It is the only surviving historic ethnic Chinese enclave in New England since the demise of the Chinatowns in Providence, Rhode Island and Portland, Maine after the 1950s.

Chinatown borders the Boston Common, Downtown Crossing, the Washington Street Theatre District, Bay Village, the South End, and the Southeast Expressway/Massachusetts Turnpike.

[4] According to the 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in ZIP Code 02111 are:[9][10] Part of the Chinatown neighborhood occupies a space that was reclaimed by filling in a tidal flat.

After residential properties in this area became less desirable due to railway developments, it was settled by a mixed succession of Irish, Jewish, Italian, Lebanese, and Chinese immigrants.

In 1870, the first Chinese people were brought from San Francisco to break a strike at the Sampson Shoe Factory in North Adams, Massachusetts.

[17][18] World War II created a shift in the public opinion of Chinese immigrants with the Republic of China being in the Allied nations.

These causes included city pressure, the rise of marketing movies on VHS home video, and the move of night clubs to the suburbs, where they became more upscale.

English lessons and other efforts to convert the Chinese immigrants to Protestantism were provided by multiple Protestant churches in Boston, as well as establishing the Young Men's Christian Association.

The traditional Chinatown Gate (paifang) with a foo lion on each side is located at the intersection of Beach Street and Surface Road.

This was once a run-down area, housing little more than a ventilation-fan building for the Central Artery Tunnel; however, a garden was constructed at this site as part of the Big Dig project.

[citation needed] Offered by the Taiwanese government to the City in 1982, the gate is engraved with two writings in Chinese: Tian Xia Wei Gong, a saying attributed to Sun Yat-sen that translates as "everything under the sky is for the people", and Li Yi Lian Chi, the four societal bonds of propriety, justice, integrity, and honor.

In 1991, Ping On gang members killed five men and wounded a sixth man at a gambling den in the Boston Chinatown massacre.

Innovative dishes incorporating chow mein and chop suey as well as farm-to-table produce and regionally procured seafood ingredients are found in Chinese as well as non-Chinese food in and around Boston.

BCNC strives to provide the support and resources needed for participants to integrate into American society, while preserving the community's rich culture.

In 2005, BCNC created a permanent home at 38 Ash Street, in a five-story community center, which was the first certified green building in Chinatown.

[39][40] In 2017, the Pao Arts Center located at 99 Albany Street was opened in partnership with Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC),[41] which also teaches a number of introductory courses there in subjects such as accounting, food service, business, writing, psychology, statistics, and acting.

[43] The Reading Room opened in April 2012, and provided library services, educational workshops, and cultural events to the Chinatown community.

[44] The Reading Room had a rotating collection of approximately 8,000 books in both English and Chinese, and also ran a small art exhibit gallery.

It was established in 1987 and since its inception has worked on addressing housing development concerns (such as the notable 2002 Big Dig construction) to gain back a piece of land lost due to urban renewal called the Parcel 24.

It became a new home to the nonprofit organization Asian American Civic Association (AACA)[48] and the Kwong Kow Chinese School (KKCS).

As property prices rising, the demographics of an area may change, and this partly explains why Chinatown is seeing more and more non-Asians and white residents.

According to Kairos Shen, a planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), "the fact that so many Asians — roughly 5,000 residents, according to US Census data, with the vast majority of them Chinese —– still call Chinatown home is no accident, resulting from a decades-long effort by the city to find a right balance between providing affordable housing and encouraging development projects aimed at revitalizing the neighborhood."

In 2010, The Barr Foundation granted Sustainable Chinatown $100,000 for a community led effort to "green" local businesses, in partnership with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city, and the Asian American Civic Association (AACA).

Large, luxury residential towers are built in and surrounding an area that was predominantly small three-to-five story apartment buildings intermixed with retail and light-industrial spaces.

A property developer has purchased the Dainty Dot Hosiery building, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, with plans to transform it into condominiums.

[21] It was added to the National Historic Register in 1980.The building was purchased by Mayor Menino and the City of Boston in 1993, and has since been restored with the intent of marketing it to tenants as of 2014[update].

Since 2000, the number of establishments selling specialty Chinese bakery products has increased, with Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and Japanese styles also available.

As one of the last remaining remnants of the area's Historic Garment District, the only textile store still found in Chinatown is Van's Fabric.

There is also children's Chinese folk dancing, martial arts performances, and lion dancers from around Chinatown and throughout the world, many who come just for the festival.

This is due to a rapid influx of Hokkien-speaking Mainland Chinese immigrants from the province of Fujian, as well as a large and growing ethnic Vietnamese population.