ATDTDA (12) - NYC Stuff

[David Morris]

Chinatown, NYC
http://www.explorechinatown.com/Gui/Content.aspx?Page=Discover

Chinese immigrants arrived in significant numbers in the New York area
in the late 1870's. With anti-Chinese violence mounting in the West,
Chinese began creating Chinatown enclaves for protection. Some began
migrating eastward. Pushed out of a wide variety of occupations, they
entered low-status service work, primarily hand laundries. On Mott
Street, a small Chinese grocery store, Wo Kee, opened. Hand-laundry
workers patronized the store and made it a viable operation. The
Chinese community began to take root. In 1882 the Exclusion Act was
passed, making Chinese workers the first nationality to be prohibited
from immigrating into the United States. The Exclusion Laws, not
repealed until 1943, effectively prohibited Chinese laborers and their
families from entering America.

Due to the absence of women and children, the community essentially
became a ""bachelor society."" Chinatown not only served as the center
of social, cultural, and recreational activity, but also as the main
conduit for communication with families and villages in China. As with
European immigrant groups, clan and village associations helped
immigrants settle in this new land. Unlike European immigrants,
Chinese could not have families, nor become naturalized citizens.
Despite these harsh restrictions, this population of Chinese men grew
along lower Mott Street. More businesses catering specifically to the
needs of Chinese opened, such as barber shops, herbal shops, and
general stores like Quong Yuen Shing at 32 Mott. Intact since the
1890's, before its recent closure it was the oldest continuously run
store in Chinatown.

It was out of the limited opportunities imposed on Chinese that some
merchants began to encourage tourism in Chinatown. If Chinese could
not get jobs outside of Chinatown, other than washing and ironing, why
not bring outsiders into the community? In this manner Chinatown, the
segregated residential ghetto, also became a tourist attraction.

White Slavery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_slavery

By the beginning of the 20th century, the term also came to mean the
abduction of white girls into forced prostitution, and after about
1905 it was used for this definition almost exclusively. "White
slavery" was the focus of a major moral panic in the United States at
the end of the Progressive Era. Although sexual slavery did and still
does occur, "white slavery" is usually used to refer to this moral
panic, where there was a perception that this form of abuse was a
danger to every young woman.

In the United States, Chinese immigrants were particularly stereotyped
and demonized as white slavers and were referred to as the yellow
peril during this time. As an example of this in American culture, the
musical comedy Thoroughly Modern Millie features a Chinese-run
prostitution ring.


Tin Pan Alley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York
City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the
popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early
20th century.  Tin Pan Alley was originally a specific place, West
28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.

The origins of the name "Tin Pan Alley" are unclear. The most popular
apocryphal account holds that it was originally a derogatory reference
to the sound made by many pianos all playing different tunes in this
small urban area, producing a cacophony comparable to banging on tin
pans.

Blind Pig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_pig

A blind pig, also known as a blind tiger or booze can, is an
establishment that illegally provides alcoholic beverages.

The name originated in the United States in the 1800s, when blue laws
restricted the sale of alcoholic beverages. A saloonkeeper would
charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal), and provide
a "complimentary" alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing the law.

Guardians of the Temple
http://mi-le-fo.thetempleguy.com/ascent/05guards.htm

In almost every Buddhist country, the temple gates are guarded by two
or more fearsome figures.

Why is this?

Explanations abound.  One that I am particularly fond of (aside from
the obvious idea that they are there to "guard" the temple) is that
anyone who tries to enter the temple with a burden of negativity will
find him- or herself unable to get past the guardians.  Leave it all
outside, they say, and enter with a pure heart.

In some countries, like Japan, the figures have a further feature.
The Japanese "Ni-O" ("Two Kings") are depicted one with his mouth
open, the other with his mouth closed.  A popular interpretation of
this is that they are signifying "A" and "Un," the two sounds which
make up the Japanese pronunciation of the "sacred syllable" Om.
Better, though, is another idea, based in the concept of duality.

The Two Kings, they say, represent the two aspects of Yin and Yang.
Further, they represent two of Buddhism's great "evils": Fear and
Desire.  Mister "A," he with the open mouth, is the Yin receptive, but
he is also Desire, opening up for anything he can get.  Mister "Un,"
then, is the closed-mouthed passive Yin, but also the one who lives in
Fear, shutting out the possibility of any new opportunities.

http://www.pbase.com/ghislain3/image/17804607


Kipperville (from ATD wiki)
348; "Saturday night in..."; likely not a reference to an original
pynchonwiki envisioner, David Kipen, "Kipperville" is most likely a
reference to the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia
Lee Burton, wherein Mike and promises to dig the cellar for
Popperville's new town hall in one day using his steam shovel Mary
Anne. The citizens from Kipperville and other nearby towns all come to
watch.

Italianate Townhouse:

4 East 54th Street, the five-story, double-width town house that the
industrialist William H. Moore had built as his primary residence
almost a century ago:

"This building, with its Italianate architecture and history, would
look right at home in Naples,"

The mansion, designed by McKim, Mead & White, boasts 20-foot ceilings
on the parlor floor and copious amounts of marble, woodwork and
stained glass windows.

photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/627255234/in/pool-mmw/