“Mixed race,” Chinese identity, and intercultural place: Decolonizing urban memories of Limehouse Chinatown in London

Abstract

ABSTRACT London’s Limehouse Chinatown was often negatively portrayed in the media and popular fictional works, which stigmatizes and racializes the Chinese community. There has been little scholarly studies about the memories of the original Chinese residents in Limehouse Chinatown. As a project of de-imperializing city, I situate this article in the contested field of postcolonial cities in relation to decolonizing imperial legacies with a focus on contesting a racialized ethnic minority space, i.e., Limehouse Chinatown. By reframing the racialized Limehouse Chinatown from a bounded Chinese space into a shared place beyond the Chinese community, I seek to re-inscribe the memories of Limehouse Chinatown into the narrative of the postcolonial intercultural city of Londonwith some original interview-based accounts from the Limehouse’s mixed race residents. In turn, the role of writing about ethnic minority spaces such as Chinatown is also examined.