UNO documentary: Chinatown, New Orleans

What: Chinatown, New Orleans

Film by: UNO student and documentarian Maria Neal

Editor’s Note: ViaNolaVie partners with students of UNO professor László Zsolt Fülöp, pairing them with artists, non-profits, environmental groups, and cultural entities to facilitate a live curriculum that results in a short documentary. This documentary short was made by Maria Neal, a student in the Film and Theatre Department at the University of New Orleans, about the legacy of Chinatown in New Orleans.

[Full transcription of Maria Neal]

Chinatown, New Orleans is one of the lost treasures of the great city. About 100 years ago, dozens of Chinese businesses were thriving in downtown New Orleans, specifically at 1100 Tulane Avenue and South Rampart Street.

To understand how Chinatown in New Orleans came and went, we have to go back to the 1800s when the Confederacy had just been defeated and the South’s economy had to be completely rebuilt and reinvented.

In search of a new labor force, planters decided to import thousands of East Asian workers. Chinese workers from Cuba, California, and later China were recruited to work in New Orleans. After some time by the early 1970s, many Chinese planters decided to look for opportunities elsewhere and go into the city to find hope for a better life. And by the early 1980s, Chinese grocery stores, merchandise shops, and other businesses filled 1100 Tulane Avenue. After several years on Tulane Avenue, the Chinese workers packed up shop and headed to Bourbon Street, and by the 1940s, around 10 Chinese businesses were flourishing in the French Quarter. 

Chinatown was a well-known entity in New Orleans, and it provided a more diverse and unique atmosphere to the great city. Unfortunately, however, by the 1990s, only one Chinese-run business remained in what was left of New Orleans Chinatown. 

The legacy of Chinatown can still be seen in the small businesses scattered throughout New Orleans. Several businesses moved into Jefferson Parish settling into more suburban areas of the city, and they still remain open today. Though the hot spots that were once on Tulane Avenue and Bourbon Street no longer exist, the history of these businesses and individuals should not be so easily forgotten. New Orleans Chinatown is essential to the city’s history, and these stories should continue to be told for generations.