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In the American popular imagination, Chinatown is a mysterious and dangerous place, clannish and dilapidated, filled with sweatshops, vice, and organized crime. In this well-written and engaging volume, Jan Lin presents a real-world picture of New York City’s Chinatown, countering this “orientalist” view by looking at the human dimensions and the larger forces of globalization that make this vital neighborhood both unique and broadly instructive.

The Power of Ethnic Places discusses the growing visibility of ethnic heritage places in U.S. society. The book examines a spectrum of case studies of Chinese, Latino and African American communities in the U.S., disagreeing with any perceptions that the rise of ethnic enclaves and heritage places are harbingers of separatism or balkanization. Instead, the text argues that by better understanding the power and dynamics of ethnic enclaves and heritage places in our society, we as a society will be better prepared to harness the economic and cultural changes related to globalization rather than be hurt or divided by these same forces of economic and cultural restructuring. Jan Lin is emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in 1966. He has been teaching sociology at Occidental College since 1998. He is the author of Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), and The Urban Sociology Reader (London: Routledge, 2005). Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Doing Ethnic History from Coast to Coast Chapter 2 Ethnic Communities and Cultural Heritage Chapter 3 Ethnicity in America from World’s Fair to World City Chapter 4 Ethnic Places, Postmodernism and Urban Change in Houston Chapter 5 Heritage, Art and Community Development in Miami’s Overtown and Little Havana Chapter 6 Removal and Renewal of Los Angeles Chinatown from the Frontier Pueblo to the Global City Chapter 7 Preservation and Cultural Heritage in New York’s Chinatown and Lower East Side and Impact of the 9/11 Disaster Chapter 8 The Death and Life of Urban Ethnic Places Bibliography Endnotes 334 \"Lin’s timely and innovative book on the politics of urban ethnic places in contemporary America provides a much needed comparative examination into the intersection of race, political economy, and activism in contemporary cities. This is a must-read and novel resource for anyone interested in critical urban studies and comparative ethnic studies.\"—Arlene Davila, Anthropology, New York University \"Drawing on rich fieldwork data and rigorous analysis, as well as insight from his own involvements in community work and teaching in world cities from coast to coast, Jan Lin convincingly argues that ethnic heritage sites offer a tool in counterbalancing urban decay and promoting neighborhood stability and sustainability. It makes an important contribution to contemporary urban sociology. \"—Min Zhou, Sociology and Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

In China the tradition of a book society is longer than anywhere else in the world. Chinese paper making, calligraphy and woodblock printing date from very early ages, but have for a very long time remained almost unknown to the Western world. At the IFLA satellite meeting ?Chinese Written and Printed Cultural Heritage and Library Work? in Hangzhou in 2006 the richness of present day book historical research and library activities in China has been presented by more than sixty papers. This fine selection reflects the width and depth of this extremely important and immense Chinese heritage.