It was in the late 19th Century that the first officially noted presence of Chinese people in the United Kingdom was evident; in this case, it was recorded in the census of 1851. However, it was not Manchester which accommodated these immigrants, which actually only amounted to seventy-eight; but obviously, was the city of London. Throughout the 19th Century, Britain had a volatile relationship with China, primarily focussed on trade and securing trade routes; a perennial aim of the British government best exemplified by the Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-60, which consequently led to Chinese port areas such as Guangzhou and, ultimately, Hong Kong, being overtaken by the British Empire. Therefore, it was inevitable that the Chinese immigrant in Britain from the late 19th Century to the earlier 20th Century were mainly seaman, primarily as employees of the East India Company, and all of the Chinese people lived either in London or cities with ports, as in Liverpool, Strathclyde and Cardiff. This small, yet significant influx of Chinese immigrants was enough to warrant businesses to provide temporary or permanent incomes for these people: all techniques learnt and practiced on ships travelling the trade routes of Asia. Already, even with the strict immigration rules of Britain during the early 20th century, Chinatowns were forming in cities such as London and Liverpool. Manchester on the other hand, neither being the capital city or a port city, had a shorter history in terms of its Chinatown, primarily due to the fact that the Chinese population was, up until the 1940, just after the First World War, only about two thousand people. It was just after the Second World War when the major influx of Chinese immigrants occurred. Immediately after the Second World War, the immigration laws which hindered Chinese people from migrating were loosened; a result of the labour shortage and economic crisis experienced by Britain as a result of the war. The figures released in January 1946 by the Labour government showed an estimated a figure between 6000,000 and 1.3 million describing the labour shortage, as well as a government deficit of £750 million. To resolve the situation, the 1948 British Nationality Act was passed, giving the citizens of Commonwealth countries special immigration status, including the right to enter freely, to work and settle with their families. This Act and also government encouragement to migrants lead to a major rise of immigrants during the 1950's from the ex-colonies or dominions, known as the New Commonwealth, encompassing areas such as the West Indies, East Africa, and the Far East.
For the Chinese, there were many reasons for this rise immigration. One was the war and revolution occurring in the country. The successful Communist revolution meant a huge demographic problem as a result of refugees arriving by their hoards in Hong Kong, which in turn meant a depression in the local labour. Furthermore, trade was more tenuous with the Chinese mainland because of the war and cheap rice imported from Thailand hugely damaged the sales of traditional rice farmers in the New Territories. To cope with this economic turmoil, Hong Kong's rapid urbanisation encroached and displaced much of the traditional farmland and owners were compensated, a package they receive and used to make a new life in Britain. The final reason was one which shapes the face of every Chinatown in Britain; the one which the majority of contemporary British born Chinese people experience: the catering trade.
The cosmopolitan revolution that Britain went through in the post-war period meant a demand for exotic and interesting food to satiate the masses and Chinese food, long considered as artistic and, fundamentally, different, was high on the demands list. After the fall of the laundry trade because of the advent of washing machines, this provided occupation for many of the Chinese contingent in pre-Second World War Britain, the demand of Chinese food and the mass immigration of Chinese people into Britain meant an easy choice was made determining the career paths of those just entering Britain. This combination meant that the Chinese were spreading around in the country to stake their claim in the catering trade and to find a place where there was less competition and thus Manchester was one of these cities, with the first Chinese restaurant, the Ping Hong on Mosley Street, opening in 1948. The Chinatowns formed as a result of congregations of Chinese people in a certain district of the city or town, just as other ethnic minorities do, such as Rusholme's Oxford Road having many Asian inhabitants in Manchester and Toxteth in Liverpool having many Afro-Caribbean inhabitants. However, the Chinese presence in Manchester was not always just related to the catering trade. In fact, it was textile trade which in Manchester initial link to the Far East, a link best reflected by the opening of a Consulate by a then nationalist Kuomintang government in the 1930's. Consequently, the decline of the textile trade in the post-war years meant that many of the former cotton warehouses around the declining areas of Manchester were being rented out for cheap prices, allowing the Chinese entrepreneurs an economic opportunity to establish their businesses.
Manchester's Chinatown, as with many others, is renowned for its plethora of restaurants and take-aways. The reasons for this was obviously the demand for foreign food in England and in this way Chinese immigrants saw a secure and straight forward way of settlement in England. This pattern of settlement, mainly involving coming into England and setting up a business in the catering trade is evident in the 1991 Census, which showed that twice as many Chinese as whites were self-employed, with 71 per cent working in the catering or allied trades. At first, many of the restaurants and take-aways, naturally catered for the English customers not necessarily providing authentic Chinese food, but as more and more Chinese immigrants arrived in Manchester, so did the influx of restaurants serving for a Chinese clientele, which is prominent in the many restaurants in Chinatown today. When walking into one of these restaurants in Manchester, for example, Kwok Man's , one would see it filled primarily with Chinese people: as if almost to recreate their lives in China. The origin of these people can be traced to the New Territories, a 365-square mile area of the Chinese mainland, and specifically from two communities within the New Territories. The first was Lo Wai, a Hakka speaking community, whose impetus to immigrate to Manchester was because of the opportunity given by the Hong Kong government who would give compensation to build on their land to migrate to the city. The other area is the Ng Yip area from the Five Countries just outside the city of Guangzhou, where the Ng Yip Association in Nicholas Street, which undertakes such schemes as catering for the elderly Chinese, helping to translate for non-English speaking Chinese and maintains links with Chinese organizations, still flourishes today.
It was during the 1970's when the Manchester Chinatown really began to take off. Popular restaurants in the city today were opening: the Woo Sang opened in 1976, Charlie Chan's in 1973, and the little Yang Sing 1978, to name a few. In correspondence to this growth in the catering trade, there was a growth in allied trades to provide the growing Chinese population in Manchester with services akin to their native China. Such services include Chinese supermarkets to supply the stock and unconventional foods for authentic Chinese restaurants. As well as this, there were Chinese hairdressers, bars and bakeries. This helped maintain the network of Chinese people in Manchester, who, like many other ethnic minorities, preferred to socialise with and support their own ethnic group, thus such businesses as Chinese hairdressers were vital to building a sense of community for the Oriental people. Furthermore, property and rent was still relatively cheap compared to larger commercial centres such as London. The economic growth of the Chinese community in Manchester was pivotally fuelled by the establishments of both a Hong Kong government office and a Hong Kong Shanghai Bank during the 1970's. Such was the progress in the Chinatown's development that it became an attractive focal point for the Chinese population in the North of England.
By the 1980's, Manchester‘s Chinatown was already a commercial and social mainstay in the city's structure. The sense of community combined with Manchester's renowned Universities and Airport had attracted much temporary and permanent population of Chinese people consisting of British-born Chinese citizens, citizens from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong citizens, as well as people of East Asia. By this time, the universities of Manchester were attracting up to 5,000 Chinese students a year, and such students felt an immediate link to Chinatown, which satisfied their social and cultural needs, whilst finding people with similar heritages to theirs. This was similar for immigrants from the People's Republic of China, who initially were semi-detached to the New Territories environment of Chinatown, but through the city's close links to the Chinese Embassy and the establishment of associations such as the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, managed to make the transition to a British citizen more comfortable. The contribution of immigrants from East Asian areas rather than just the New Territories is seen today in Chinatown. Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, for example, are primarily a business enterprise undertaken by immigrants from the People's Republic of China, whilst restaurants of a variety of East Asian culture, such as Singaporean, Vietnamese and Philippine are present in Manchester's Chinatown today.
As the Chinese population increased in Manchester, so did the horizons of Chinatown. The 80's and 90's became a period of quick progression for Chinatown; not only was the area a place centred on the catering trade instead there were business operating to accommodate the Chinese schools, ‘mah cheung' clubs, and old people's homes for the Chinese elderly. Even a Chinese Christian Church was integrated into Mancunian life, where it reports to maintain high interest from Chinese students of the People's Republic of China. The balance between preserving Chinatown as an Asian network as well as embracing the tourism industry has reaped dividends for the area and its economy in relation to Manchester. The Federation of Chinese associations of Manchester since its establishment during the 1990's has shown how it bases itself on promoting Chinese culture and education, encouraging benevolence between associations and businesses, and making Manchester's Chinatown the most popular rendezvous for the Asian communities in the North. When the weekend comes, it is when Chinatown's bustling nature really comes to the fore. Chinese immigrants and British born Chinese who have settle in the North expressing their cultural pride and Chinese convention by coming into the city to eat orthodox Chinese food, to shop in the authentic Chinese supermarkets, to attend Sunday schools: all ultimately to experience Chinese life and to spend time round people of a similar heritage. Perhaps the greatest example of Chinatown's tourist attraction and Chinese cultural epicentre is the celebration of Chinese New Year, where thousands line the streets to watch the lion dances, kung fu demonstrations, firecrackers, and other activities.
The mentality of Chinese immigrants, students, and British born Chinese is an idiosyncratic characteristic which has contributed to the development of Chinatown. Up until the 90's, many of the contemporary generation were brought up with parochial values which consisted of being financially secure and keeping within the community. This resulted in the second generation of Chinese immigrants taking over or being involved with the catering trade or trades related to Chinatown. In modern day Chinatown, it is more likely to find recently arrived immigrants working in Chinatown related businesses, whilst the third generation of British born Chinese expand into other industries, such as culture or public and voluntary sector professions, which were hitherto rarely experienced by previous generations of Chinese immigrants. The 1995 Census showed that of the age bracket between 16 and 24 in Britain, 86% of the Chinese population are students, compared to 25.8% of whites and 47.6% for other ethnic minorities. This shows the mindset of the previous generations of the Chinese immigrants who believe in security thus believing education as a vital necessity in life. Modern day Chinatown shows a more expansive range of businesses rather than ones limited to gambling and catering. In Chinatown nowadays, one could purchase Chinese DVD's, magazines, newspapers, and even view Chinese satellite channels in their home, including the TVB Chinese Channel and the Phoenix News and Entertainment Channel. The ever expanding horizons of Chinatown is best seen in the opening if the Chinese Arts Centre in 1989, dedicated to Chinese culture and art, where visitors can view pieces by local Chinese artists: something which would not have occurred during the early days of Chinatown during the 1960's.
The Manchester Chinatown is not just an extravagance in the city's business area; it has evolved to become a lynchpin in Manchester's economy, showing the city's entrepreneurial spirit and generating large masses of tourists and businesses. The 1995 census showed that the Chinese catering industry was making £586 million annually; 16 per cent of all hot food sold in the country was also from the Chinese catering service. Being the second largest Chinatown in the United Kingdom, Manchester's Chinatown is responsible for much of that turnover, and, considering that this is focussed on the catering side of the area, does not even encompass the local economy of Chinatown's casinos, supermarkets, newsagents and various other Chinese businesses. The Chinese Arch of 1987 symbolises the impact of the network of Chinese businesses and organisations within the city, as proved by the funding of the arch by a consortium of local businesses, the government of the People's Republic of China, and the Manchester City Council.
Nowadays, Chinatown is thriving and vital part of Manchester's Network. The city has the fastest growing Chinese population in Europe and twines with the Chinese city Wuhan. With the Oriental Garden and Imperial Arch both opened in 1989, the area become a mainstay of Mancunian life is still ever expanding. Manchester without its annual celebration of the Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, and the National day is unthinkable for its Chinatown has made such a mark on the city and will continue doing so for years to come.
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