唐人街英语介绍

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唐人街也被称为华埠或中国城，是华人在其他国家城市地区聚居的地区。唐人街的形成，是因为早期华人移居海外，成为当地的少数族群，在面对新环境需要同舟共济，便群居在一个地带，故此多数唐人街是华侨历史的一种见证。
　　唐人街英语介绍　　On the surface, Chinatown is prosperous - a "model slum," some have called it - with thelowest crime rate, highest employment and least juvenile delinquency of any city district. Walkthrough its crowded streets at any time of day, and every shop is doing a brisk andbusinesslike trade: restaurant after restaurant is booming; there are storefront displays of shinysquids, clawing crabs and clambering lobster; and street markets offer overflowing piles ofexotic green vegetables, garlic and ginger root. Chinatown has the feel of a land of plenty, andthe reason why lies with the Chinese themselves: even here, in the very core of downtownManhattan, they have been careful to preserve their own way of dealing with things,preferring to keep affairs close to the bond of the family and allowing few intrusions into a still-insular culture. There have been several concessions to Westerners - storefront signs now offerEnglish translations, and Haagen Dazs and Baskin Robbins ice-cream stores have opened onlower Mott Street - but they can't help but seem incongruous. The one time of the year whenChinatown bursts open is during the Chinese New Year festival, held each year on the first fullmoon after January 19, when a giant dragon runs down Mott Street to the accompaniment offirecrackers, and the gutters run with ceremonial dyes.

! A9 |! ^/ s5 r6 Y/ ^　　Beneath the neighborhood's blithely prosperous facade, however, there is a darkerunderbelly. Sharp practices continue to flourish, with traditional extortion and protectionrackets still in business. Non-union sweatshops - their assembly lines grinding from earlymorning to late into the evening - are still visited by the US Department of Labor, who come toinvestigate workers' testimonies of being paid below minimum wage for seventy-plus-hourwork weeks. Living conditions are abysmal for the poorer Chinese - mostly recent immigrantsand the elderly - who reside in small rooms in overcrowded tenements ill-kept by landlords.Yet, because the community has been cloistered for so long and has only just begun to seekhelp from city officials for its internal problems, you won't detect any hint of difficulties unlessyou reside in Chinatown for a considerable length of time.
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