Typical Chinatown restaurant window along Spadina at night
Toronto has one of the largest Chinatowns in North America.[citation needed] It is centred around the intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, and extends outward from this point along both streets. It has grown significantly over the years and has come to reflect a diverse set of Asian cultures through its shops and restaurants, including Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai.
Toronto’s original Chinatown was located on Dundas Street West and Bay Street. When the City began construction on the current City Hall in the 1960s, Chinese-oriented stores and homes formerly in the old district were required to close down and move shop, so that the area could be cleared for the new building. Consequently, the Chinese community migrated westward to Chinatown’s current location. A handful of Chinese businesses still remain around Bay and Dundas.
Since the late 1990s, Toronto’s oldest (surviving) Chinatown is struggling to redefine itself in the face of an ageing Chinese population, recent declines in tourism, and the lure of the suburban Chinatowns that continue to draw money and professional immigrants away from downtown. Unlike the newer Chinatowns in the suburbs, Dundas and Spadina relies heavily on tourism and Chinese seniors. Younger, higher-income immigrants from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have moved out, so those left in the district are typically from older generations who depend on downtown’s dense concentration of services and accessibility to public transportation. Ethnic Chinese from Vietnam are now the faces of old Chinatown Toronto and turning some parts into Little Saigon. While the ageing population shrinks however, so too do the revenues of businesses in the district; while the majority of the grocery stores and shops still survive, most of the once-famed restaurants on Dundas have closed since the turn of the century. The area has also seen a surge in Latin American immigrants, who are changing the face of old Chinatown.
An influx of University of Toronto and Ryerson University students seeking affordable housing, coupled with the location of the Ontario College of Art and Design adjacent to Chinatown, has accelerated gentrification of the district, bringing in young professionals to the area. The changing landscape of the district’s population would bring a more multicultural flavour to the district, but could potentially eliminate its identity as a “Chinatown”.
A list of Chinese malls in the area: