{"id":839,"date":"2022-10-28T10:39:22","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/?p=839"},"modified":"2022-11-01T22:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T22:57:29","slug":"denvers-chinatown-how-descriptions-of-space-condemned-a-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/2022\/10\/denvers-chinatown-how-descriptions-of-space-condemned-a-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver\u2019s Chinatown: How Descriptions of Space Condemned a Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January of 1890, The Rocky Mountains News, a prominent Colorado newspaper, ran an article on the recent unrest, scheming mobs, and murder plots allegedly unfolding in Denver\u2019s Chinatown.\u00a0 The story revolved around John Taylor, a Chinese immigrant and the owner of the businesses which comprised<\/span> Chinatown.\u00a0 The events had apparently \u201cattracted considerable attention all over the country,\u201d not only for their intrigue,\u00a0<\/span>but because Chinatowns, and Chinese immigrants, across the U.S. were under attack by the media.1<\/a><\/sup> Situated in Denver\u2019s central business district, Chinatown covered less than a block, with one report claiming it was only 125×100 feet, and much of it was rebuilt from what had been destroyed in an anti-Chinese riot ten years earlier.2<\/a><\/sup> The reporter from The Rocky Mountain News claims that readers were curious to know what the headquarters of \u201cJohn Taylor and his murderous band\u201d looked like, and the article recounts the author\u2019s tour of the area.\u00a0 It reveals how the characterization of space was used not only to reinforce intolerant attitudes towards the Chinese community, but how descriptions of space were employed to control where Chinese people were allowed to live and work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article is primarily concerned with criminality and a large portion of it focuses on the prevalence of opium, gambling, and prostitution in Chinatown.\u00a0 The US Government\u2019s attempts to control opium in the late 19th century \u2014 specifically an 1887 law passed by Congress which, \u201cprohibited Chinese from importing opium and allowed only non-Chinese American citizens to manufacture smoking opium\u201d \u2014 demonstrates the government\u2019s intolerance of Chinese immigrants and its attempts to control Chinese populations.3<\/a><\/sup> These policies increased opium smuggling, and created strong associations with Chinese immigrants and organized crime.\u00a0 U.S. media also perpetuated fears of opium corrupting white women, and by extension, Chinese communities corrupting American society.\u00a0 The reporter for The Rocky Mountain News drew on these fears in the article, claiming that \u201cMany women were ruined by the Chinese in the old quarters,\u201d and proceeds to give a description: \u201cA celestial leads her through the dark hall. She is assigned a bunk, where she cooks her opium, smokes it while the police are outside vainly endeavoring to find them.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup> This account of the interior categorizes Chinatown as a place of corruption: impenetrable to light and the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Descriptions of dark hallways are prominent throughout the article and are repeatedly used to create ominous and threatening impressions.\u00a0 According to the reporter, the very structure of Chinatown is designed for criminality.\u00a0 He relates that smoking opium is prohibited, but \u201cto elude the law these elevated smoking rooms have been built in such a manner that the front and rear door can be seen. It is so dark there it is impossible for a person coming in from the street to see exactly what is taking place, so that the occupants have ample time to hide their pipes in the event of a police raid on the place.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup> The rest of the buildings are described in a similar way.\u00a0 False doors and narrow passageways suggest maze-like complexity with the clear objective of classifying space as criminal, dangerous, and impenetrable.\u00a0 While dark hallways and false doors suggest criminal activity through the built environment, observations about the upkeep and cleanliness of the space are used to cast judgment on its inhabitants.\u00a0 The reporter uses descriptors like \u201crickety roof,\u201d \u201cfoul air,\u201d \u201csquatty buildings,\u201d and \u201cfilth\u201d to characterize it as uninhabitable.5<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All this precedes the reporter\u2019s description of the businesses in West Denver owned by John Taylor\u2019s rival and the object of his supposed murder plots, Chin Poo.\u00a0 The article reads: \u201cthere are no alleys, no passages or dark hallways, the floors are kept clean, are scrubbed daily, and all the houses are well lighted and ventilated\u2026 The police permit the Chinese here to gamble and smoke opium, and will allow Taylor\u2019s crowd the same privilege it they move over there, away from the business portion of the city, where no objection is raised against their presence.\u201d5<\/a><\/sup> The author makes no attempt to veil the true purpose of the article, and expresses no concern for Chin Poo despite his insistence that Taylor is a dangerous threat.\u00a0 Instead, it\u2019s revealed that the location of John Taylor\u2019s businesses was the reporter\u2019s main concern. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The situation of Chinatown in Denver\u2019s central business district combined with the threat of cheap labor provided by Chinese immigrants led to campaigns against the Chinese community and attempts to undermine their businesses.\u00a0 The rivalry between Taylor\u2019s \u201cgang of cut-throats\u201d and Chin Poo became an excuse to emphasize associations between Denver\u2019s Chinatown and criminality through descriptions of the physical location.\u00a0 While another report suggests that Chinatown was also home to three restaurants, fifty policy shops, a morgue, and a butcher shop, these legitimate businesses are conspicuously absent from the article (despite a brief reference to a restaurant which the reporter predictably describes as \u201cfilthy\u201d).6<\/a><\/sup> The Rocky Mountain News ran numerous articles arguing that Chinese businesses posed a financial threat to white businesses and warned of the social cost of the projected growth of the Chinese population in such a central part of Denver.\u00a0 Chinese spaces were transformed by the media into places of corruption, criminality, and unsanitary practices which increased intolerance toward the Chinese community and ultimately led to the eradication of Denver\u2019s Chinatown.<\/span><\/p>\n

  1. \u201cThree Chinatowns,\u201d The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado), January 6, 1890, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. \u201cA Home for Plague,\u201d The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado), July 13, 1889, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Jeffrey Scott McIllwain, Organizing Crime in Chinatown (Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 1969), 59. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. The Rocky Mountain News, \u201cThree Chinatowns.\u201d [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Ibid. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. The Rocky Mountain News, \u201cA Home for Plague.\u201d [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In January of 1890, The Rocky Mountains News, a prominent Colorado newspaper, ran an article on the recent unrest, scheming mobs, and murder plots allegedly unfolding in Denver\u2019s Chinatown.\u00a0 The story revolved around John Taylor, a Chinese immigrant and the owner of the businesses which comprised Chinatown.\u00a0 The events had apparently \u201cattracted considerable attention all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,96,95],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chinatown","tag-crime","tag-sanitation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}