The renewal of Chinatown not only amazes the residents in Boston, especially during the great recession which causes job loss and hurts people’s faith, but also surprises me. One of my Chinese classmates put an advertisement on electronic bulletin board telling that his uncle who starts a new bakery in Chinatown. I firmly believe that this is the positive news not only for people who live in Chinatown, but also for the depressed business atmosphere that has been lasted for a considerable period of time.
As the only historic Chinese area, which was formed by Irish, Jewish, Italian, Syrian, and Chinese immigrants in New England, Boston Chinatown has multiple cultural features represents it’s historical meanings[1]. We can see now it is not only served with eastern products and food, but also with other cultural merchandise, such as Japanese and Vietnamese food. Even though it is not specifically supply products all from Chinese region, for example, the Chinatown in New York City, it shows a significant role in cultural combination in this historic region, New England.
In terms of the population of international students, New England area has the most diverse culture of international students. Especially in Boston, an “incipient global city”[2], contains many exclusive universities, such as Harvard University, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts, and so on. The cheerful news like “Chinatown’s good fortune”, which reported by Boston Globe on October 8, 2009, told that other than those businesses were suffered from this recession, in contrary, more than 15 shops had opened in Chinatown in recent months. There is no doubt that not only local residents, but also international students in Boston area will be benefitted from that.
However, the weather condition will be one of the biggest challenges to those new sprung businesses and shops in Chinatown. The new restaurants and bakeries are going to face severe cold weather coming in late October. That is, we will see if the renewal will be a flash in the pan or not, depends on how those business owners keep their customers’ loyalty. In addition, because of the economic recession, people are losing their consumption capability. This is also a serious problem which caused many businesses went bankruptcy. As a result, business owners are forced to re-discuss the policy in pricing in order to keep their customers and to generate cash flows.
The renovation of Chinatown will make the occupancy of the area toward a positive improvement, which means the development of city population will be benefitted from it. Living in Chinatown will become more and more convenient than ever, so real estate companies can easily taking advantage of the opportunity. More and more job opportunities will be created as well.
In summary, thanks to the remarkable geographical advantage, New England region has outstanding condition for starting businesses. International students shall feel lucky about the good news that happened in the area where they live in. While celebrating the new opportunities for business owners, they will also face new challenges to deal with.
[2] A study group at Loughborough University in England classifies Boston as an “incipient global city” in 2004.
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