#129 Chinatown

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2011

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Manhattan's Chinatown is unique among New York neighborhoods as its origins and its provocative history can still be traced in many of the buildings and streets still in existence. Two hundred years ago, the sight of a Chinese person would have astonished New Yorkers, and the first to arrive in the city were either sailors or the subjects of tacky exhibition. But with the first Chinese men setting on Mott Street, a new community was born, with thriving variety shops, cigar businesses and gambling dens alongside establishments of a more sensuous nature -- opium dens and brothels. This mini-economy produced social clubs and secret societies (the legendary ‘tongs’), and rival gangs soon spilled blood along the neighborhood's quirkiest lane. And still today, modern Chinatown hides a few dark, startling secrets of its own. ALSO: We give you a rundown of addresses along Mott Street and other places nearby. You can use this podcast as your official walking tour of Chinatown! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys episode 129, Chinatown.
0:03.9	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:05.5	Hey.
0:06.5	The Bowry Boys is brought to you by EuroChipo.com.
0:10.4	EuroChipo editors personally visit and review the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:15.2	Now with hotels in New York City, on the web at EuroChipo.com.
0:19.6	Hello there, welcome to The Bowry Boys.
0:21.3	This is Greg Young.
0:22.4	And this is Tom Myers.
0:24.0	This is our very first podcast, Tom, where we are recording
0:28.0	as residents of two different burrows.
0:30.4	It's amazing. I never knew this day would happen.
0:32.9	Now we are separated by a body of water.
0:35.6	But connected by the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.
0:38.5	Absolutely. And by history itself.
0:40.7	Since last we recorded, I moved to Brooklyn
0:43.2	and out of our neighborhood here in the Lower East Side.
0:47.2	I want to thank all of our listeners on Facebook who left a little kind messages.
0:51.0	And our friends on Facebook also gave us great suggestions for pizza to celebrate that night.
0:55.7	And thanks for this.
0:56.5	Yeah, so I have worked my way through that list, by the way.
0:59.1	And a special thanks to our listenership for a great housewarming present.
	...

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