announce the future.

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Historical panels that evade what counts

HISTORICAL PANELS THAT EVADE WHAT COUNTS

ABOUT 700 DOT THE CITY

That for Olympiades is about construction, gliding over its rejection and ignoring the reason why Asians settled there. 

"Building this ensemble between 1968 and 1975 under the direction of the architect Michel Holley was an element of the restauration known as Italie 13. The site was then occupied by the Gobelins warehouse: it was rebuilt underground and covered over with a slab on which were built towers, buildings and boutiques. Underground automobile circulation, sites for walking and equipment on the slab, high-rising habitations, such were the principles of the functionalist urbanization [...].

That audacious modernist architecture became a cosmopolitan site, Asiatics establishing themselves there from 1975." 

Such irrelevant details repel, turning people away from History

and erasing  — voluntarily ? —  a tool of enlightenment. 

For other examples please click here —

and for an exception, here (please scroll down).

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Cultures intertwine

CULTURES INTERTWINE

 

TWO STREETS PIERCE THROUGH THE WHOLE SOUTHEASTERN FRINGE

(THE AVENUES DE CHOISY AND D'IVRY)

Adapted from a Google map

Start at "porte" (gate) de Choisy...

Follow it to the crossroad:

# # #

Come to the "Arch of Fraternity," which thanks France for welcoming the refugees:

Since 2014, The City has allocated 5% of its investment budget (100 million euros in 2018) to projects that citizens propose and vote for, in the fields of health, education, environment, the arts, sports... .  

The Grand Arch of Fraternity by Georges Rousse, 2015

It comes from the neighborhood vote in 2015

Voting in front of the 13th's City Hall, 2024. 

# # #

There and elsewhere, a cultural mix...

A poster in the neighboring French area suggests that some passers-by can read Chinese...

Sign next to a French bookstore on rue de Tolbiac...

Learned through the classes in Chinese given next door? 

On rue Sthrau, around the corner

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A crossroad for Asian color