AsiaTown Cleveland: From Tong Wars to Dim Sum

by Alan F. Dutka

For years, Cleveland's Chinese residents struggled to find a secure place in the city. Immigrants came with dreams of building a better life, but without English proficiency, prospects dimmed, and emigres often earned poor pay for long hours of strenuous work. In 1925, Cleveland police responded to an especially brutal outbreak of the tong war violence ravaging the community by arresting every Chinese person in the city, creating an international scandal. In spite of the anti-Asian sentiment of the time, the community persevered and paved the way for its current entrepreneurial success. Today, Clevelanders and tourists travel to the growing AsiaTown neighborhood to enjoy authentic Asian dinners, shop at Asian-owned stores and enjoy Asian-themed karaoke nights in newly built malls and century-old former residential homes. Alan F. Dutka vividly portrays one of the oldest and most culturally diverse neighborhoods in the city.

Genres: History

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2014

Reviews

[Maximilian Gerboc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting if you want Cleveland-specific history about Chinese and more broadly East Asian immigration to the area. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods in Cleveland and is home to basically all my favorite restaurants, so it was cool seeing how that all developed. However, keep in mind that this is the work of an amateur and the writing is pretty bad. But it's short enough to get through in a sitting or two and contains enough interesting information that I didn't mind as much as if I weren't nostalgically connected to it.

[Tim Evanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting, it was so fascinating!!

Cleveland's Chinatown is well known. Each spring, it has an Asian Festival which attracts 55,000 people, and twice a year it hosts Night Market -- which brings in another 20,000 people.

Although Cleveland is well-known to have been built with immigrant labor from 1860 to 1940, this history focuses mostly on the English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Czechs, Slovenes, Russians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Germans, and Poles who worked the heavy industry in town. Far less well-known is the history of Cleveland's Asian communities.

This book, by former industrial executive-turned-historian Alan F. Dutka, remedies that oversight.

Dutka's book is packed with information. This is not an academic work, so you won't find footnotes or sources. But Dutka is a well-respected local historian, and his clear, no-nonsense writing and excellent eye for detail make it clear that he's not indulging in wild claims, over-interpreting his evidence, or in any misleading the reader.

This book, which is quite short at 138 pages, is heavy on the early years of Cleveland's Chinatown, and focuses primarily on the period from 1900 to 1985. Dutka brings to life the vibrant culture of this almost completely Chinese community. He emphasizes the business community, especially the restaurant industry. Although there's less about the social and familial aspects of Chinatown in this period, he does write about things like racism, crime, festivals, and the immigrant experience.

Less detailed are the sections on AsiaTown (also spelled Asiatown), that pluralistic Asian community that formed east of E. 30th Street in the 1990s. It's unclear why Dutka didn't provide as much detail here. Possible explanations include the fact that nearly all the people mentioned are still alive, and that Asiatown is so much more diverse that it would be nigh-impossible to cover everything. Dutka gives a good chapter overview, but the two decades since AsiaTown's emergence was still underserved. I think that's why I give this book four rather than five stars.

[April Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book of the year; started this one last year. This was a neat bit of history I'd never heard about our area Chinatown/AsiaTown. It's full of photos as well that capture the area. The book goes from the start of the small but impactful Chinese immigrant population in Cleveland to the present day. It highlights past and present businesses and prominent residents. There's a good chapter on the Tong Wars, a sad period in Cleveland history for that area. All in all, a good book on local history.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful look at the development of the Chinese community in Cleveland

[Matt Kuhns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it through this book, but it took a while. There is little in the way of a narrative. The author had limited material to work with, probably; where there is enough to tell something of a story, meanwhile, the writing doesn't exactly soar. Elsewhere, the text is obviously padded out by reciting entire banquet menus, etc.