LA CHINE A PARIS
22 mar 2011.La Chine à Paris - Verdens Gang
Not one but two. Paris has two chinatowns. The first one in the 13.th arrondissement, the more recent one in Belleville. The 13:th arrondissement, on the left bank, really took off in the late 1970´s and early 1980´s with the arrival of the "boat people" from Vietnam. The arrondissement had fallen victim to the depressing urban development starting under the Gaullist government. This working class neighborhood was torn down and replaced by impersonal and ugly high rise buildings. No Parisian wanted to move into this universe of concrete. But the chinese people who came from Vietnam found there a new promised land.