Chinatowns in Global Imagination

Chinatown represents a crucial space in the global circulation of Chinese culture. From Chinese cafés across Europe and the US to barrios chinos in Latin America and the Caribbean, these enclaves have long functioned as sites of both cultural adaptation and negotiation, along with being stages for the everyday performance of identity. Exotic, commodified, and continuously reimagined, these districts are reconstituted through the histories of migration and racialization.

This panel invites contributions that interrogate the sensory, spatial, and artistic dimensions of Chinatown as an aspect of the global diaspora. In what ways do Chinese restaurants and streetscapes respond to the complexities of displaced culture, racialized urban space, and the commodification of nostalgia? Whether through subtle gestures such as menus tailored to local taste, stylized service rituals to entice customers, or eccentric Chinoiserie décor designed to evoke authenticity, these spaces project and reproduce cultural images that share collective memories and offer glimpses of living traditions often influenced by colonial legacies.

We welcome contributions that engage with representations of Chinatowns—past and present, real and imagined in literature and art. Possible case studies include: the Chinese pavilions at the nineteenth-century world fairs, the 1949 Mexican movie Café de Chinos, the board game Chinatown (2014), Grazia Ting Deng’s book Chinese Espresso (2024), or the recent novel Chinatown by Oh Jung-hee (2025). Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, especially from art history, visual culture, urban studies, postcolonial theory, and food anthropology.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Diana Cao, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, xicao@ucm.es