All Things Asian (Asian Cultures in St. Louis)

phoaddict · PostOct 05, 2007#12007-10-05T00:47+00:00

I wanted to get more asian love out there with this post. I am a firm believer that behind every major successful US city, there is a strong asian population at its core and backing, playing a key role in its economy. I believe that when people rank cities in their heads, valuing if a city is "worth" it to visit etc., they look at diversity and number of foreign people that want to settle/visit there. For one thing, seeing a lot of asians psychologically implies that the city is big enough, lively enough, and worthy enough for people to come take a look. Think about when you travel to a foreign country, say Australia, where are you going to visit? Melbourne, Sydney...reef, etc. Now think about what people want to see when they come here? NYC, Chitown, San Fran, .....Boston.

One interesting thing is that my girfriend from Seoul (fits the asian traveller stereotype to the T) has been to Stl twice in the past year, and both times she said she loooooved st. louis. She thought it was so different and unique. She's been in the west coast, nyc, dc, florida, etc., stayed in Chicago with me, but still is obsessing over st. louis. The sad thing is, she said no one knows about it in Korea! She told her friends in Seoul about it, and they were all excited and they now all want to travel to see Stl, because they're used to other places in the US. St. Louis doesn't know how to market, period, so lame. I blame older generations.

I dedicate this topic specifically to asians (it can be any race/ethnicity really) namely because asians are known to be affluent travellers and sightseers. Most Asians that come from Asia to the US want to be in places that matter, that have high culture, that have interest. I believe St. Louis hass all three, and which is why there seems to be a rise in Asian interest around the city.

Anyway, St. Louis DOES have a significant asian population and influence. In the city and county.

For starters, if you want something really Vietnamese, go to Ba Le on Kingshighway. They have a Ba Le in Chicago that is REALLY popular and successful, and I was surprised when I found out they opened one in STL last year...which is a true sign that stl has the potential to cater towards asian tastes, in this case Vietnamese. Ba Le sells mainly banh mi pate and other vietnasese pastries/snacks. The style of restaurant in terms of what it sells is a lot like restaurants in Vietnam - with heavy french influence. They need business so head on over!!! I'm sure no other city in the midwest can claim such a restaurant besides Chicago or Minneapolis.

goat314 · PostOct 05, 2007#22007-10-05T01:12+00:00

phoaddict wrote:I wanted to get more asian love out there with this post. I am a firm believer that behind every major successful US city, there is a strong asian population at its core and backing, playing a key role in its economy. I believe that when people rank cities in their heads, valuing if a city is "worth" it to visit etc., they look at diversity and number of foreign people that want to settle/visit there. For one thing, seeing a lot of asians psychologically implies that the city is big enough, lively enough, and worthy enough for people to come take a look. Think about when you travel to a foreign country, say Australia, where are you going to visit? Melbourne, Sydney...reef, etc. Now think about what people want to see when they come here? NYC, Chitown, San Fran, .....Boston.

One interesting thing is that my girfriend from Seoul (fits the asian traveller stereotype to the T) has been to Stl twice in the past year, and both times she said she loooooved st. louis. She thought it was so different and unique. She's been in the west coast, nyc, dc, florida, etc., stayed in Chicago with me, but still is obsessing over st. louis. The sad thing is, she said no one knows about it in Korea! She told her friends in Seoul about it, and they were all excited and they now all want to travel to see Stl, because they're used to other places in the US. St. Louis doesn't know how to market, period, so lame. I blame older generations.

I dedicate this topic specifically to asians (it can be any race/ethnicity really) namely because asians are known to be affluent travellers and sightseers. Most Asians that come from Asia to the US want to be in places that matter, that have high culture, that have interest. I believe St. Louis hass all three, and which is why there seems to be a rise in Asian interest around the city.

Anyway, St. Louis DOES have a significant asian population and influence. In the city and county.

For starters, if you want something really Vietnamese, go to Ba Le on Kingshighway. They have a Ba Le in Chicago that is REALLY popular and successful, and I was surprised when I found out they opened one in STL last year...which is a true sign that stl has the potential to cater towards asian tastes, in this case Vietnamese. Ba Le sells mainly banh mi pate and other vietnasese pastries/snacks. The style of restaurant in terms of what it sells is a lot like restaurants in Vietnam - with heavy french influence. They need business so head on over!!! I'm sure no other city in the midwest can claim such a restaurant besides Chicago or Minneapolis.

I completely agree St. Louis would be much better off right now if it would have marketed to immigrant groups and probably would have sustained a decent amount of its population through the dark ages of suburban migrations. Thats how older cities like Chicago, Boston, New York, and Philly combated the population losses. There is already a fast growing influx of Asian and Hispanic immigrants into the St. Louis area and I feel that in about 20 years St. Louis will be 2 to 3 times as many Asians and Hispanics it has now.

matguy70 · PostOct 05, 2007#32007-10-05T01:57+00:00

St. Louis has done quite a bit in Immigration - it is making the city grow - i/e Bosnians and Asians are two of the fastest growing commuties in STL.

Bosnians make up over 40,000 in St. Louis today. The 2nd largest community in the USA (after Chicago).

We also have a very large and evolving Indian community (west) and one of the largest Jewish communties in the country.

In addition, The city contains some of the countries largest and finest religious communities because of the diversity of immigrants here. Some communities small and other large.

The Chinese American News Channel (blased in St. Louis)

I love this on their wesite:

"We are located at the center of the

St. Louis' Chinatown"

website:

http://www.scanews.com/

Building of the new 108' Marinette/Mousque in S. City:

http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display.asp?deskID=738

http://www.urbanstl.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ght=mosque

St. Louis ranks sixth in the United States in the amount of Muslims.

PostOct 05, 2007#42007-10-05T02:06+00:00

wiki: Chinatown's in N. America - good info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns ... th_America

stlmizzoutiger · PostOct 05, 2007#52007-10-05T02:55+00:00

I agree with Dave Gibson:

Immigration Without Assimilation Equals Invasion

By Dave Gibson

"In many parts of this country, there are communities which would appear unrecognizable to the majority of Americans. Whereas, immigrants to the United States once made a valiant effort to learn English and create a good life for their families--too many of today's immigrants want the rights entitled to American citizens, without making any effort to assimilate.

These United States are in essence, being colonized."

I'm proud to say St. Louis is bucking the trend. Many Bosnians have done a great job learning English. God Bless them

MattnSTL · PostOct 05, 2007#62007-10-05T03:01+00:00

This thread has been merged together with some of the posts from the Asian Seafood Market thread.

xing · PostOct 05, 2007#72007-10-05T03:04+00:00

stlmizzoutiger wrote:I agree with Dave Gibson:

Immigration Without Assimilation Equals Invasion

By Dave Gibson

"In many parts of this country, there are communities which would appear unrecognizable to the majority of Americans. Whereas, immigrants to the United States once made a valiant effort to learn English and create a good life for their families--too many of today's immigrants want the rights entitled to American citizens, without making any effort to assimilate.

These United States are in essence, being colonized."

I'm proud to say St. Louis is bucking the trend. Many Bosnians have done a great job learning English. God Bless them

DONT TURN THIS INTO A POLITICALLY MOTIVATED IMMIGRATION THREAD. I DONT KNOW WHY WE HAVE TO KEEP REMINDING YOU TO STAY ON TOPIC, AND STOP WITH THE ANTAGONIZING POSTS.

jivecitystl · PostOct 05, 2007#82007-10-05T03:12+00:00

matguy70 wrote:Bosnians make up over 40,000 in St. Louis today. The 2nd largest community in the USA (after Chicago).

Actually, I read recently that St. Louis has surpassed Chicago to become the largest Bosnian population center outside of Sarajevo. Chicago is estimated to have about 30,000. St. Louis is estimated to have at least 40,000. Most google searches online substantiate these numbers.

warwickland · PostOct 05, 2007#92007-10-05T03:16+00:00

suburban lou · PostOct 05, 2007#102007-10-05T03:22+00:00

Alex Ihnen · PostOct 05, 2007#112007-10-05T03:24+00:00

stlmizzoutiger wrote:I agree with Dave Gibson:

Immigration Without Assimilation Equals Invasion

By Dave Gibson

"In many parts of this country, there are communities which would appear unrecognizable to the majority of Americans. Whereas, immigrants to the United States once made a valiant effort to learn English and create a good life for their families--too many of today's immigrants want the rights entitled to American citizens, without making any effort to assimilate.

These United States are in essence, being colonized."

I'm proud to say St. Louis is bucking the trend. Many Bosnians have done a great job learning English. God Bless them

Immigration is always a hot issue and I mean always. If you look back to newspaper stories from the 1910's it was the Italians that were the problem and wouldn't learn English, and the Germans, Poles, Greeks . . . . So now it's some other group. The quote cited from Dave Gibson literally could be from any decade in American history. It demonstrates nothing other than the perpetuation of fear.

MattnSTL · PostOct 05, 2007#122007-10-05T03:26+00:00

I've already taken care of the issue. let's get back on topic.

warwickland · PostOct 05, 2007#132007-10-05T03:26+00:00

well, i'm over it.

jmatthewmckee · PostOct 05, 2007#142007-10-05T03:30+00:00

^Surely people aren't influenced by comments like that...

I would love to see more immigration myself. Not to start a debate or anything as it's simply my personal opinion but I felt the Valley Park deal was embarrassing for the area. For what it's worth...Neighborhood Gardens tried doing advertising with the Red Latina (the local hispanic paper) but for some reason the "advertising consultant" never returned calls. Historically speaking, that general part of downtown was always filled with various immigrant groups like the Irish, German and Italian (hence the name Columbus Square). Unfortunately it was such a transient population that few remnants remain of the immigrants in this area. It would be great to attract that aspect again though!

10-intuition · PostOct 05, 2007#152007-10-05T04:56+00:00

matguy70 wrote:
The Chinese American News Channel (blased in St. Louis)

I love this on their wesite:

"We are located at the center of the

St. Louis' Chinatown"

website:

http://www.scanews.com/

I do work for this newspaper as a freelance. A lot of the photos in that paper of local Chinese events were taken by me. There is another Chinese newspaper called St. Louis Chinese Journal, but I don't do work for them. However, my friend works there as an editor.

SCANews' office is located in the same building as Olive Farmers Market across the street from Kim Son Vietnamese restaurant. This area has a lot of asian/Chinese businesses, but opposition against the naming that section Chinatown still remains.

I am a very well known person within the Chinese community having been born here, grown up here, and knowing so many people. My parents are very famous within this community as well. Being Chinese, its nice to see this community get more asians noticing about STL. Recently, a vast majority of the chinese that have been coming here are from Mainland China and India.

It used to be they came from Taiwan and Hong Kong up until the mid-90s. Many of them study at SLU and Wash U med schools. Like like parents who came in the early '70s, mom studied at SLU, my dad studied at Wash U, they decided to stay here instead of moving to LA. At the time there weren't many Chinese, but now the population is sizable.

Also, there are 6 chinese churches in STL. The one I attend is on Woods Mill near Olive its called St. Louis Chinese Christian Church. The congregation is over 350 and many new faces come for worship just about every week!

Here is the website for the church.

www.slccc.org

phoaddict · PostOct 05, 2007#162007-10-05T07:12+00:00

10-intuition wrote:
matguy70 wrote:
Being Chinese, its nice to see this community get more asians noticing about STL. Recently, a vast majority of the chinese that have been coming here are from Mainland China and India.

Thanks 10-intuition for being more on topic. This is true. It is really great to get more asians involved in noticing stl. Most of the asians I know living in Asia who travel the US have a distinct picture of the US is like from the cities they normally see -- SF/Bay Area, Cali, NYC. When they come to a city like St. Louis, they see something very unique, non-typical and picture-worthy. Just imagine if the 1.3 billion+ of China all were interested in St. Louis. How can we exploit stl in a country like China....maybe through our sister city of Nanjing?

Slu had significant influence in a school UIBE in Beijing and many people in that university are familiar with st. louis because of that influence. Let's look beyond our "marketing" to US cities, and look to cities in Asia for example.

St. Louis represents an "America" that is far different from a typical SF, LA, NYC, Chi .. an America that many foreigners want to experience. Let's get that word out.

trent · PostOct 05, 2007#172007-10-05T15:37+00:00

I would love to have a section of town specifically known as Chinatown. A distinct and strong Asian population would be a wonderful thing for the area.

bonwich · PostOct 05, 2007#182007-10-05T15:50+00:00

I've been calling it "Little Asia" for years, which I think is a probably more appropriate description of the ethnic constituency.

10-intuition · PostOct 05, 2007#192007-10-05T16:08+00:00

trent wrote:I would love to have a section of town specifically known as Chinatown. A distinct and strong Asian population would be a wonderful thing for the area.

Your location says Tower Grove South. I am wondering how the S. Grand asian area is doing? Know anything about it? That area should also be considered an Asian district too, but I haven't been there in a long time to know what has come and gone from there.

trent · PostOct 05, 2007#202007-10-05T16:38+00:00

It's got its fair share of Asian culture, but it doesn't really seem to dominate the neighborhood the way it does on Olive. S. Grand just seems to be a good organic mix of all sorts of cultures.

stlmo314 · PostOct 05, 2007#212007-10-05T16:44+00:00

"We also have a very large and evolving Indian community (west) and one of the largest Jewish communties in the country. "

Is that right about one of the largest Jewish communities? I read this on wikipedia -so i dont know if its accurate, but it seems that the Jewish community in STL has only slightly increased in 100 years. These numbers dont seem right, I feel like there are many more...

"By 1905 the Jews of St. Louis numbered about 40,000 in a total population of about 575,000.

As of 2005, 60,000 Jews live in the St. Louis area."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_his ... aint_Louis

stlterp · PostOct 05, 2007#222007-10-05T16:49+00:00

A lot of the Asian population here is suburban, except maybe a pocket or two in South City.

IMO, best Chinese restaurant in the area is Joy Luck on Manchester. Not for the buffet, but for the menu, which is Szechuan influenced.

rwg · PostOct 05, 2007#232007-10-05T17:16+00:00

Have you been to Lu Lu on Olive for dim-sum. When it first opened, it was successful from the start. (My wife heard about it through Chinese lab workers at Washington U. Med School before it opened.) It was majority Asian then and made you feel you were in New York. More "round eyes" have discovered it now, and it was closer to fifty fifty when I was last there this year, but still a great urban feeling scene despite suburban location. Rob

bonwich · PostOct 05, 2007#242007-10-05T18:06+00:00

STLMO314 wrote: These numbers dont seem right, I feel like there are many more...

"By 1905 the Jews of St. Louis numbered about 40,000 in a total population of about 575,000.

As of 2005, 60,000 Jews live in the St. Louis area."

The 60,000 number matches what a good local source -- the Jewish Federation, perhaps -- gave me when I wrote about a kosher restaurant a couple of years ago.

We're not in the top 10 in America, according to www.jewishtemples.org :

New York U.S. 1,970,000

Los Angeles U.S. 621,000

Southeast Florida U.S. 514,000

Philadelphia U.S. 276,000

Chicago U.S. 261,000

Boston U.S. 227,000

San Francisco U.S. 210,000

Washington U.S. 165,000

Baltimore U.S. 95,000

Detroit U.S. 94,000

10-intuition · PostOct 05, 2007#252007-10-05T18:32+00:00

stlterp wrote:A lot of the Asian population here is suburban, except maybe a pocket or two in South City.

IMO, best Chinese restaurant in the area is Joy Luck on Manchester. Not for the buffet, but for the menu, which is Szechuan influenced.

Most of the asians/Chinese live in West County, primarily Ballwin, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Maryland Hgts, Manchester, and Wildwood. There are some pockets in South County as well.

Indians are also primarily living in West County in Chesterfield and Maryland Hgts.

These populations are increasing each year and as more companies like Scottrade, Edward Jones expand we'll see more move to the region. Same goes with the BJC and the Wash U med school. Those will also attract more asians here. Hopefully, after they graduate they will call STL home.

Personally, for me the Mandarin House at Page and 170 is the best Chinese restaurant in STL....that and LuLus. However, there is one across the street from Lulus in the same plaza as the STL Chinese Christian Center, that one is cheap, can't think of the english name and also not bad. The lunch and meals are cheap/affordable there.