移民商業社區 唐人街 走向衰亡

For Lawrence Cheng, the arrival of another betting shop in London’s Chinatown district is one more nail in the coffin of the immigrant business community whose colourful, lantern-laced streets have been part of the capital since the 1950s.

倫敦唐人街(見上圖)又出現了一家博彩店，在鄭健強(Lawrence Cheng)看來，這就等於是推動該移民商業社區向着衰亡又邁進了一步。自上世紀五十年代以來，該社區五顏六色、掛滿燈籠的街道就一直是英國首都的一道風景線。

“We need another betting shop like we need a hole in the head,” says Mr Cheng, a restaurant owner who serves as secretary-general at the London Chinatown Chinese Association. “Within 60 yards of where you’re sitting there are seven or eight bookies.”

鄭健強表示：“我們根本不需要又一家博彩店。你現在坐的位置方圓60碼之內已有七八個經營博彩店的人。”鄭健強是一家餐廳的業主，另外還擔任倫敦華埠商會(London Chinatown Chinese Association)的祕書長。

Historically, Chinatowns have been a distinctive feature of many city centres, seemingly impervious to gentrification and constantly rising property prices. But Mr Chen is voicing a fear, felt in Chinatowns from London to San Francisco, that the struggle to keep up with rising rents and other challenges will prompt these vibrant communities to disappear.

在很多城市的中心，唐人街歷來是一個獨特的景觀，似乎從不受士紳化(gentrification)和房地產價格不斷上漲的影響。但鄭健強擔憂，由於很難應對不斷上漲的房租和其他挑戰，這些充滿活力的社區將會消失。從倫敦唐人街到舊金山唐人街，這樣的擔憂普遍存在。

It is not just rising rents that are threatening their survival. In London’s Chinatown, businesses have become the target of regular raids by a UK Border Agency that is clamping down on illegal workers.

威脅到其生存的不僅僅是租金上漲。在倫敦唐人街，商家已成爲英國邊境管理局(UK Border Agency)定期搜查的目標。該局正在對非法勞工進行整治。

A generation gap means that children often have little interest in the family business, while would-be immigrants see brighter prospects at home.

代溝的存在導致現在的孩子往往對經營家族企業提不起興趣，而那些想要移居海外的人也在家鄉看到了更加光明的發展前景。

The appreciating price of Chinese merchandise is pushing up costs as the falling value of the US dollar and pound has fallen against the renminbi, meaning that the money that gets sent home no longer goes so far.

由於不斷貶值的美元和英鎊相對人民幣的匯率有所下滑，中國貨的價格不斷上漲，這推高了唐人街商家的成本，意味着寄回家的錢已不再如以前那樣多。

In New York’s Chinatown, where trendy coffee shops and boutique clothing stores are replacing noodle bars, the Asian population dropped 15 per cent over the past decade, according to census data, even as the wider New York Asian population grew by 30 per cent. In areas around San Francisco’s Chinatown, the Asian population has fallen by about 23 per cent in the same period.

在紐約唐人街，時髦的咖啡館和精品服裝店正在取代面吧(noodle bar)。人口普查數據顯示，過去十年，紐約唐人街的亞裔人口減少了15%，儘管整個紐約的亞裔人口增加了30%。同一時期，在舊金山唐人街周邊地區，亞裔人口減少了23%左右。

The Chinatown in Philadelphia is particularly exposed to an influx of investors buying up surrounding luxury developments which is pushing up property prices and rents, according to a study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Ironically, much of the hot money hails from mainland China.

亞裔美國人法律辯護與教育基金會(Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund)的一項研究顯示，費城唐人街受到的衝擊尤其明顯，不少投資者涌入那裏大舉購買周邊的豪宅，推高了房地產價格和房租。具有諷刺意味的是，很大一部分熱錢來自於中國大陸。

Andrew Leong, one of the authors of the study, said that as cities lose their Chinatowns, they also lose important services and businesses – such as English schools and job centres – that help new immigrants to integrate.

研究報告的作者之一Andrew Leong表示，隨着唐人街在一座座城市中逐漸消失，一些幫助新移民融入社會的重要服務和生意也在走向消亡，比如英語學校和就業指導中心。

“New immigrants will use Chinatown during the first 10-15 years because of language and cultural barriers they face if left to live in the suburbs,” Mr Leong said. “If you have a China-town it reduces tension.

Andrew Leong說：“新移民剛來的時候，可能會先在唐人街生活10年到15年——如果他們住在城郊，會面臨語言和文化上的障礙。如果有唐人街，摩擦就會減少。唐人街可幫助他們融入美國社會。”

It helps them acclimatise into American society.” The bustle in Chinatowns worldwide has not stopped, but behind the facades of Chinese shops and offices, there is concern that the most recent problems affecting their communities may be insurmountable.

世界各地唐人街的熱鬧景象並沒有消失，但在中國商店和辦公樓的背後隱藏着一種擔憂——人們擔心，最近影響他們社區的一些問題可能是無法解決的。

As the global population increasingly shifts to living in cities, competition for prime space, whether business or residential, is likely to keep on driving up rents and prices in prime locations. London property prices recently reached a record partly on the back of international investment.

隨着全球人口不斷轉向城市居住，人們對優質空間（無論是商用空間還是居住空間）的爭奪很可能會持續推高黃金地段的房租和房價。倫敦房地產價格最近創下新高，在一定程度上就是依靠國際投資的支撐。

Residents and businesses established in Chinatowns are aware of this and a barrage of other problems closing in on them.

唐人街的現有居民和商家意識到了這一點，也意識到了撲面而來的一系列其他問題。

“Even rent on the first and second floor is very high,” says Lawrence Lee, a dentist based in London’s Chinatown, referring to the services provided to Chinese speakers that are tucked away, above street level. He has seen more than 10 businesses nearby, including two accountancy firms, move away in the last three years.

談到那些在位置比較難找的非底商場所爲華人提供的服務時，倫敦唐人街牙醫Lawrence Lee說：“就連二樓和三樓的租金也高得厲害。”過去三年，附近十多家公司都搬走了，包括兩家會計師事務所。

Based on prime rents and yields, the value of offices in the London Soho area has risen 65 per cent in the past five years, says CBRE, a property agent. Over the past 18 years, as far as the data go back, they are up 234 per cent.

地產代理世邦魏理仕(CBRE)指出，按高端地產的租金和收益衡量，倫敦SOHO區的辦公樓在過去五年升值了65%；自18年前開始編制該數據以來，累計升值了234%。

Restaurateurs in particular are feeling the pinch. “When I first ran this restaurant 23 years ago, the rent was about ￡87,000 per year,” says Shun Bun Lee, manager of Harbour City restaurant. “At the moment, it is four times [that].”

餐廳老闆尤其感到吃不消。Harbour City餐廳經理Shun Bun Lee說：“23年前我剛開始經營這家餐廳時，年租金大約是8.7萬英鎊。現在，年租金已是那時的四倍。”

Shaftesbury, a property management company that rents out space for 65 restaurants and bars in London’s Chinatown, dismisses the argument that rent increases are having a detrimental effect on the neighbourhood, saying that rents have gone up steadily as they would in any prosperous city.

地產管理公司沙夫茨伯裏(Shaftesbury)並不認爲房租上漲給周邊帶來不利影響，稱任何繁榮城市的租金都已穩步上漲。在倫敦唐人街，有65家餐廳和酒吧在租用該公司的房子。

“London is thriving and this of course brings business and prosperity to Chinatown,” says Tom Welton, a director at Shaftesbury. He also insists that “we work with our tenants to promote Chinatown”.

沙夫茨伯裏的一位主管湯姆?韋爾頓(Tom Welton)說：“倫敦正在蓬勃發展，這肯定給唐人街帶來了生意和繁榮。他還堅稱，“我們是在與租戶一起推動唐人街的發展”。

However, rent is not the only issue that London Chinatown businesses have to struggle with. Last month they went on strike for two hours in protest against a crackdown on illegal workers by the UK Border Agency. They say the number of raids has increased recently, counting 13 in the six weeks leading up to the protest, and worry that when UKBA officers lock down an establishment, it puts off customers and tarnishes the community’s reputation.

然而，租金並不是倫敦唐人街商家要努力應對的唯一問題。上個月，這些商家罷市兩個小時，抗議英國邊境管理局對非法勞工的打壓。他們說，近期的突然搜查有所增加，在抗議之前的六週裏發生了13次。他們擔心，英國邊境管理局官員在封閉一家店的時候，會嚇跑顧客，破壞該社區的聲譽。

Then there is the trouble that they have finding employees, especially when their children’s generation do not want to continue in the same line of business. Mr Lee has retained his 80-year-old dim sum chef and says with exasperation: “It’s strange to have Europeans cooking Chinese food.”

找到合適的員工也不是一件容易事，特別是當他們的下一代不願繼續幹他們這一行時。Shun Bun Lee手下的中式點心廚師已經80歲了，他頗爲無奈地說：“僱歐洲人做中餐是件很奇怪的事。”

Elsewhere, particularly in the US, the residential nature of Chinatowns means homes are at risk, as well as businesses. On Eldridge Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, it is not only the looming luxury apartment blocks being built on the area’s periphery that symbolise the change 42-year-old Siu Lam has seen since arriving from Hong Kong 10 years ago.

在其他地方，特別是在美國，唐人街的居住屬性意味着面臨風險的不僅是商家，也包括住宅。在曼哈頓唐人街的埃爾德里奇街(Eldridge Street)，現年42歲、十年前從香港來到這裏的Siu Lam見證了一系列變化，該地區周邊正在建造的高端公寓樓只是象徵這種變化的例子之一。

Halloween costumes now hang from racks in her store, alongside Chinese New Year decorations, as she attempts to cater to a new influx of non-Asian residents. Ms Lam’s family has been split by the changes that have pushed up the cost of living and doing business there (she says rent for her store has risen 50 per cent in the six years she has been running it). “Young families, new immigrants, they’ve all moved away to areas with cheaper residential rents like Queens. My friends and family have all left.”

現在她的店裏既擺着一些中國農曆新年的裝飾品，也掛着一些萬聖節服裝，後者是爲了迎合新涌入的非亞裔居民的需求。各種變化推高了那裏的生活和營商成本（據Siu Lam說，自她六年前開店以來，租金已上漲了50%），她的家庭也因此被“拆散”。“年輕的家庭、新移民，全都搬到了住房租金更便宜的地方，比如說皇后區(Queens)。我的親朋好友都離開了。”

Jason Chan, co-ordinator of the Chinatown tenants union at Caaav, a community group in New York, believes the only solution to the encroachment is to build more affordable housing for the poorer residents.

紐約社區組織亞裔反暴力聯盟(Caaav)的唐人住客協會項目主任陳立熙(Jason Chan)認爲，應對這種“侵入”的唯一方法就是爲較爲貧困的居民建造更多可負擔的住房。

“Overcrowding has become a huge problem as residents bunk together to save costs, while the few reasonably-priced residences that do exist are often poorly maintained by unscrupulous landlords,” he said.

他說：“過度擁擠已成爲一個嚴重的問題。爲了節約成本，住戶們都擠住在一起。雖然確實存在少量價格合理的住所，但它們往往由無良房東把持、得不到妥善的保養維修。”

San Francisco, which has an even larger residential community than New York, is experiencing a similar fate. A boom in Silicon Valley jobs, has fuelled San Francisco’s property market, pushing prices up a quarter in August.

舊金山的唐人街比紐約的還要大，但它也面臨類似的命運。硅谷(Silicon Valley)就業機會的迅速增長對舊金山的房地產市場形成支撐，推動該地房價在8月份上漲了25%。

Rents in San Francisco soared 9.8 per cent in the third quarter compared with the year-earlier period. If studios are going for $2,000 a month outside Chinatown, suddenly one going for $1,000 in the area looks very attractive, argues Cindy Wu, vice-president of San Francisco’s city planning commission.

今年第三季度，舊金山房租同比躍升9.8%。舊金山城市規劃委員會副會長Cindy Wu認爲，如果唐人街以外工作室的月租金爲2000美元，那麼該地區月租金爲1000美元的工作室一下子就會顯得非常有吸引力。

Landlords are using the Ellis Act, which allows owners to evict tenants so long as they do not subsequently rent the flat, to get rid of unwanted occupants, to sell the property.

房東們正在利用《埃利斯法》(Ellis Act)擺脫不識趣的住戶，以出售房產。根據該法，房東可向租戶下“逐客令”，前提是他們隨後不將房子租出去。

But the community is not giving up without a fight. In San Francisco, protesters and tenants demonstrate outside City Hall against evictions and property speculation in and around the Chinatown neighbourhoods, and the problem is gaining traction in the local press.

但唐人街社區不想“不戰而退”。在舊金山，抗議者和租戶在市政廳外示威，反對唐人街內及周邊地區的驅逐租戶行爲和房地產投機活動。這個問題正引起當地媒體的關注。

“Ellis Act evictions are like tumours plaguing the housing market in the city,” said Wing Hoo Leung, a resident on the outskirts of Chinatown, who with the help of community groups helped beat eviction five years ago. “This will evolve into an untreatable cancer if we don’t do something. We need to control the real estate speculators.”

唐人街周邊地區的居民Wing Hoo Leung說：“《埃利斯法》就像毒瘤，正在困擾這個城市的住房市場。如果我們不做點什麼，它將演變爲不可治癒的癌症。我們需要遏制炒房的人。”五年前，在社區組織的幫助下，Wing Hoo Leung曾參與打擊驅逐租戶的行爲。