East Broadway is a two-way east–west street in the Chinatown, Two Bridges, and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan in the U.S. state of New York.
East Broadway begins at Chatham Square (also known as Kimlau Square) and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends at Grand Street.
The western portion of the street has evolved into the neighborhood known as Little Fuzhou, or Manhattan's Fuzhou Town (福州埠, 紐約華埠), primarily populated by Chinese immigrants (mainly Foochowese who emigrated from Fuzhou, Fujian), while the eastern portion was traditionally home to a large number of Jews. One section in the eastern part of East Broadway, between Clinton Street and Pitt Street, has been unofficially referred to by residents as "Shteibel Way", since it has been lined with up to ten small synagogues ("shteibels") in its history.
Ethnic groups
Earlier Ethnic Populations East Broadway was home to a large Jewish community on the Lower East Side and then later on Puerto Ricans began to settle onto this streetChinatown: The Socioeconomic ... – Min Zhou Google Books. (January 24, 1995). Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Teenage hipster in the modern world ... – Mark Jacobson Google Books. (March 25, 2005). Retrieved on October 18, 2011. and African Americans were also residing on this street.
During the 1960s, an influx of Hong Kong immigrants were arriving over along with Taiwanese immigrants as well into Manhattan's Chinatown. Subsequently, Cantonese people and businesses also began to settle onto this street, as Manhattan's Chinatown was expanding into other parts of the Lower East Side, and Manhattan's Chinatown Chinese population was vastly Cantonese-dominated at the time. During this time period, Manhattan's Chinatown was being referred as a growing Little Hong Kong. Vietnamese people also began to settle on this street as well.The new Chinatown – Peter Kwong Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
During this time, East Broadway had not evolved into a Little Fuzhou enclave yet, however small numbers of Fuzhou immigrants have existed around the area of Division Street and East Broadway as early as the 1970s and early 1980s, including the Fujianese gang named the Fuk Ching. Chinatown Gangs: Extortion ... – Ko-lin Chin Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011. Although the Chinese population have been increasing in this portion of the Lower East Side since the 1960s, however until the 1980s, the western portion of Manhattan's Chinatown was the most fully Chinese populated and developed and flourishing as a busy Chinese business district, while East Broadway along with the eastern portion of Chinatown east of the Bowery was developing more slowly as being part of Chinatown. The eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown had lower and scattered numbers of Chinese residents and higher numbers of Non-Chinese residents mainly Latinos and Jewish than Manhattan's Chinatown's western portion.
During the 1970s and 1980s, East Broadway was one of the many streets east of the Bowery heading deeper onto the Lower East Side that many people were afraid to walk through or even reside in due to poor building structures and high crime rates such as gang related activities, robberies, building burglaries, and rape, as well as rising racial tensions with other ethnic enclaves residing in the area. In addition, businesses were often very few and significant numbers of unoccupied properties. Chinese female garment workers heading home were often high targets of mugging and rape and many of them leaving work to go home often left together as a group for safety reasons.
Little Fuzhou It was during the 1980s and 1990s that East Broadway emerged as a distinctly identifiable neighborhood within Chinatown itself, populated by immigrants from Fuzhou, many of them undocumented.The Hong Kong reader: passage to ... – Ming K. Chan, Gerard A. Postiglione Google Books. (July 1, 1997). Retrieved on October 18, 2011.God in Chinatown: religion and ... – Kenneth J. Guest Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Chinatowns of New York City – Wendy Wan-Yin Tan Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Reconstructing Chinatown: ethnic ... – Jan Lin Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Surviving the City: the Chinese ... – Xinyang Wang Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011. During the 1990s and 2000s, it was the primary cultural center for Fuzhou immigrants in NYC, but since the mid to late 2000s, rapid gentrification has caused the Fuzhou residents and businesses to relocate to other parts of New York City.
A substantial number of Fuzhou immigrants have been displaced due to rising rents in the neighborhood. The 2010 U.S. census found that about 6,000 Chinese residents of Chinatown (about 17% of the neighborhood's Chinese residents) were displaced from the neighborhood in the preceding decade. In 2014, Sing Tao Daily reported that "the population of new immigrants, especially those from Fujian province, is much smaller compared to 10 years ago." A July 2018 report noted that Fujianese-owned businesses have been declining on East Broadway due to high rents, leading to empty storefronts. In addition, Fujianese who used to commute to Manhattan instead began traveling to Flushing's Chinatown in Queens and Sunset Park's Chinatown in Brooklyn.
Structures and places
Chinese movie theaters of the past In the past, East Broadway was very well known to the Chinese population for having two Chinese theaters, as several other Chinese theaters were located in different parts of Chinatown. However, all of the Chinese movie theaters have closed in Chinatown.
Sun Sing Theater In 1911, the Florence theater with 980 seats opened under the Manhattan Bridge on 75–85 East Broadway showing Yiddish entertainment. Next to the theater, there was also a furniture shop named Solerwitz & Law, est. 1886.
It was then converted as the New Canton Theater in 1942. It featured Cantonese operas and other types of performances such as "Selling Rough", "Beauty on the Palm", and "The Beautiful Butterflies" to name on record. The performances often featured 1,400-year-old Chinese tradition usually based on folklore. Cantonese opera was very often looked down on by westerners as sounding annoying, inhuman and distasteful.
A professional Cantonese opera troupe, Tai Wah Wing came from Hong Kong to New York in 1940 to perform and changed their name to Nau Joek Sen Zung Wa Ban Nam Ney Keik Tin (New York New China Mixed Opera Company) once arriving in New York. Being that they were stranded in New York by World War II with 20 male and 7 female actors along with six musicians, they kept the New Canton Theater active and going for 10 years with their nightly performances of classical Cantonese opera on Mondays-Saturdays from 7 pm-11:30 pm and on Sundays from 6 pm-10:30 pm. At one time in 1941 Claude Lévi-Strauss witnessed their performance while he was in New York serving as a cultural adviser for the French Embassy. When the theater was renamed as Sun Sing theater in 1950, during that same time they once again changed their troupe name to Nam Ney Keik Tin (Mixed Opera Company). Once they discontinued during May 1950, the over-half-century-long tradition of Cantonese opera performances ended in the Chinatown neighborhood and then the Sun Sing theater during the same year began to feature Chinese films with English subtitles included sometimes.
It was in danger of being torn down because of an additional deck being added onto the Manhattan Bridge, but it was saved when city engineers used bridge supports and seats had to be eliminated for the bridge supports. In 1972, the theater started to provide diverse entertainments of film and stage performances. Like many movie theaters, the theater also sold snacks with also Chinese snacks such as preserved plum, dried cuttlefish, and shrimp chips.
During the last 15 years of the theater's existence under the Manhattan Bridge with the B, D, and Q trains rumbling loudly above on the north side of the bridge, it featured wild films involving battles and violence. During its final years with 800 seats, the theater began doing outreach to attract more non-Chinese audiences by adding names of customers onto their mailing list while handing out hard copies of synopsis translated in English about each movie being shown at the moment to customers. It was finally closed in 1993 with Robert Tam being the final owner.Reese, Jimmie. (2009-04-13) Knickerbocker Village: 1972: Live Performing Arts At The Sun Sing Theater. Knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.New York Magazine Google Books. (September 6, 1993). Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Smith, William. (2007-06-28) Hang Fire Books: 1948 Chinese Opera Theatre Ticket . Hangfirebooks.blogspot.com. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Claiming diaspora: music ... – Su Zheng Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
In 1996, Museum of Chinese in America located in the neighborhood collected remaining items from the already shuttered Sun Sing theater after a new tenant had signed a lease to use the commercial space and salvaged them for their historical collection for the museum. Sometime in the early 2000s or so, a mini mall opened up with many various Chinese shops at this location just across the street from another mini mall called the East Broadway Mall that had opened about a decade earlier sometime in the late 1980s. However, since the 2010s especially with gentrification coming in, a large wave of the Chinese shops vacated this mini mall especially on the second floor of the mall, which has now entirely transformed into art gallery booths often hosting art cultural events with a music store with the owners and hosts being mainly non-Asian leaving the downstairs of the mini mall to still have remaining Chinese shops.
Pagoda Theater In 1964, Lucas Liang who was a restaurateur and the president of the Catherine enterprises opened the Pagoda theater at 11 East Broadway on the corner of Catherine Street after eight months of construction and after many directors, mostly restaurant operators all together raised $400,000 to build the theater. Paul R. Screvane, president of the City Council at the time was invited as a guest of honor to the ceremony on the opening of the theater.
The seating capacities accommodated 492 seats. The theater featured Chinese films with English subtitles. On the weekend mornings, cartoons in English were shown to children. There was also a room facility where there was a coffee bar selling Chinese and American food products with a color television set.
There was one incident in 1977 where there was a shootout in the crowded theater killing two members of the Ghost Shadows Gang. Michael Chen, a leader of the Flying Dragons of the 70s in Manhattan's Chinatown was convicted and later acquitted for those charges of that incident and he was eventually murdered in 1982. At the time, gang violence was very prevalent in the Chinatown neighborhood including the rivalry of the Ghost Shadows and Flying Dragons. Chinatown Gangs: Extortion ... – Ko-lin Chin Google Books.. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
The theater then closed around the late 1980s to early 1990s. After it was closed, there was one plan by a local builder to build a hotel in the location, but it was later realized that it would not work due to not having the financial resources.
In 1988, Glory China Development Ltd., of Hong Kong bought the property land and opened Glory China Tower in 1991. The bank was a tenant of Ka Wah Bank from Hong Kong owned by CITIC Group located in China. However, it was converted into a HSBC bank much later on.Knickerbocker Village: January 2008. Knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.Pagoda Theatre in New York, NY. Cinema Treasures. Retrieved on October 18, 2011.
East Broadway Mall