A taste of resilience in London Chinatown

A community that was hit especially hard by the pandemic, London’s Chinatown is recovering from the crisis.

Photography by Vivianne Zhang Wei

Situated on London Chinatown’s Gerrard Street, where other restaurants tacitly compete for the brightest reds and glitziest golds, there’s a bold humility to Plum Valley’s minimal design. Its name appropriately alludes to the Peach Blossom Land from an ancient Chinese fable: an isolated utopian village, whose harmonious existence is unbothered by the outside world. However, when speaking with Iris, who runs the restaurant, I learn that not even Plum Valley was spared from the Covid-19 pandemic’s toll on small businesses. Chinatown was hit especially hard, and especially early, as on top of the general challenges of a public health crisis, anything East-Asian also faced shunning as a potential source of the “Chinese-virus.” 

“They thought, ‘oh Chinatown, that must be where the virus is coming from!’ which is ridiculous because Chinese people were taking more precautions than anyone else.”

Iris moved to London from Hong Kong 26 years ago, the same year that my own parents emigrated from China to Sweden. My family never lived in a city big enough to have a Chinatown, but at least one restaurant was guaranteed; always with the same red paper lanterns, mechanically waving cats, and fishponds with discomfitingly large fish. We probably cooked better food at home, but to occasionally be around others who looked more like me than my blond-haired classmates - even if just for a meal - was a refuge I cherished.

However, when news first broke about a coronavirus outbreak in China, I too found myself steering away from Chinese restaurants; not because I feared the virus, but because I feared those who did. Iris recalls: “They thought, ‘oh Chinatown, that must be where the virus is coming from!’ which is ridiculous because Chinese people were taking more precautions than anyone else.” Groundless as those concerns were, their consequences were very real: already before the lockdown, half of Chinatown had closed, and over 200 hate crimes on East-Asians been reported nationwide.

Photography by Vivianne Zhang Wei

Iris nevertheless feels grateful - grateful for people who have realised that, actually, we are all in the same crisis, and are trying their best to help. A 50 per cent rent discount from Shaftesbury, Chinatown’s landlord, took a lot of pressure off the Plum Valley team. They now remember the temporary closure as a surprisingly positive experience, with time for rest, family, and new hobbies. “You blink your eyes, and three months have already passed,” Iris says.

This unfaltering optimism reminds me of the Mandarin word for “crisis” - wei ji - and how my mum explained that it consists of two characters: wei for danger, and ji for opportunity. Whilst a quick Google search exposed it as a popular culture cliché, I can’t deny how accurately it encapsulates the spirit of resilience that underpins Chinatown’s history - because this won’t be the first attack endured by its community.

“I think you get stronger when you have a crisis. You went through the storm, and you definitely became tougher. When the pandemic started, my brain started thinking ‘What can we do better?’”

The Chinese immigrants who first arrived in the East End’s Limehouse area were never really welcome; despised by unions for their cheap labour, most started running small businesses for a livelihood. Those earliest Chinese restaurants and laundrettes became regular targets for hostile attacks, but nevertheless developed into London’s first Chinatown. The real existential threat came in the world wars of the 20th century: the first left Britain vulnerable and desperate for a scapegoat, and existing anti-Chinese sentiments exploded into full-blown moral panic about the “Yellow Peril” of Chinese men. When the Second World War then added the physical insult of devastating aerial bombings in the East End, Chinatown seemed beyond recovery.

Indeed, pre-war Limehouse Chinatown was demolished, but Chinese entrepreneurs soon spotted opportunities in Soho’s cheap properties, and eagerly moved to cater for a new customer base of Hong Kong immigrants and British soldiers who had returned from the Far East with a transformed palate.

“Even though we are not doing greatly ourselves right now, I think it’s important to get into society. We feel the pain of other people, so we can connect.”

This new Chinatown inherited a history of defiance: not just in enduring persecution and crises, but seeing in them opportunities for growth. September’s post-lockdown reopening proved its continuation into the pandemic; accompanied by a #LoveChinatown campaign, which replaced the traditional red lanterns with bold, multi-coloured ones, expanded outdoor seating areas, and added a very 21st-century appropriate virtual lantern screen, it became yet another testimony to Chinatown’s extraordinary adaptability. “I think you get stronger when you have a crisis. You went through the storm, and you definitely became tougher. When the pandemic started, my brain started thinking ‘What can we do better?’, ‘How can we survive?’” Iris reflects, with that premature nostalgia you feel about a crisis that is not quite yet over.

For Plum Valley, the pandemic prompted a desire to connect with others in more meaningful ways, such as their participation in initiatives to provide free school meals. “Even though we are not doing greatly ourselves right now, I think it’s important to get into society. We feel the pain of other people, so we can connect,” she explains, and mentions that she spends most Saturdays chatting with customers in the reception. “Chinese people get to know each other through eating. We don’t come out to just talk, we always have some food.” Right on cue, she orders in some of Plum Valley’s specialities, and we continue our conversation over some delicious cheung fun, pork buns, and rainbow coloured dim sum.

Turning now to Chinatown’s future, Iris is quietly confident. “Life has to go on. Whatever happens, we will look at it positively.” 

Only two days after my visit, a second national lockdown was announced. Whilst that means another closure for Chinatown, the past year has reminded us that Chinatown is, and always has been, more than just “restaurants, bars, and non-essential shops.” Ever since the first entrepreneurs arrived in the 18th century, the site has been a symbol of hope and opportunity. Perhaps in this particular crisis, the opportunity is to reconnect with this heritage and realise that even if London Chinatown returns in some ways altered, that might not be something to grieve, but to celebrate.

This article was originally published in Issue 724 of Pi Magazine.