Monthly Archives for February 2012

WLR: Chinese birth tourism and Vietnamese nail technicians

Mainlanders as locusts. Click on the image to learn more about this ad campaign.

“Anchor babies” in Canada

Hong Kong is not the only place where Mainland Chinese mothers are hoping to give birth. Joel of China Hope Live writes about how the influx of “birth tourists” in Canada is changing the country’s health care system’s attitudes towards foreign mothers:

Literally right as I was meeting my parents and daughter at the reception desk when they were coming to see the new baby for the first time, an agent showed up for a 20-minute lecture/interrogation, asking us the kind of questions you get when going through customs: When did you arrive in Canada? How long do you plan to be here? Where is your permanent residency? Etc. [...] She even photocopied Jessica’s passport, even though Canadian border agents don’t usually stamp American visitors’ passports. I get them being all on top of securing Jessica’s insurance info, but what’s her status in Canada have to do with it?

I’m guessing that since Jessica is white and American, she was pestered a lot less than a non-resident East Asian would be. The Canadian authorities are cracking down as expectant mothers are finding new ways to game the system:

The Canadian action comes an investigation by a Hong Kong newspaper found that bogus “consultants” are teaching Chinese women how to hide their pregnancies and how to apply for Canadian visitor or student visas.

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LA Times and ethnic media updates on Wal-Mart’s Chinatown plans

Wal-Mart, of course, can't wait for this store to open. Screenshot taken of Wal-Mart's official Twitter feed.

The Los Angeles Times confirms that Wal-Mart plans to open a grocery store at the corner of César E. Chávez and Grand in Chinatown. The store will be on the ground floor of a multi-story apartment complex for seniors.

The World Journal (世界日報), a Chinese-language newspaper distributed across the US, translated the LA Times article and supplemented it with its own reporting. They found that some Chinatown residents are happy that Wal-Mart is opening in their neighborhood, because otherwise they would have to drive to the suburbs to find a similarly well-stocked store. Business owners in Chinatown, on the other hand, are not so happy:

但華埠商家則認為，沃爾瑪將會讓本已不佳的買氣變得更淡。部分小商品業者表示，華埠如今買氣低落，顧客看多買少，若真還要在附近建起沃爾瑪，「生意就沒法做了，將馬上收攤走人」。

But Chinatown entrepreneurs believe that Wal-Mart will make bad business even worse. Some small business owners say that Chinatown’s economy is not doing so well, and customers often come by without buying anything. If Wal-Mart does indeed open, “There will be no way to do business. We’d have to pack up and leave.”

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Wal-Mart to set up shop in Los Angeles Chinatown

Image: LAist/LAANE.

Several web sites have reported that Wal-Mart has applied for permits to open a 33,000-square-foot (3,066-square-meter) grocery store at 701 West César E. Chávez Avenue (some reports say 701 West Sunset Avenue), in the residential section of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Chinatown activists are understandably concerned:

While the arrival of new immigrants is slowing, Chinatown still remains a crucial cultural and economic hub and an unmistakable part of the Los Angeles landscape. That’s why the fact that behemoth retailer Walmart is locating in the neighborhood is alarming. This is a company known for decimating “main streets” across the country. Chinatown is built on small business and Walmart would be in direct competition with the local markets and shops that already serve the local population.

From what I have observed, many of Chinatown’s existing family-run grocery stores are already struggling; having a Wal-Mart nearby undercutting their prices on basic goods will do them no favors. Chinatown residents will likely continue to patronize these small stores to buy most of their Chinese and Southeast Asian foods, but I would not be surprised if Wal-Mart added similar products to their inventory and sold them at lower prices.