[17]: 59, 64  The local branch of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was founded at 10 Chatham Square in 1883 and later moved to the building at 16 Mott Street, now considered the "City Hall of Chinatown".

A new and rapidly growing Chinese community in East Harlem, Uptown Manhattan, nearly tripled in population between the years 2000 and 2010, according to U.S. Census figures.

[37] It has been speculated that it may have been Ah Ken who kept a small boarding house on lower Mott Street and rented out bunks to the first Chinese immigrants to arrive in Chinatown.

The period was marked by increased racial discrimination, anti-Chinese riots (particularly in California),[41] and new laws that prevented participation in many occupations on the U.S. West Coast.

[42] Wenfei Wang, Shangyi Zhou, and C. Cindy Fan, authors of "Growth and Decline of Muslim Hui Enclaves in Beijing", wrote that because of immigration restrictions, Chinatown continued to be "virtually a bachelor society" until 1965.

The On Leong and its affiliate Ghost Shadows were of Cantonese and Toishan descent, and controlled Mott, Bayard, Canal, and Mulberry Streets.

The Flying Dragons and its affiliate Hip Sing also of Cantonese and Toishan descent controlled Doyers, Pell, Bowery, Grand, and Hester Streets.

[50][51] Through the 1970s and 1980s, the influx of Guangdong and Hong Kong immigrants began to develop newer portions of Manhattan's Chinatown going north of Canal Street and then later the east of the Bowery.

[55] During the 1970s and 1980s, the eastern portion of Chinatown east of the Bowery was a very quiet section, and despite fears of crime, it was seen as attractive because of the availability of vacant affordable apartments.

Due to the fact that the Chinatown area were mostly populated by Cantonese speakers, the Fuzhou speaking immigrants had a lot of trouble relating to the neighborhood linguistically and culturally and as a result, they settled on the eastern borderline of Manhattan's Chinatown east of The Bowery, which during that time was more of an overlapping population of Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and Jewish as well as had significant vacant apartment units and were more affordable than in the more Mandarin-speaking enclaves in Flushing and Elmhurst, and many Fuzhou immigrants had no legal status and being forced into the lowest paying jobs.

[68][69]: 20 Not only did the Fuzhou immigration influx establish a new portion of Manhattan's Chinatown, they contributed significantly in maintaining the Chinese population in the neighborhood.

Some Chinese landlords in Manhattan, especially the many real estate agencies that are mainly of Cantonese ownership, were accused of prejudice against the Fuzhou immigrants, supposedly making Fuzhou immigrants feel unwelcome because concerns that they would not be able to pay rent or debt to gangs that may have helped smuggled them in illegally into the United States, and because of fear that gangs will come up to the apartments to cause trouble.

[85] Although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only 10 percent of Chinese speakers in Manhattan's Chinatown, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them.

Due to the Fuzhou immigrants having no legal status and inability to speak Cantonese, many were denied jobs in Chinatown as a result, causing many of them to resort to crimes.

Mei Lum, a grandchild of the original owner, stepped in before the sale and took over the business to preserve its history and position within the neighborhood, to "regenerate, encourage and protect" Chinatown's culture.

Project exhibited ethnographic research and oral history interviews that highlighted stories of migration, displacement, and everyday resilience in Chinatowns all over the world.

[citation needed] Notable and well-reviewed Chinatown establishments include Joe's Shanghai, Jing Fong, New Green Bo and Amazing 66.

The local garment industry now concentrates on quick production in small volumes and piece work, which is generally done at the worker's home.

Part of the reason was the NYPD closure of Park Row, one of two major roads linking the Financial District with Chinatown (the other being Centre Street).

In August 2011, a new branch of New York Supermarket opened on Mott Street in the central district of grocery and food shopping of Manhattan's Chinatown.

[130] A Hong Kong Supermarket at East Broadway and Pike Street burned down in 2009 and plans to construct a 91-room Marriott Hotel in its place resulted in community protests.

[144] When East Broadway Mall opened, their storefront owners and customer base were mainly Cantonese speakers as the Chinese speaking population in the area was still very Cantonese speaking, however as early as the 1980s, a Fuzhouese-speaking population already had begun growing in the East Broadway neighborhood, which eventually by the 1990s had slowly grown into a Fuzhou speaking enclave distinct from the original older established Cantonese Chinatown from Bowery Street going west and then reflectively the storefront owners and customer base at East Broadway Mall then slowly shifted to majority Fuzhou speakers.

The COVID-19 pandemic in New York City exacerbated the situation at East Broadway Mall, and the dim sum restaurant upstairs, which had operated for a long time, was closed.

[151][152] Media sources reported in November 2021 that the New York state government was giving $20 million to revitalize several city-owned properties in the area.

[156][157] Other New York City Chinese communities have been settled over the years, including that of Flushing in Queens, particularly along from Roosevelt Avenue to Main Street through Kissena Boulevard.

The Flushing Chinatown was spearheaded by many Chinese following the Handover of Hong Kong in 1997 as well as Taiwanese who used their considerable capital to buy out the land from the former residents.

[98]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Chinatown and the Lower East Side is 0.0089 milligrams per cubic metre (8.9×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.

[98]: 6  The percentage of Chinatown and the Lower East Side students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011 and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same period.

[99]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [98]: 6  Additionally, 77% of high school students in Chinatown and the Lower East Side graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.

[196] In the early 1980s, the program was expanded following an effort by urban planner Jerry S. Y. Cheng and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) president Li Boli.