Chinatowns in Asia

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Chinatown
Singapore Chinatown
Chinese	唐人街
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tángrénjiē
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	中國城
Simplified Chinese	中国城
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguóchéng
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	華埠
Simplified Chinese	华埠
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huábù

Chinatowns in Asia are widespread with large concentrations of overseas Chinese in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China — particularly the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan — and settled in countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea centuries ago — starting as early as the Tang dynasty, but mostly notably in the 17th–19th centuries (during the reign of the Qing dynasty), and well into the 20th century. Today the Chinese diaspora in Asia is primarily concentrated in Southeast Asia; however, the legacy of the once widespread overseas Chinese communities in Asia is evident in the many Chinatowns found across East, South and Southeast Asia.

These ethnic Chinese often arrived from southern mainland China. They were mainly Chinese people of Cantonese (Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia), Hakka (India, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei), Hokkien (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar), and Teochew/Chaozhou (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia) origin and less often of Hainanese, Hokchew and Henghwa origin in some countries.

Binondo, located in Manila, Philippines, is considered by many to be the oldest existing Chinatown in the world, having been officially established in 1594 by the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines as a permanent settlement for Chinese who had converted to Christianity. A separate area, called the Parian, was allotted for unconverted Chinese.^[1]

Ethnic Chinese represent a large minority population in most of these countries—with Singapore being the exception, where Chinese-origin Singaporeans form the majority of the population. Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Filipinos have adapted to Indonesian and Filipino ways. The Thai Chinese and Chinese Cambodian people have generally assimilated into the larger Thai and Cambodian population.